Wild West Showdown for NBL Crown

The NBL finals series will return to Perth for a winner take all game on Friday night after the Wollongong Hawks smacked the Wildcats 75-64 on Tuesday night to even up the ledger at one win each.

Post player Cameron Tragardh returned to form with a 28 point, ten rebound showcase to lead the Hawks who pulled away to win comfortably with a huge fourth quarter. Luke Martin was perfect on three attempts from the land of three on his way to 11 points with Rhys Martin (10 points) and Larry Davidson (8 points/10rebounds) providing additional support.

Kevin Lisch (11 points) and Steven Weigh (10) points led a shaky Perth attack.

The Wildcats will hope for better outings from Shawn Redhage and Martin Cattalini in the decider on Friday night. The action kicks off at 1900 on Fox so tune in.

Wildcats enter the ‘Gong with 1-0 Series lead

The Perth Wildcats will be looking to grab an unprecedented fifth NBL crown tonight in Wollongong. Fresh from a 75-64 match one victory, the ‘Cats will hope for a similar effort in tonight’s stoush at The Sandpit where the welcome will be none too cordial.

The action will be live on Fox Sports 1 from 1930 AEDT so tune in for some riveting action.

Back 4 Real this time

Canberra Capitalises on chance and grabs title #7

In an epic championship battle, the Canberra Capitals grabbed their seventh WNBL crown with a 75-70 win over the Bulleen Boomers on Saturday before a packed house at The Cage in Melbourne.

The atmosphere was electric and took place in front of Australian Basketball royalty with legends Andrew and Lindsay Gaze in attendance. The basketball talent was not restricted to the court as each team had legends or future legends on the sideline in the form of Tom Maher, Gary Fox, and Michelle Timms on the Boomers bench in opposition of Carrie Graf patrolling the sidelines for the Capitals.

Initially the action was furious and defensive and after one quarter Bulleen held a narrow 14-12 lead. Canberra opened the second quarter with seven unanswered points with Lauren Jackson leading the charge after a slow start. The momentum was stalled though as Jackson ran into foul trouble picking up her third before half time. Bulleen steadied their ship to hold a tenuous 33-30 lead at the halfway point.

Bulleen jumped out to a brief eight point advantage to start the second half thanks to a Sharon Milner three pointer and a Jenna O’Hea block that was quickly converted by young gun Liz Cambage. Threes from Nat Hurst and Ms. Jackson pulled the Capitals back into the battle with the teams finishing an evenly balanced third term that had Bulleen clutching to the same three point margin 56-53 going into the championship quarter.

Marianna Tolo began a remarkable defensive run with three blocks of the 203cm Cambage’s shot while Carly Wilson bombed a three to cut the margin to one. From there it was back and forth until an Abby Bishop bomb from beyond the arc put Canberra up 72-70 with a little over two minutes remaining. Down the stretch, Bishop made one of two from the line; Jackson missed a three followed by a miss from Bulleen before Jackson was fouled with less than five seconds left. Jackson drained both free throws to provide the final 75-70 margin.

Natalie Hurst’s 21 points and 3 assists led the way for the Capitals with Lauren Jackson (18 points/15 rebounds), Carly Wilson (12 points), Abby Bishop (12 rebounds) and Marianna Tolo (8 rebounds/6 blocks) all contributing in major ways.

Jenna O’Hea (26 points/7 rebounds/5 assists/2 blocks) paced Bulleen with help from Cambage (16 points/11 rebounds) and Elyse Penaluna (10 rebounds).

Overall the coverage from the ABC network was commendable and could very well show the NBL a thing or two about free to air coverage.

For more stories from the WNBL and All-Star selections please visit the WNBL website.

Ketchin' Up......NBL First

As the 2009-2010 NBL season nears its Valentines Day finally, virtually everyone is in contention for a playoff berth. The Perth Wildcats tops the table with a 13-8 win loss record followed closely by the surprising Gold coast Blaze and steady Townsville Crocs at 12-8. The Wollongong Hawks tenuously hold the fourth spot at 11-10. The current standings could change many times as the season goes through its final rounds with many interesting matches. The Melbourne Tigers hold up the table from the bottom at 7-12 but could play their way into the top four over the next fortnight. The same holds true for the rest of the teams sitting outside of the top group.

This weeks action sees Adelaide face Cairns on Wednesday in Adelaide as the Snakes embark on a leisurely "Doomsday Double" that will not have them facing Perth until Saturday night. Thursday night has Melbourne travelling to NZ to face the Breakers as both teams look to make a late season surge towards title contention. On Friday Adelaide will hit the road and visit the Gold Coast Convention Centre to take on the Blaze before dropping into Melbourne for a Saturday night fight. The Blaze will also hit the road for a Saturday night clash with Wollongong.

There are only four rounds left after this weekend so get out and have a look at Australia's premier basketball competition.

Finally, the Chuck is back blogging!!!

Hello All,

I am finally back on the blog scene after an abscence of a month or so for health and other commiittment reasons. I know there is a lot to catch up on so in the next few days I will be bombarding the blogWaves with info and such.

Glad to be back,

Chuck

WNBL Landscape to Change!! Ms. Jackson Returns!!

LAUREN JACKSON RETURNS TO WNBL

Basketball Australia (BA) can confirm that four time Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) Most Valuable Player Lauren Jackson has signed a contract with the Canberra Capitals to play out the remainder of the 2009/10 season.

The Capitals announced Jackson’s signature this morning at ActewAGL House in Canberra alongside ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope and ActewAGL Chairman John Mackay.

Chief Minister Stanhope and Mackay played vital roles alongside Capitals CEO Mark Cartwright in providing and generating the funds necessary to secure Jackson’s services.

Jackson became the hottest free agent in women’s basketball when she signaled her intention to opt out of a two year deal with Russian club side Spartak Moscow in the aftermath of the assassination of team owner Shabtai von Kalmanovich.

The Capitals were quick to swoop and Jackson’s international clearance to join the Capitals was received overnight, just hours before a league deadline for player registration.

Under Rule 3.3 (e) of the WNBL Operations Manual, “A club can register no further players after half the regular season games for that Club in that season has been played.” In the Capitals’ case, that “half the regular season” date is today, November 25^th.

“This is terrific news for the WNBL and basketball,” BA Chief Executive Larry Sengstock said.

“It is a rare chance for basketball fans to see the best player in the world playing in our WNBL and we urge the people of Australia to take that opportunity.

“We have a number of Olympians in the league already this year and the competition has been first class but adding Lauren to the mix will undoubtedly be a huge boost.

“Spectator numbers will increase dramatically as will media interest and they are just a couple of indicative positives we’ll see from having Lauren back in the WNBL.”

Jackson has played 154 WNBL games since her rookie season with the Australian Institute of Sport in 1998/99 and has won five WNBL Championships; one with the AIS and four with Canberra.

She last played in the WNBL in the 2006 Grand Final where she led Canberra to victory and was named Most Valuable Player of the Grand Final.

The Capitals have indicated that Jackson is not expected to suit up for the Capitals this week as her rehabilitation from a back injury continues.

Her return to the WNBL is tentatively slated for Saturday December 5^th, when the Bendigo Spirit hosts the Canberra Capitals at Bendigo Stadium. That clash is the ABC TV Game of the Week, televised nationally on ABC1 at 1:00pm AET.

If Jackson was not ready for action on that date her next available opportunity would be the Capitals’ round 11 clash with Perth on December 12. That would allow Jackson to play 13 games for Canberra if it makes the Grand Final.

After eight rounds of competition, Canberra is running fifth of 10 teams with a 6 win, 4 loss record.

A bit of Aussie stuff...

from: www.nbl.com.au

RECORD BREAKING YEAR FOR THE NBL

A survey of the rosters of the eight National Basketball League teams has revealed that the current season is a record-breaker for the NBL, with Perth’s Sam Harris and Wollongong’s Zac Delaney respectively earning the mantles of the tallest and shortest players ever to compete in the league.

Wildcats’ centre Harris currently towers over everyone else in the league at an astounding 221cm and is in fact taller than any other player in NBL history. The previous mark was shared by Canberra Cannons’ centre Andy Campbell and Glen Sudhop of the St. Kilda Saints, who both measured up at 218cm.

Harris’ Wildcats teammate Luke Schenscher comes in second amongst current NBL players at 216cm while there are currently five different players who are 213cm playing in the league - Tony Rampton (Cains), Greg Vanderjagt (Gold Coast), Chris Anstey (Melbourne), Alex Pledger (New Zealand – 215cm), and Paul Rogers (Perth).

While Harris is the tallest athlete to ever play in the NBL, the 169cm Zac Delaney of the Wollongong Hawks is officially the shortest. The previous mark for the shortest player in NBL history was a three-way tie at 172cm between Wayne Larkins (St. Kilda, Westside, Eastside Geelong, Brisbane, Gold Coast), Peter Stacker (Nunawading), and Dean Draper (Launceston).

Delaney’s height is 11cm less then the next shortest player currently in the league. Townsville’s Kelvin Robertson comes in second at 180cm, while Joel Wagner (Perth) and Kerry Williams (Cairns) both measure at 181cm.

Even though the Wildcats have the tallest two players in the league, they only have the third highest average height at 199.2 cm, while the Melbourne Tigers have the tallest overall roster with an average height of 200cm. Coming in on the short end of the stick, and well below the league average of 198cm, are the Townsville Crocodiles, whose average height is 195.3cm.

Along with analysing the height of the teams, Basketball Australia also did a study of the players’ ages, with the average age in the league this season coming to 26.3 years.

The New Zealand Breakers are the veterans in the league this year with a combined average age of 28.5 years. This is mainly due to the fact that they currently roster the two oldest players in the league, in the newly-acquired John Rillie (38 years) and the league’s most experienced player ever in terms of games played, Tony Ronaldson (37 years).

A full three years younger than the Breakers are the Wollongong Hawks who are this year’s youngest team in the league with an average age of just 25.3. The gap this year between the youngest and oldest players in the league is 20 years. Michael Chitham of the Taipans is the youngest player at 18 years old. He just edges out Todd Blanchfield of the Crocs, also 18, by six months.

Full rankings are listed below, including the tallest/shortest and youngest/oldest players on each team’s roster.

Average Height of Players per Team

Melbourne Tigers 200.00cm

Chris Anstey 213cm

Robbie Stone 188cm

Adelaide 36ers 199.27cm

Matthew Burston 211cm

Darren Ng 189cm

Perth Wildcats 199.21cm

Sam Harris 221cm

Joel Wagner 181cm

New Zealand Breakers 198.25cm

Alex Pledger 215cm

Paul Henare 183cm

Cains Taipans 197.50 cm

Tony Rampton 213 cm

Kerry Williams 181 cm

Wollongong Hawks 197.08cm

Tim Behrendorff 211cm

Zac Delaney 169cm

Gold Coast Blaze 196.38cm

Greg Vanderjagt 213cm

Adam Gibson 188cm

Townsville Crocodiles 195.36cm

Russell Hinder 208cm

Kelvin Robertson 180cm

League Average 197.997 cm

Average Age of Players per Team

New Zealand Breakers 28.25

John Rillie 38

Corey Webster 20

Adelaide 36ers 26.8

David Cooper 33

Chris Molitor 21

Melbourne Tigers 25.8

Chris Anstey 34

Tom Stephens 20

Perth Wildcats 25.8

Paul Rogers 36

Joel Wagner 22

Cains Taipans 25.7

Tony Rampton 33

Michael Chitham 18

Townsville Crocodiles 25.7

Stephen Hoare 34

Todd Blanchfield 18

Gold Coast Blaze 25.5

Pero Cameron 35

Brenden Teys 19

Wollongong Hawks 25.3

Glen Saville 33

Zac Delaney 19

League Average 26.3