What was funnier about Tyndale/Williams was that earlier in the game Homicide was constantly mouthing off to Tyndale whenever he had the ball "You aint gonna shoot it, we all know it, you aint gonna shoot it!"

Agree with Bruce - he looks like he could tear this league apart. And whilst nobody in the Tigers can guard him for his pure speed and ability to turn corners, Bruce will have huge problems of his own in guarding Barlow, particularly down in the low post. Will be a very interesting and intriguing contest that one!

I think you will find on point 6 that was Ballinger unless there was a similar play like that by Luke.

I still think we have a better team then Melbourne with more Depth and structure. I don't understand why the Sixers odds went up higher and now are at $13 to win the championship. I guess it was because we played Townsville whom will be close to bottom this season but still we have an awesome team. Its probably a good idea to put money on them. Hopefully that doesn't jinx them but come on 13 to 1 to win it all is crazy!!

I doubt Bruce would be guarding Barlow and it would be news to me to see Barlow posting up anyway. His game is more about hitting open 3's and driving. However I consider his driving skills to be pretty weak considering how much athletic ability he has.

Also with Bruce and Schensher we have a real title chance against Tigers. As they don't have anyone to guard Bruce and also Schensher is probably the only player in the league tall enough as well as quick enough to guard Anstey. We got dealt two aces I think.

Sydney Spirit to get absolutely spanked on Wednesday! And to think we nearly went with their coach instead of Ninnis! I'm very glad it is the way it is!

You have to talk about Paora Winitana aswell.
That guy is such an amazing burst of life to the 36ers. the whole game (which included the pregame warm-up) he was up beat, laughing and just generally enthused and getting his teammates pumped. This guy is going to be a cult hero. Our own version of shane heal but with much more aggressive D. Love that kid, cant wait to see him piss the spirit off!!

Devils advocate as always...
Schenscher will be able to guard Anstey inside the paint, but not on the perimeter where he spends most of his times these days. Schenscher is a stronger body though...another great matchup. Can't wait!
I do like the look of the 6ers and and at 13-1 I'll be having a few hard earned on them to go all the way myself. Can't see those odds lasting much longer with astute people such as ourselves taking advantage.

EZEKIEL - Winitana is probably only a 50/50 chance of playing this week after rolling his ankle yesterday at training.

I liked Paora 's game a lot, he really is a perfect team bench type guy. When tempers flared a little in the second half, it was him stepping in and settling it down. Definately a leader and a true competitor / sportsman.

He may have the biggest hands on a human being since MJ too. Palms the rock like nothing. Would love to see some of those awesome MJ like pass fakes while he palms the ball...

I can see him throwing some stuff down during garbage time every game.

Thanks for the review Quagmire (and others)..always interested to read what actually goes on.

Let's start with Big Luke. Its hard to imagine a 120 kg fella looking as skinny as he does, but I guess that just shows you how truly damn tall he is. As someone mentioned above, he seemed to move up and down the court very well for his size, and altered EVERY shot Ellis took. (Mind u, at 6'8, Ellis is easily the smallest centre in the league)

Stats won't come close to explaining Tyndale's game. He was awful in the first half, just awful. Then his second half was much better. It should be noted that a lot of his rebounds came courtesy of Balls & Big Luke boxing out Townsville's bigs, and given how good Jacob & Tinny are at rebounding for their height, I expect to see the Sixers box out much more this season. Tinny also made a couple of beautiful passes in the second half, and his sagging off of Homicide was just beautiful. That guy couldn't hit the side of a house from 10 m away!

Having not been to any of the pre-season games, I was expecting a lot from Paora, given how much everyone has been raving about him. To be completely honest, I wasn't terribly impressed. Yes, he is that high energy guy off the bench that everyone needs, but I can't imagine why people on here were calling for him to start. He's not THAT good.

Someone that hasn't been talked about is Brad Hill. Last time most of us saw him he was driving hard to the hoop when Abney cut him in half. It was good to see that he's still prepared to take it hard to the rack, cos that something the Sixers can always use more of.

Finally, I thought that Jacob and Coops played their roles perfectly. Some people have been critical of Jacob as a starter, but I think he complements the other 4 perfectly. He took just 6 shots on Fri, and IMO if he is like that most weeks we are gonna win a lot of games, cos it means more shots are going to Balls, Brett, Brucey and Tinny. Ditto for Coops, in previous seasons we've all seen him spot up for jumpers 2 feet inside the 3 point line and thought "WTF". He didn't take a shot on Fri Nite, just hustled hard and played D and rebounded like he always does.

On a team as deep as we are, everyone just needs to know their role and stick to it. That is the key. So hats off to Jacob and Coops for doing it beautifully.

Should be a good year i think.

Paora was symply awsome, here, in the trial game against Melbourne. Bruce and Davidson were not available for that game. Now, having seen Friday's game, you'd start Bruce and Maher, of course. Paora, on Friday, played well below his trial game form.

I loved the way in the 3rd quarter big Luke was used to draw fouls, and as soon as Adelaide was in the bonus, Aaron noticed that they decided to put full court pressure on him and he just couldn't stop giggling because he knew it was an open invitation for him to shoot some foul shots. He tried hard not to smile so much, but he couldn't help himself.

Also loved Tindale in the 3rd quarter talking and talking to Homicide. He is so quiet off the floor but as soon as he crosses the white line, whoa ! he just seems to want to tell everyone in the first 30 rows what he is going to do. Or maybe it just was what Homicide had said as someone else hinted..

Yeah- big ups to Hill, Coops and Holmes for doing all the team things. Paora too.

Forgot to mention the way Tyndale played in the first half. Pretty ordinary.

The key was that he showed a confidence in his ability to improve and for a while he had the game on a string.

Some players shrink when things aren't going their way- he really took control of his emotions and showed that a lot of basketball is played between the ears and in the middle of the chest.

Agreed Quagmire, Tinny showed great composure to regather himself at half time, especially for a 22 y.o. playing his first game of professional basketball, halfway around the world from home.

As I said in another thread, Tyndale played like last year's imports - first half Chappelle, second half Hodge. He played smart - didn't force anything, didn't try to take over the game like some imports do. He stayed within the team concept and just accumulated stats.

I also wasn't impressed with Schenscher, I thought his D was ordinary and the O stalled when he got the ball. OTOH, maybe I'm just not used to seeing a 7-footer in the low post, instead of loitering out at the three-point line.

One other thing that happened that the box score doesn't show - unless I'm mistaken, by the end of the first quarter, all the starters were on the bench, and Scottie was running the complete second 5 as a unit (Davidson, Winitana, Hill, Cooper, Schenscher). Not something you would have seen under previous stewardship. Oh, that reminds me - there was an ad on the back of the coach's chair, clearly visible from the far side of the court for most of the game. Wouldn't have seen that last year, either, except during a time-out.

Mantis i think you are being a little hard with big Luke. I think there is an option in the offence where the ball is dumped into the low block, and the forward runs a give and go. Once or twice that forward in the game doubled back for a post up, and just crowded that area of the floor.

I am sure Coach Scott will sort it out anyways, but you need to be aware of what the offence was before you blame Luke for stalling it.

Pretty easy to put that second unit on the floor with confidence, we have good depth this year.

mate of mine sits just behind the opposition bench. Said that whenever Williams came off he was arguing with the coach. Sign of frustration.

I'm thinking Schenscher may start this one with the pigs' bigger front-court. Khazzouh has been playing well and Schensch is a perfect match up.

I also laughed a bit at Tyndale's D on Homicide. A few times Corey couldn't help himself and shot it anyway but isn't he a shocking outside shooter!!! Great coaching by Ninnis there too, Smyth wouldn't have recognized his lack of range.

Great post Giggity, beats the one about Kobe :P

Fair enough. It seemed to me it was taking him a looooong time to work through his options, though. I'll pay more attention tomorrow night.

Rosell Ellis is more like 6'5" than 6'8".

Jordan I agree with you about Winitana having an average game, so I am surprised people are raving about his game. He was good defensively but didn't offer much in offence. Having said that I saw him in the Pre-season games and he is ALOT better then that. He just seems to be a confidence player but once he settles in he will be a very good player!

Winitana played about 35mins in the trial game, here, against the Tigers, ( Without Tyndale,Bruce and Davidson), shot 22points, was great at both ends.
Played about half that, on Friday, missed his first few shots.. confidence player.

Burdon came on for the last minute and went swish.
I couldn't do that.