Up and Coming juniors go into their respective ABL teams champion! If they are good enough. If they get a taste of senior basketball they can then progress through to much greener pastures potentially. ABL is for senior players, where else would they go after being an up and coming junior...???

I can see that a club would see your point of view.
I would like to hear from the juniors that are trying to break into the senior comp.
This is not a shot, but as an example, would chief from North see Dusty as good thing?
I know that a balance of experianced players is a good thing, the juniors in the group would learn a great deal, it is the ratio that bothers me.
More importantly, I think that a lot of kids coming through 18's and 20's cannot see a future.

Sorry to answer your question "where else would they go after being an up and coming junior...??? "
My fear is either out of the sport or to a college.
A lot of Juniors opt for the US college, why?

The US college thing is complex. Three reasons are generally offered:

1. Basketball
2. Education
3. Life Experience

The first two reasons are difficult to justify, particularly for women. The third is justifiable.

To answer your global question with an unfortunate fallacy of argument....name us one mature teams sport in the world that does not have tiered competitions - jnrs - snrs - semi prof - prof (AFL, ARL) or jnr - snr - state - internat (hockey, cricket). The unfortunately named ABL is a part of that tier for basketball.

There are hardly any NBL players in the league anyway (on a % basis). Not an issue IMO - in fact, top junior talent benefits from training against those guys week in week out.

I remember that one fateful day when Coach took me aside. I knew what was coming. "You don't have to tell me," I said. "I'm off the team, aren't I?" "Well," said Coach, "you never were really ON the team. You made that uniform you're wearing out of rags and towels, and your helmet is a toy space helmet. You show up at practice and then either steal the ball and make us chase you to get it back, or you try to tackle people at inappropriate times." It was all true what he was saying. And yet, I thought something is brewing inside the head of this Coach. He sees something in me, some kind of raw talent that he can mold. But that's when I felt the handcuffs go on.


If your good enough... you'll play

"What is it" I believe College is 'greener pastures' I was referring to the high number of players that don't get that opportunity for "where else would they go...". Back in my day it was very very hard to get into College bball, these days, you need 1 good tape and someone will pick you up.

HO, didn't understand your "particularly for women" comment.

Aussie women who've gone to the US College system could easily justify basketball and education as their motivation to go.

Quite honestly, the US higher education system is renowned world-wide for it's quality, I'd love a free undergraduate degree and play basketball for a few years in the States. Even if I didn't make the WNBA/NBA, come back better player, made some lifelong friends, have a great degree with no HECS debt, sounds like a sweet deal to me.

Oh, and Graeme LeBroy, your day wasn't THAT long ago. You suck my battleship.