From the NBL website, here is the most recent press release:
NBL season starts Thursday
The National Basketball League tips-off its much anticipated 2009/10 season tomorrow night when title favourites the New Zealand Breakers host the Cairns Taipans at the North Shore Entertainment Centre.
Eight teams will vie for the 2009/10 NBL title, with four games in Round One. The Townsville Crocodiles will visit the Gold Coast Blaze and the Wollongong Hawks will host the Perth Wildcats on Friday night. The Taipans will also return home after Thursday’s clash with the Breakers to face the Adelaide 36ers. The Melbourne Tigers have the first round bye.
New Zealand have firmed as favourites in pre-season betting on TAB SportsBet at $3.00 to win the title, just ahead of Melbourne ($4.50) and Townsville ($6.00).
A straw poll of the NBL head coaches also pointed to New Zealand as the side to beat, with all seven opposition coaches tipping the Breakers when asked to name a team other than their own who were most likely to raise the Dr. John Raschke trophy at season’s end.
New Zealand reached the Semi Finals for the first time in their history last season and have retained the bulk of their team, including reigning league MVP Kirk Penney, while adding former NBA player Awvee Storey and talented young New Zealand Tall Blacks centre Alex Pledger.
The 2009/10 season is however predicted to be one of the closest ever, as illustrated by the fact that Wollongong are currently last in betting ($15.00) despite winning the Top End Challenge pre-season tournament in Darwin.
The Taipans come in at $11.00 to win the title but earlier in the off-season the odds of them even playing in the league looked much higher. The club was placed into administration and it was only through outstanding community support that the Taipans managed to secure their entry into the new competition.
Under rookie head coach Aaron Fearne, the Taipans will field a team that has added former Breakers star and New Zealander Phill Jones, who will undoubtedly be looking for a measure of revenge on his old team for letting him go in the off-season. The Taipans also have signed another former Breaker, in the form of American import Rich Melzer.
Like most teams in the competition, the Taipans significantly bolstered their talent levels over the Winter. With the reduction in competing teams to eight, there was a glut of free agent talent on the market and the Taipans snapped up Jones along with Melzer, former Wollongong star Dusty Rychart and American import Julien 'Skip' Mills.
The Breakers-Taipans season opener will be broadcast live on Maori TV in New Zealand and Fox Sports 2 with coverage starting at 5:00pm AEST (7:00pm NZST).
All NBL teams will play 28 games (14 home, 14 away) during the course of the regular season, with the top four clubs advancing to the 2010 NBL Finals in February 2010.
First up are the Adelaide 36ers. Coach Scott Ninnis is back for his third term at the helm of the team he once played for. Coming off of a 15 win, 15 loss campaign and sixth place finish, the team will again be led by last seasons team MVP Adam Ballinger. Ballinger went to college at Michigan State and played in three NCAA Final Fours from 2000-2002. The 205cm forward will again be depended upon for consistent scoring and rebounding. Ballinger carries career averages of 18.9 points per game, 7.9 Rebounds per game and 1.2 assists per game.
Ballinger should recieve adequate support from guard Cortez Groves, additional backcourt help will be provided by newcomer John Gilchrist, the always reliable Darren Ng and Brad Hill.
Up front help will come from centre David Cooper, forwards Jacob Holmes, Matt Burston and swing man Nathan Herbert.
The Sixers will open their season on the road against the always tough Cairns Taipans on Saturday night.
I will be catching you up on more teams tomorrow...see you then.
No comments:
Post a Comment