Aussie Basketball Discussion

[Andrew]

I figured as much and it's definitely fortunate that he was in a position to be making a living that way, but still a sad state of affairs when the face of the league is essentially playing for free.

[koberulz]

Pre-register before September 23 and you can watch every NBL game LIVE through NBL.tv for $59.

[The X]

Yep, my wife pre-registered for me last week.

[Impakt]

Pre-register before September 23 and you can watch every NBL game LIVE through NBL.tv for $59.

Might have to get on this.

[The X]

Pre-register before September 23 and you can watch every NBL game LIVE through NBL.tv for $59.

Might have to get on this.

You've got until this Wednesday, 26th September. Looks like they extended deadline a few days.

Glad to have laptop back so have it up & running for start of NBL season. I'll be supporting Breakers since I'm a Kiwi & all other local teams (i.e. Bullets & Blaze) have folded.

[koberulz]

That extension is a pain. They're not bothering to get anyone registered yet, and I leave for Melbourne on the 27th. I'd much rather have NBL TV sorted out before I go. Running out of time to get it together.

Speaking of running out of time, the Wildcats still don't have an agreement to play anywhere. They're negotiating with Perth Arena, but nothing has been signed as yet and rumour has it the Arena is setting such ridiculous rules as 'no merchandise stores or signage in the foyer'. And it's not as though the Wildcats have anywhere else to go; they crossed 5000 members a few weeks back and Challenge Stadium only holds 4500.

I also got a membership information/application package from the Sydney Kings this afternoon. It contained a letter from Shane Heal thanking me for my support over the past two years (which he hasn't had), and informing me that if I renew my membership (which I don't have) before October 10 (which is five days after the first Kings game of the season, albeit in Wollongong), I'm eligible for 'early bird' (AKA 'not absurdly late bird', or possibly 'so late you're early for tomorrow bird') prizes, including a trip to LA during the NBL season. It also contained a printout of the seating map for the Entertainment Centre, which looked like someone had just printed it out on an office printer on plain paper, then gone over it with permanent marker and crossed out the occupied seats.

I bought a McClain heritage jersey from them. That's my only prior contact with the club, at least voluntarily. They sent me an email newsletter a while back, too. Apparently nobody realised they were sending a membership application for a Sydney team to a guy that lives in Perth.

First game of the season on TV is Wollongong-Sydney, Friday week at 9.30 on ONE HD. Adelaide-Melbourne will be on Ten on Sunday, either at 2PM local or 2PM Eastern. Nothing's actually been released at this stage, though, so that's just guessing based on what the terms of the agreement appear to be and when games are scheduled. Friday week's appears on the Foxtel site, but I can't find listings for Sunday.

[koberulz]

The Sunday game has finally shown up on my TV guide, as "Live: NBL"...at 2PM.

Essentially, this means that the Friday night games will be delayed by 5.5 hours, and the Sunday games will be delayed by three hours. Which is essentially exactly the same as last season.

[koberulz]

NBL TV registrations are now open, though I've not received my pre-registration discount code as yet. Two hours until I need to leave, and I've no idea what's going on.

[koberulz]

Got my code with half an hour to spare. Excellent.

Highlights of last year's grand finals are available.

[The X]

Yep, I got my e-mail yesterday. Signed up & paid tonight. Looking forward to seeing my Breakers in season opener against Wildcats.

Thinking I'll probably watch one game per round given time constraints with work & family, but given only 8 team league, should get to see every team at least a couple of times during season.

[koberulz]

One of Perth's pre-season games is on Fox Sports 2 at 3.30 EST tomorrow.

[Andrew]

Looks like there's one on Thursday as well, on Fox Sports 3 at 3 PM.

[koberulz]

Huh. I was told about today's game, then ran a search, which yielded nothing else. Odd.

Odd that they're being televised at all, really; they're blowout wins for Perth against really shitty teams, and WA isn't exactly a huge market. Really the only appeal would be seeing this season's Wildcats team two days early, and the outdoor court. Neither of those strike me as huge draws. Certainly not enough to justify taking all the equipment and staff up to Broome for the weekend.

Possibly a good sign regarding next year's TV coverage, though.

[koberulz]

Speaking of the Wildcats, they still don't have anywhere to play. Given that they have 1,500 more members than Challenge is even capable of holding, and the Dome is coming down the second Perth Arena is finished, I don't really see them having much of a position from which to negotiate. At some point they're going to have to take whatever AEG is offering, even if it is crap.

[Andrew]

Just checked the online guide, tomorrow's game is still listed at 3 PM.

[koberulz]

Yeah, I found it no problem once you said it was on, it just didn't show up when I searched for 'cable beach invitational', 'basketball', or 'wildcats'. Although only the first of those terms even returned today's game.

[The X]

Hopefully Breakers can get job done against Wildcats tomorrow night. It'll be first game I watch on NBL TV.

[koberulz]

Looks like there's one on Thursday as well, on Fox Sports 3 at 3 PM.

Both were the Perth vs Shanghai game, even though the second was listed as Perth vs Guonghi or something. 71-37, development players got quite a bit of a run, really nothing interesting beyond Michael Vigor, with whom I used to train (we played for the same junior state league club, though never in the same team) getting a bit of court time. The camera was on the opposite side of the court to the sun, which made the game almost literally unwatchable at times.

Hopefully Breakers can get job done against Wildcats tomorrow night.

[koberulz]

Hopefully Breakers can get job done against Wildcats tomorrow night.

About that...


Quality is alright. Occasionally lags and drops to terrible, but for the most part it's excellent. Sure beats the pirated streams of last season.

[The X]

Hopefully Breakers can get job done against Wildcats tomorrow night.

About that...


Quality is alright. Occasionally lags and drops to terrible, but for the most part it's excellent. Sure beats the pirated streams of last season.

I only got to see 4th quarter due to game starting at 4.30pm & not getting back from work until 6pm. It lagged when I first started up, but aside from that it was flawless, running on top rate with clear, crisp picture. So no complaints at all.

Can't say same about the way the Breakers played Perth looked solid though. I like some of the LMU guys like Knight & Martin, but don't like Redchage. My least favourite player in league.

Got wedding to go today & bball game on Sit's team tomorrow arvo so not looking good for me seeing any other games this weekend.

[koberulz]

The Perth pre-season game that was meant to be on the other day is scheduled for tomorrow, Fox Sports 2.

The opening night game on One was watched by 21,000 people, down from 60,000 last season. Not good.

[The X]

Nobody knows One even shows sports (except some motor racing) anymore, so not surprising in the least.

I'll never watch on One either since I got NBL TV.

Which was the season opener on One? The Hawks' game? If so, that Hurdle guy who use to play for University of Miami & a few years in D-League looks good.

[koberulz]

One would be far better quality than NBL TV.

The NBL clearly needs to promote itself more, though, if opening night is doing that poorly.

[koberulz]

Bullets looking to get back in.

From what I understand, all those groups were bidding against each other previously. Hopefully a combined bid gets through. Also on the expansion front, the Melbourne Camouflage Twitter account tweeted that big news was coming, a couple of weeks back.

[koberulz]

Brendan Joyce spent the entirety of tonight's game trying to make Steve Carfino look good. And succeeding.

He started by mispronouncing Alex Loughton's name. Every. Single. Fucking. Time. Then, after Loughton went on a bit of a run, only to pick up his third foul in the second quarter, this happened:
SC: "And Alex Loughton will have to sit down with his third foul...I was just going to say that that's about the only thing that can slow him down: foul trouble."
BJ: "I was just going to say, are you sure you want him sitting down? I guess you've got to give guys rests, but it is only a 40 minute game so you can really afford to leave them on the court a bit longer, especially when they're hot. Unless...how many fouls does he have? I don't think he's in foul trouble...he's only got...let me see...yeah, he only has, uh...um, okay, yeah...oh, right he has three fouls, so that's why he's sitting down."

And then, after someone takes a charge with one foot in and one foot out of the arc (under FIBA rules, both feet must be inside the no-charge arc, not touching the line, for the player to be considered inside the arc):
BJ: [watching the replay] "Yeah, he was clearly inside the arc there."
SC: "No, one foot looked like it was out."
BJ: "I thought if one foot was in, you were in? Or do both feet have to be in?"
SC: "I'm pretty sure both feet have to be in. That's what Andrew [Gaze, the only NBL commentator to ever get this rule right] told me the other day."
BJ: "I thought...then what's the point of the arc? Have they changed that rule now? And anyway, you have to have both feet level, you have to be horizontal, to get a charge, and if he's got one foot in and one foot out, that means his feet aren't level so it should have been a block."

It was definitely a charge.