Basketball On The Internet.

CAIRNS would have been the story of the NBL's first round - and to some extent, indirectly still is - with United coach Chris Anstey walking away from the job today.

Good thing coaches leaving or losing their jobs after a home loss to Cairns isn't compulsory or 36ers fans never would have seen their team get up - with the same personnel - a day and-a-half later to beat Townsville!

What an unpredictable round that was.

Home court usually has been the barometer when games are looking tight but only Wollongong and Sydney successfully defended their own turf.

The season was launched with a fair amount of club-driven fanfare, although The West Australian did confuse the Wildcats with Perth Glory and in Townsville, the Crocs became an NRL club.

But stuff like that does happen more and more these days with less checks and balances. Even at our News Corp-generated NBL Round-Up today we had the Crocs being beaten by Townsville!

Let's get to it:

 

ROUND One of the NBL season swept fans through a roller-coaster of emotions and gave reigning champion Perth a surprising slap shortly after the Wildcats unfurled their 2013-14 championship banner.

Cedric Jackson reminded everyone why he is a league MVP, leading the Breakers with aplomb and having understudy Rhys Carter revelling in starting a season somewhere instead of being called in as a “Mr Fix-it”.

Two years ago Carter was with the Wildcats as they lost the grand final to New Zealand in Perth and last year he experienced deja vu with Adelaide.

Life could be very different in 2014-15, even though the Wildcats’ 12,903 crowd at Perth Arena was the second biggest opening night attendance in NBL history.

It wasn’t a good night for either of last season’s grand finallists, marking only the fourth time Adelaide and Perth both lost at home on the same night.

Considering they were a combined 31-3 at home last year, losing on opening night to New Zealand and Cairns respectively - both teams play-off absentees last season - made for much fan consternation post-games.

It's Round 1 folks. Writing eulogies is premature in the extreme, if not pre-manure.

NBL WRAP-UP

HAWKS 92 (G Ervin 22 J Carson 20 L Nevill 17) d CROCODILES 83 (T Blanchfield 17 C Steindl 15 B Conklin 15) at The Sandpit, WIN Entertainment Centre. Crowd: 3277

Jahii Carson's 14-point final quarter was huge for the Wollongong Hawks .. "We" .. as they outscored Townsville 33-16. The Crocs had 12 of their 22 fouls for the game in the last quarter, which is a pretty interesting stat.

TAIPANS 97 (S Wilbekin 23 T Craig 19 A Loughton 15) d 36ERS 87 (J Wilson 22 M Creek 16 A Petrie 13) at The Fortress, Adelaide Arena. Crowd: 5229

Early in the final quarter of an essentially tight game, fans were ready for a 17-2 outburst to break it wide open. It came too, only it was the Taipans who delivered it, much to Adelaide's shock, Scottie Wilbekin leading the onslaught and Torrey Craig super value for seconds played.

BREAKERS 80 (C Jackson 22 R Carter 14 E Ibekwe 10 R Te Rangi 10) d WILDCATS 70 (S Redhage 20 D Daniels 19 J Beal 12) at The Jungle, Perth Arena. Crowd: 12,903

When the halftime score is 49-26 to NZ in Perth, you tend to double-check your mobile in case you downloaded a virus somewhere. The champs made a run but the Breakers weathered it. In his 148th NBL game, Matthew Knight failed to hit a field goal for the first time in his career, which is a pretty interesting stat.

KINGS 86 (J Childress 26 T Garlepp 20 B Madgen 14) d HAWKS 83 (J Carson 20 A Ballinger 16 G Ervin 16) at The Kingdome, Qantas Credit Union Arena. Crowd: 6928

Josh Childress' long-awaited debut was worth the wait as the Kings held out their arch intrastate rivals, Tom Garlepp also a factor, the Hawks down Dave Gruber (and Larry Davidson). The Hawks, with penetrators aplenty, had 15 free throws to Sydney's 31, which is a pretty interesting stat.

TAIPANS 89 (S Wilbekin 27 A Loughton 17 M Burston 12) d UNITED 61 (J McRae 17 M Worthington 15 L Walker 10) at The Cage, Hisense Arena. Crowd: 5704

Cairns broke this open in the second quarter, its zone again exposing a second team without a good zone offensive flow, Wilbekin a huge factor and Alex Loughton a monster. Melbourne attempted 34 threes from 58 shots, which is a pretty interesting stat.

36ERS 97 (J Wilson 17 M Creek 17 D Montreal 16) d CROCODILES 83 (B Conklin 23 T Blanchfield 16 S Markovic 12) at The Swamp, Townsville RSL Club. Crowd: 1436

This was tight upto halftime before the 36ers broke away, Jamar Wilson, Mitch Creek, Daequon Montreal all having a say and only Brian Conklin a consistent thorn. The Crocs only hit 13 of 25 free throws, which really isn't that interesting a stat.

Round 2
Friday: Adelaide 36ers at NZ Breakers, Townsville Crocodiles at Sydney Kings, Melbourne United at Cairns Taipans, Wollongong Hawks at Perth Wildcats.
Sunday: NZ Breakers at Melbourne United, Cairns Taipans at Wollongong Hawks.

 

BASKETBALL ON THE INTERNET Player of the Week

THIS was a hard one because three candidates stood out - Cairns' Scottie Wilbekin, NZ's Cedric Jackson and Sydney's Josh Childress.

In the end, I eliminated Childress, despite his impressive 26 points at 69 per cent, 8 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 assists and 2 blocks as Sydney outlasted Wollongong 86-83.

Great numbers, no question. But I look at the game and see the Kings raring to go, the Hawks coming in off a game 24 hours earlier and, if we're being honest, picking Sydney to win this would likely have proven the round's safest bet.

In contrast, very few expected New Zealand to get the Wildcats at Perth Arena and certainly not by double figures. Jackson's 22 points at 73 per cent, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal were monumental in that so it gets him ahead because of the magnitude of the win.

But that's also why Wilbekin wins it for me. He delivered 23 points at 62 per cent, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal in a key road win over Adelaide and had 12 of those points in the last quarter when the match was there to be won.

He then backed that up with 27 points at  63 per cent, five rebounds and six assists and a steal to bring off the round's biggest surprise, an 89-61 manhandling of United in Melbourne.

That's 25 points at 62 per cent, 4.5 assists, 4.0 rebounds in two attention-grabbing Taipans road wins and makes Scottie the B.O.T.I. Player of the Round winner this week.
 

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Rd1 - Scott Wilbekin (Taipans)
 

BEEF of the WEEK

HOW is it possible for the NBL to have the Championship ladder at its website wrong?

I mean really, come on now.

If you go to the NBA website or the AFL, do you expect their standings to be correct?

Obviously, but it is too much to expect of our own national league.

Seriously now, what idiot believes that after Cairns with 100% success so far in first place, comes Wollongong with 50% second, Adelaide on 50% third, NZ and Sydney - both on 100% success - fourth and fifth? Isn't 100% better than 50?

Does someone at headquarters not get that one win and zero losses is better than one win and one loss? If my team has won four games out of five, that's 80%. So if your team has won two out of two, it is still ahead of mine on the ladder because it is 100%.

Just in case anyone cares, the real table would look like this:

1 Cairns P2, W2 L0, 100%, 55.7% (Pts %)

2 NZ P1, W1, L0, 100%, 53.3%

3 Sydney P1, W1, L0, 100%, 50.9%

4 Wollongong P2, W1, L1, 50%, 50.87%

5 Adelaide P2, W1, L1, 50%, 50.54%

6 Townsville P2, W0, L2, 0%, 46.8%

7 Perth P1, W0, L1, 0%, 46.7%

8 Melbourne P1, W0, L1, 0%, 40.7%

 

NO KIDDING

SOCIAL media went crazy with how bad NBL.TV was for the opening round but I only caught the Crocs-36ers in full - Ten and ONE had the other games covered and highlights of the others was sufficient for me.

I was just amazed at how ordinary the call was. Now again, seriously, who can confuse Adam Gibson and Daequon Montreal?

Or say Mitch Creek had the benefit of the officials' generosity with his "extra steps" when he just nailed a clean and perfect lay-up?

I expect some hometown bias but not on simpler things.

Oh look, there's Luke Nevill. No wait, sorry, that's Showron Glover.

 

BIGGEST WINNERS / LOSERS

CLEARLY, Cairns was the round's big winner, wisely utilising zone defence to undo two teams which didn't have as uninterrupted a preseason. Road wins are like gold.

UNITED was the big loser, hammered by 28 on court by a Taipans team it most likely had pencilled in for a win, and the fall-out still landing.

 

PS

Crocs coach Shawn Dennis said after the loss to Wollongong: ''I'm not happy, because in the fourth-quarter the foul count was 12-2, so obviously we're doing something wrong." On listening to the tape again, I am sure he said: "... so obviously we're playing at the 'Gong."