The difference between Isaiah Victor (former D-Leaguer, I think?) and Mark Worthington makes you think. Victor doesn't do much in the NBL but Worthington is on track to be MVP.

Have to wonder if Worthington will take the Euro-road of Nielsen or see if he's a chance at the NBA (at a stretch)?

The NBL is just backwards on which fouls get called. My theory is that since the league isn't as 'tall' as others around the world, the referees aren't as familiar about what is allowable in the paint and what isn't.

For instance, the ball carrier is harassed defensively these days and a lot of slaps and hand checks are let go...whereas a guy like Mottram will be called in the paint simply because he's there and the player on offense makes contact with him when they're going to the basket.

IMHO it should be the other way round; contact in the paint should be let go if the defender makes no deliberate contact. If the offensive player backs into them, then that's not a foul on the defense. Whereas, they really need to clamp down on harassing the ball carrier, as the hand contact and forced turnovers make the game ugly to watch.

Interestingly, out of Worthington, Kendall and Barlow (3 of Dunlap's products), Worthington is the one now excelling. Barlow obviously had the knee injury to contend with but Kendall now lives in Wortho's shadow. He would be a good target to recruit but obviously under a new coach. Coming from Goorj's program to Smyth's he wouldn't know what to do with himself with all the free time he'd have!

Have to admire what Goorjian has done to keep Worthington improving - his game last night was brutally efficient. Scored, drew fouls, defended, blocks, etc.

American imports to Aust. in the early days of the NBL used to crave defensive contact so that they could step and "get one" for the same play. In turn this made Aussie basketball more phyical.

A dropoff in physical play could be aligned to the 24 secs rule - less time for it.

From a refs point, it is a soft option to blow cheap contacts to players to back off but refs are more reactive than proactive. That is they get told to call softer by the game's administrator who generally act on behalf of coaches.

Historically teams that win big finals muscle down well. those that cant go home empty.Internationally, it appears that that USA are going home empty more these days, maybe they need to toughen up.

Boomers have sucked of recent because their offence truely stinks under pressure.

Isaac may I ask you, with Gorj. and Worthinton in town, and a bit going on with Chappell.
Who would guard Worthington tomorrow?

I think Mills is comparing the US College game as not being as physical. Understandable because the players are younger than than the competition he was playing against in Aus, or smaller than the international competition he was competing against.

Having said that, I completely agree with James W, but i do think the NBL has gotten more physical of recent times.

A lot of NBL players have come from a US Dunlap college program including 36ers Ass coach Rupert, and i think Worthington would have excelled under any number of US College Coaches esp a Div 1 coach which Mike was not.

Who is going to guard Worthington? Who is going to guard Saville who is due? No one can from the 36ers squad. It could get ugly.

Ballinger is their only hope to guard Worthington IMO. Mottram and Coops can handle their bigs. Davidson can handle Kendall/Draper and Maher on Smith.

As fiend said, Worthington and Saville will cause trouble.

Wouldn't write off Adelaide though - anything can happen at the Dome and Sydney can go cold from outside and implode. They were ruthless against NZ though and are still my pick for the championship (though I would back that more confidently if they had better than Victor to help in the paint).

Anon #161200, this season he has shut down Harvey and Penny, you are an idiot.