Not denying that this is a soft patch, but who do they thank for having to play in Perth, then in NZ, then up in Townsville and back in Sydney against the Kings? That was hardly as comfortable!

Think about the Slingers and NZ to a lesser extent re travelling/time differences!

Boti was right - the draw in general sucks! Granted it's harder with a couple of overseas teams, but my goodness, whoever's in charge for next year, please use your brain!

Can't imagine either of those teams have it easy at all. Have heard some stories of arriving at places at 4AM after delays, stuck waiting in airports all day, etc.

Going from Singapore (I think) to Melbourne for games that next weekend, I think the Breakers arrived almost a week early and just stayed in Melbourne rather than fly to NZ and their training court and back, etc. Didn't help them and they went 0-2.

Also, timely mention of the schedule - there's a bit of a war going on between Chuck Harmison and the NBL and Brendan Joyce. Joyce is complaining that the tough schedule (played Saturday away and then backed up at home on the Sunday to NZ) cost his side wins.

Chuck has told Joyce and other coaches to "just wear it" saying that venue availability is limited and that teams have been playing back to back and tough road trips for years.

I for one miss some of the classic back-to-back games. There was the doomsday double (that one gave tons of freebie wins to Perth and Adelaide) the Sunshine Swing, games against Sydney and then West Sydney within two days (clearly too sensible an arrangement).

I agree that some of the scheduling now is totally ridiculous, but at the same time most teams get it at some stage. The NBL schedule is also far from the most gruelling in the world (although the NBL is also far from being one of the elite competitions). Look at the NBA or some of the European soccer schedules.

How about playing 4 games in 5 days - all in different states.....oh yeah thats in the NBA....and I never hear NBA coaches bitch about it, poor Brendan Joyce. Doesn't he remember playing in carnivals where it would be 40Deg in a tin shed and having to play 4 games??

Toughen the F up Joyce!

I'm totally with Isaac.
There's no way I'll defend the NBL's schedule, it sucks straight up. Then there's the reality of the inevitable last minute delays, that are dumped every franchise.
As a minor example of what we're saying, the trip to Singapore went via Melbourne, & incurred a 2½ hour terminal sit before re-boarding for Singapore. On their return, they were supposedly due in Adelaide at 21:00 last night, but lobbed in at 22:30.
It's no cake-walk, there's every right to complain.
Other complications like Hotels not being able to provide meals at the odd hours, weather, time zones, the list is endless.
In the meantime, bite your tongue, or your ar$e, until you know what's going on.

I recall the glory days of basketball when venues were packed out. This was when games were played on a friday and saturday, it was rare even for a sunday game. Playing matches mid week and teams backing up 2 days after playing singapore at home, is wrong, the players are jett lagged and the standard of the game drops majorily.

I say its about time people started critising the league schedule its been crap the last few years.If they want basketball to prosper in this country they need to fix the schedule. IF its too hard to schedule due to venues o/seas, then Dump the slingers and breakers.

You cannot fix the NBL schedule - it is a lose lose scenario.

The big venues are just not available for basketball - Sydney, Vodafone, Bris etc. They have wall to wall bookings all summer. Vodafone alone is unavailble for five straight weeks due to tennis. Every team in the league wants Saturday night games and they are just not available. So you take what you can get and that affects every other teams availability and fixture.

God guys - any domestic league fixturer could have worked all that out. Harmison is spot on with one thing - 30 games (15 home games) in 20 weeks is very difficult. It means you have to have weeks where have to go home/away overnight or away/home and because everyone wants weekend dates it means some travelling teams must have double headers....logic says if every team wants Saturday night with Fri as a second preference then lots of teams must play double road trips cause for 10 weeks of the year you MUST have double headers just to fit the fixture in.

Now throw in the economy stuff where NZ and Singapore always will want double road trips into OZ...but you can't just bring em to sydney cause the weeks when Razors and Sydney have venues available on subsequent nights are the same weeks when Singapore's venue is available...and you have to take the booking you can get at Singapore.

All the ABA league face the same issues btw, except most of them control their venues.

I bet you lot complain at domestic when you get four 10pm games and another team in your comp only gets two....

Anonymous 13509......

It seems like the 36ers will never please some 'supporters'
Why is it now OK for you to say "Smyth can thank the schedulers for saving his short term career..."
yet when the boot is on the other foot, Smyth haters bag him for "excuses, excuses" if he dares to hint along the lines of "given the tough schedule of travel, players were tired..."

Why now have it both ways?

It's like 36ers can't win or lose without some people saying..."Oh they only won because the opposition were tired from travelling and the NBL schedule made it so"... and then when 36ers lose for the same reason, "Oh sack the coach!"

Compared to the AFL the NBL does a great job.

I can't beleive in the AFL teams only play some teams twice. Bad luck if those teams you play twice also the better teams.

Tryng to put together schedules in the NBL would be a logistical nightmare. I take my hat off to the organisers in managing this. There are so many things to take into consideration, its just improssible to please everyone everytime. In the end, the best team wins anyway. If you are a good side, you will cope with this and it will not stop you from winning a championship.

EC, schedules are breifed to professional firms. Remember the fiasco when the AFL engaged an O/S firm to do theirs? I think they were Canadian from memory.

No need to take your hat off to them - they get paid a whole lot of money to do it. I agree that not everyone is going to be happy, but there are always those glaring scheduling issues every year that all agree make no sense.

Poor Brendan, played away, then backed it up at home on the Sunday.

Dont know to many teams that have to cope with that (add sarcasim)

This aint no district comp sonny.

Welcome to the NBL, your back playing with the big boys now!

Think about the Dragons this round - Pigs (road), Blaze (home), 36ers (road) - three games in 4-5 days. Brutal.

Think about the Bullets last season winning the championship. They won it on performance in spite of scheduling. With around 19 consecutive wins, many of those were after travelling. A good side does not let the schedule get them down.

get fucked