I'm really worried about this game, the Sixers are coming of the game last night and the Dragons although they played in NZL have had a day off.

Ninnis seems to be doing well in terms of his spread of minutes and matchups IMO. And they seem to have scouted the opposition pretty well too.

The key tonight is trying to contain Jingles & Worthington. This is what NZL did and won comfortably.

NZL picked the Dragons up full court and this seemed to work quite well, however the Dragons will press full court tonight and we are going to need to make sure we have/use our press breaker to move the ball up the court for some easy scores.

Early we need to bang it inside to Balls and Schench and try to pick up some early fouls on their bigs, we know Horvath will hack if he has to play D.

We are going to need to keep the Dragons of the offensive boards and box out hard.

Ultimately I think the real key if stopping the Dragons from getting into their offensive sets early, try and force them to setup with 12 or so seconds left on the clock and IMO they will start to struggle.

bring on the goons, I'll be sitting up in the rafters section. Also taking my 2yr old lad to his first sixer game! Can't wait, the dome should be rocking tonight! The red connection to both get double doubles & Hodgey to attack the rack for 20 odd points. Crowd near 7,000 sixers by plenty in a blow out...

Don't worry, we'll get this one no problems. It will be Wollongong we can't beat here next weekend!

Two words - Back Screens!

For all the poor souls sitting at home, at halftime Adelaide are down by 10.

54 - 64.

I wish I was at home...... night shift bites....

Unfortunelty Hodge went off with cramp in the last few minutes.

axe the coach!!! Scott has no clue how to manage a team which should be a title cnotender. This is absoutly shocking. if any other club had the talent the 6ers have and also had this win loss ratio he would have been out the door with Tyndale.

Just got home and I'm not happy! Why was Cooper on so long? He's not even a scoring threat he just wanders around the outside and no one bothers to guard him out there because they know he won't even look for a shot. So someone else is doubled up on so we might as well only have 3 players on the court. Grrr!!
Why were both Schens and AB on the bench together for so long? At least if one of them was on they would at least look for a shot. Sheesh...even Holmes would occasionally look for a shot.
Why is Bruce on so long? Why isn't Davidson getting more? Maybe give Hoban a go? Bruce reminds me of Maher when he first started, he made some crappy passes in his first couple of seasons. I think Bruce is a tad underdone for what is expected of him. Even Hill tries harder sometimes.
All you Phil haters out there, I'd bet you that he would instill a damn sight more confidence in this team than what they are NOT getting from the current 'coaching' team. ('Coaching" is questionable).
We have a very talented team out there who just seem a bit lost and frustrated with no clear direction.
OK...Bag me all you want but I still reckon Phil deserved another season.

I mean they don't even 'lead' out for a pass. Even Hodge noticed that. Everyone seems flatfooted and lost. Whose fault is that?

Like a great shipping liner without a rudder.
Coaching team out of their depth.

Thought Cooper and Bruce were on too long.

We had chances to win that.

I love the sixers, but they are not getting the direction they need.

Spot on Camel. They were both on with Luke and Adam on the bench. What's up with that?

Ok let it go Dana, Phil isnt around, that era is dead. Lets not make this about him. Tough loss to swallow, but showed some great character and cant begin to explain how unlucky i felt the 6ers were when Hodge came to a halt at 2:27 with cramp, and Darden hit a wide open 3 for the lead which they never gave up. Just so unfortunate. And who wouldve imagined at 96-94 ballinger would miss that open baseline jumper, just wouldnt read about it.

I dare anyone to bet against this 36er team to not beat Wollongong next week though! All will be ok in 6er land, and to be honest im still more upset about the Spirit loss from the night before. 16 games left, and the next 3 at home. The week of training will do this roster wonders as far as clicking.

Just hope the fans come back for more, that noise factor was awesome to be apart of!

Gonna have to agree with Dana. We weren't coached tonight. I was trying to spy some sense of an offence, wether it be set plays or general offencive rules. I would love to know what Schench has to do to see the ball on a pick and roll. Im not sure wether I'm thrilled or scared that our best three point shooter is our power forward. Why do we look so bloody passive in defence each time down the court. Yes we get monstered by Matt 'Lumpy' Burston and co. but maybe we could dish a bit as well.
And this won't go down well but Brett Maher looks confused on court at the moment. He's not a point guard, he's not scoring . . . he's just not.
Enjoyed Brad Hill's game. Good aggression at both ends, pulled down 7 boards or so. I'd love to see him shoot a bit more, his defenders are wising up to drive first attitude. I am not knocking it, but if he can punish that extra space defenders are giving him he's good for 16 each night.

This is not just from this game but from the games I have seen. Their is very little intencity in the 6ers defence which means other teams get easy shots from 3point range and also easy lanes to the basket.

A good offence is created by a good defencive set. however, what troubles me more than anyting else is how the 6ers waste the ball in offence. almost every time down court they use up around 20 seconds and still put up a rushed shot. the shooting % seems to rarely be about 45% and we only have 3 offencive players who can be counted on.

tonight for example the 6ers if i saw the board right after the game were shooting at around 30% compared to the dragons 50%. which shows that the 6ers had more shot oportunities and miss more chances.

Transtion in defence is ok but off an offencive rebound bar Brad Hill taking it coast to coast we have nothing. so consideringwe are giving up easy shots and lanes, have no transition and we can't shoot how can we win games?

this should not be an issue we have Balls who is always in the point. Big Lukewith NBA experience. Mr. Hodge with NBA experience. Bruce who should be in the Aus team, Winitara who was and maybe still is in the kiwi national team and Jacob who is good enough to get a training session with the green and gold let alone Maher who is an ex Aus captain, Davidson who is 100% commited, cooper who has the ability to defend any big guy going around and Hill who is ex AIS. and with all this we can't win games. IMO it's the coach. Sack him, get any other coach who has more experience and you'll see a big difference.

I watched the Colleggame today and saw that they have a 35sec shot clock. That's where Bruce has been playijng for the last few years. I asked a while ago why he takes so long to get the ball up the court. Maybe it's a hangover from having an extra 11 secs?

OK Phil probably wouldn't come back now anyway, but we need someone else. At least put some more experience in as an assistant or something...please?
Sheesh...even Goorjian looks good to me now. How desparate am I? ;)

Desperate even. Doh!

Dana - do you even watch AB play (re bring the ball up the court). The guy catches the inbounds pass on the run and burns his man over the halfway line withn two seconds and within another couple has given the ball off to the wing.

You must be from another planet if you think AB takes a long time to get the ball over halfcourt!!!!

Dana.....go to bed!

cavolo, he was faster tonight, but that's the first time I've seen it. I was referring to games before tonight. He's probably been told.

Can't say I agree with Jess. We were beaten by a better team in the last minute. Ninnis did very well to keep our most important players fresh for the end, unfortunately it didn't work out.

That was a painful loss though.

Schenscher: Did he touch it all night? Get him the ball!!! Admittedly, he wasn't at his best but FFS give him a chance to work his way into the game.

Ballinger: Another outstanding 1st half followed by an average finish. He was defended very well by Wortho/Burston late in the game so resorted to outside shots.

Hodge: Absolutely brilliant, got inside for some 3pt plays and really fired up the crowd. May have had his first triple-double of the year if it wasn't for that late injury. Hopefully skip is right and it was just cramp. He looked devastated after the game L

Maher: Obviously he's still not 100% but did pretty well for his 11pts in 22mins.

Bruce: Indifferent night. Keeping his turnovers down to 2 was good but he had yet another off shooting night with 3-11 FGs and 1-5 3pters. Defensively, he had a lot of trouble with the strength of Gibson.

Cooper: I would've liked his 15mins on court to have gone to Holmes instead, especially considering neither of South's centers were bothering us at all. Other than 6 rebounds he didn't do anything.

Holmes: Pretty solid in 15mins. He never got into the game offensively but rebounded well as usual (7rbs). I can't imagine he'd be a great fan of Julius Hodge right now :P

Hill: I'm glad that someone I stick up for rewards me with a good performance. I hope Tyndale was watching. As always he was very aggressive getting to the rim and rebounded well too. 14 and 7 is a great return in just half a game. Defence was better too.

Winitana: vanexel and KingJames have got their wish, it looks like Paora is out of the rotation.

Davidson: Like Maher, he still doesn't look right out there. Did nothing on offence. The highlight of his night was drawing an offensive foul on Gibson.

Refs: I can't remember a worse year as far as officiating at the dome goes. Another terrible night from the three blind mice. I was xztatik when I saw that Captain Baldy wasn't in the house but that Brad Davidson-lookalike well and truly made up for his absence.
WTF WAS THAT TECHNICAL AGAINST HODGE FOR JUST BEFORE HALF TIME??? WHYYYYYYYYY????? That cost us 5pts and killed our momentum going into the half.

Music: Where was the 'YOU SUCK'??? Was there any backlash from the last time you played it, skip? And I see you found "Big Balls" lol, nice.

Kiosks: First Jack Toft gets robbed of his cornettos and now I have to do a 360 search just to find a place with Iced Coffee. Pissed off.

Dragons: I thought we would've remembered the lesson Nathan Herbert gave us last year but I guess not. He destroyed us from outside. Darden (HUGE dunk), Ingles and Gibson were also great. Wortho's an animal.

Overall, we showed a lot of guts to come back and give them a scare. Lucky we've got an easy one next Saturday& I hope.

Yeah I must say the last issue we have is getting the ball into the frontcourt.

*next Saturday... I hope.

Dana - I've seen every game he's played here in Adelaide since he was recruited and he has been blistering fast each time up the court in each game. It's the way he plays...

The best on court for Dragons were the refs - bloody terrible!!

I've remembered the times it was down to 18 secs when he got over the half way line. I guess different people remember different things. That's human.

wtf's that suppose to mean anon?

There's a basic reffing course tomorrow at Wayville - can recommend 3 starters!

Hear! Hear! Jack. Pretty bad....

OK, here's my take on the game, so think what you will...

Jingles and Herbert were hot, Jingles for the firts 2.5 qtrs, Herbie for the whole night. We really struggled to defend that high pick and role and when the big man cam out to help, then Burston monstered AB (not that he did any scoreboard damage. We gave away a lot of lay ups off back door screens on the weak side - it seemed like every bucket we scored was hard earned, heck, even when Julius got a fast break he had to earn it and was hammered. That missed lay up of his under pressure, as well as Brad's when he was fouled and the missed free throws were back breakers.

I was really annoyed that we wasted a lot of time on the clock when they had three of their four most imporant players on 5 fouls (Gibson, Herbert & Burston) although Gibson went after the game was decided, and we just didn't take it at them. Although we appeared to be 'patient' looking for the post player in a bit of a clear out, no one waited for Balinger to get a seal on Herbert, who admittedly, was basically molesting him each time - note to self and team - why don't we defend the post player without the ball so agressively.

Yes, refs were shocking both ways in the first half but I think improved in the second half - just defies belief how they do not call the wrap arounds which South constantly employs on the post and high screen players???

I know this might sound harsh, but I thought Julius' D was pretty ordinary for most of the night, and particularly in the last quarter - too often he was letting his man loose i.e. Herbert/Jingles and they either created the play as other guys had to help and rush and force everyone to rotate.

Re playing time - def need more time for Jake at the expense of Coops. Bit more time for Maher and Davidson at AB's expense. Luke - got in good positions and got the ball near the basket but would pass it off instead of going strong and drawing the foul - c'mon big man!!!

A few things:

- 'Why doesn't Schensch get more of the ball?' Because he is soft and slow. I'm sorry, but he is. He gets pushed off the block WAY too easily, and he's not quick enough to be used effectively in a pick n roll. I mean, what the hell was that play when he got blocked by Darden? Big fella has got to go up strong, and has got to make his presence felt.

- Hodge? Hmm, not sold, not at all. He goes 11-21 from the field, and I don't think he would've had more than 3 shots from outside the key. Not good enough, IMO. Too many times did he stop the offence and try to break down his man, all to no avail. And his D? Sheesh, he was barely moving his feet, reaching in all the time and just jogging back in transition. And what was he complaining about when he was T'd up? He put both hands on his man to try and stop him (because he didn't want to move his feet...) and then whinges when he called on it?

- Think you guys are being harsh a Coop. He played some very good D on Wortho. Very good.

- Hill was very good. He has great body control under the basket and seems to be able to take it hard at anyone, which is very good. I'd love to see us just push the ball up the floor for 3 or 4 minute stretches at times, with him, Davo, Bruce, Hodge and Balls. Something tells me that that 5 could do some damage.

- I thought Bruce was good. Just needs to get that shot to fall, which seems to come and go a bit, but I'm hopeful he can get it going consistently. Can't buy a call though. As him being slow, maybe him walking it up gets old, but most of the time he makes the right calls with controlling the tempo.

- Did we not read the scouting report on Herbert? Dude can shoot the hell out of it! We left him open way too much.

- Our defending of screens again was a concern. Didn't look as bad as it did V Cairns, but it still needs some working on.

- Refs. Just poor. But that's to be expected when you play a Goorjian team, I suppose. Illegal screens (and there were some shockers)? Hip checks? Doesn't seem to matter if they have BG on the sideline....

- Ingles. Silk on offence. Even though you know that he's hurting your team, he was great to watch tonight. Hand in face? Doesn't matter, he'll knock it down anyway. Be it the NBA or Europe, I don't think we'll be seing much more of him in the NBL.

Overall, pretty disappointing to lose another tight one, bit it was a pretty good game....

I was kinda hoping to hear a chant along the lines of : 'See Burston hook!'
They eventually got him a couple of times though. Poor old Horvath is way too obvious. His team mates know how to get away with grabbing and holding and sticking albows out to screen, etc.

Real shame we lost this especially after loosing that one last night. To me tonight we had a similar problem to what we had last night, at the moment hodge is dominating the ball and asking to picks to much. He does make it work but not all the time, its no fluke that in both games luke has had very little touches. I'm sure they will find a balance but we need to feed the other mouths so when they are needed they are not asked to produce cold. The biggest example of this was when hodge cramped up and left brett and hill etc needed to make plays but had not really had the chance to get into any flow.

I do like this team moving forward and it was great having a character like hodge working the crowd and getting everyone going, we just need to refine our play.

XztatiK - yes, I have been advised that the Kurt Angle Theme Song (aka 'You Suck Song') is not to be played.

I agree that coop does a one or two good D things but his offensive game is non existent and it shouldn't be.

Yep agree with most of what cavalo and twentyfour said. As for Darden's block on Schensch, he clearly used Luke's shoulder to lift himself up. I agree Schensch does go up way too soft sometimes though.

skip, what was the music you had on in the last few mins of warm up? It was great. Real foot tapping stuff.

Dana - Do you mean when the beach ball was going around? That was a song about ping pong by Operator Please.

Crowd of 5358 was a little disappointing, but boy it got loud in that last quarter.

"XztatiK - yes, I have been advised that the Kurt Angle Theme Song (aka 'You Suck Song') is not to be played. "

That sucks, I guess 5000 fans booing will have to do :(

Not sure if it was on then or a bit before that Skip. It was instrumental.

No, it wasn't that one Skip. Just listened to it on youtube.

Twenty four not sold on Julius Hodge????? Better sit the next play out champ! And at the half, his complaint was that the refs werent calling it at all evenly. The Dragons got away with some outrageous stuff in that first half.

Xztatik, i spoke to Julius after the game and asked him about his leg and he said it was just cramp in his calf and toes. So thats a big reilief.

And also spoke to Winitana and he said that his ankle is still troubling him and that warmups is all he can get through at the moment. So he hasnt been dropped from the line up just cant play. I personally believe he has some potential just hasnt had the oppertunity with injuries and now Julius ahead of him in rotations.

dana i think the song was called the launch not sure who does it

Its about bloody time people are starting to see what I pointed out as early as game 3 of the season. The coach does not have a clue. This is evident in the continual changes of the starting 5. I am starting to wonder if he will ever get it right. Its also evident that he has a team of players that are more than capable of beating every other team in the league and yet they are not. When the game started tonight, I looked at our starting five and wonder why in the hell they do not win more games. They should be a threat to every other team. Good on Hemmerling for spending the extra money on not just a good lineup from the beginning but also bringing Hodge back. Ninnis is being fed the cream of the crop in his team and yet he cannot get the best out of them. Sorry, but Phil S.m.y.t.h(not sure if there is still a ban on his name) would have got more wins out of this team. He must be so agitated that he wasn't afforded the luxury of this lineup as he could have done a lot more with them. My problems with Ninnis from the beginning was his lack of success in a coaching role in the last 3 years and no experience as a head coach. He is a rookie himself and should not be leading the team. Mal said previously that Ninnis got the job because of his enthusiasm and passion for the club. This enthusiasm is not translating to successful coaching.

Tonight Schenscher had a shocker. He has been getting anything between 16 and 30 points in the last 3 to 4 games and yet tonight he looked lost. My frustration came in the fact that he would not take a shot. He would be in possession of the ball so close to the hoop that all he had to do is take a couple of steps back then slam the ball through but instead he just stood there looking for somewhere to pass. Why would a guy so tall take that sort of risk when he is close enough and tall enough to just put the ball in? This is the sort of thing that the coach should be putting a stop to straight away. Does he not see it? Do any of the other 2 coaches see it. I thought Liam Flynn was a technical coach, is he not picking up this sort of thing? Sorry to come across so strongly but what other excuses are there how. If Hodge had played badly the last 2 games, you could say that he needed a few games to settle in. The point is he didn't play badly, he came into the team and straight away did a great job. So why did they lose the last 2 games?

Once again, Mal congratulations on taking the inevitable step of releasing Tyndale and bringing in Hodge. Now you need to take it one step further and replace the coach. Bring back S.m.y.t.h and make Ninnis his assistant.

That was it Skip. Just downloaded it.
I must have a thing for DJ Music. When I was in the USA in March & April, DJ Casper's Cha Cha Slide was all the rage at many parties we had... they seem to know the moves by heart. Mum, dad and all the kids get ap and dance it. It was the McDonalds theme over there.

Wow EC. You'll cop it now but I agree wholeheartedly!

EC & Dana,

I'm going to try and keep this from sounding personal towards the both of you. What you are saying is completely and utterly stupid. Smyth would not win with this group - Smyth required wiley veterans that basically didn't need to be coached, and clearly we don't have that.

Ninnis IMO is doing a fine job. You complain about lineup changes - this is probably the second game for the season where he has had a full team to play.

Ninnis at least calls time-outs, he is still a rookie as a head coach and needs to be given the oppurtunity. Smyth in his first season was handed a much better and MORE EXPERIENCED team than what Ninnis has.

The thing that really bugs me with you two is your excessive love for Smyth - Smyth had his chances since 2002 and didn't perform, it was time for a change. I think Ninnis deserves the same chances that Smyth was awarded, instead of just saying the coach can't coach and should be sacked - what do you propose he does? How would you coach the team?

Disappointing loss. All I'm going to say is that Mark Worthington is still completely useless if no one is there to give the ball to him.

Lucky I hit the refresh button before I posted, I was just about to say the same thing as Bizzy.

EC who would you have started tonight? Or any other night?

Bizzy, the excuses have run out. Mal has done everything to satisfy the needs of a coach and yet he is not getting results. I did not have excessive love for Phil, I am just saying that a change is needed as I feel that Smyth at this point in time is a better alternative (assuming he is interested). I also believe at present Joey Wright is on the unemployment list. Not sure what it would entail to get him over here but I still like my chances with Phil better as he is an Adelaide coach with many years experience here. Ninnis is the problem that needs to be fixed. I could see it in the beginning, I am convinced now.

As for Jacob, he played limited minutes as he is getting over the flu he has had in the last week and not fully recovered.

As for the 3 blind mice, tonight they added another impediment and that is deafness. How they cannot hear a shot clock expiring is beyond me.

Skip, I was already aware that you cannot play the You Suck song but surely there would be no rules to the crowd in unison singing it. I think it would sound absolutely awesome coming from 5,000 people. The challenge is finding a way to alert them to it when the time is right.

EC,

What excuses? Ninnis stands up and takes it on the chin if he makes a mistake. You still haven't told me or anyone else what your problem with Ninnis' coaching is? You don't like that he calls timeouts? He didn't recruit Dusty? I am interested to hear how you would like to see them coached, what would you like done differently?

I'm not calling for Phil to come back but Ninnis is clearly (IMHO) NOT doing a good job.

Isn't there more to coaching than calling timeouts?

Was it just me or was that Brad Hills best game as a 36er, i think he was our best defender on Ingles, as Ingles was killing Hodge, Hodge was not hustling quite hard enough on defence to keep Ingles down, but yea i was very impressed with Hills game.

Hodge,(i would have liked him to take a few more drives or make a few quicker passes, hopefully that works out once hes played a few more games, but still a great game by him, much improved on Tyndale), Ballinger, Bruce and Maher were quite good and Davidson was good in his little stints, i agree with cutting Coopers minutes and playing Holmes more.

Basically use a 8 man rotation leaving Winitana and Cooper out. Start with the line up they started with, Davidson backs up Bruce, Hill backs up Maher and Hodge and Holmes backs up Ballinger and Schenscher, and adjust the line up accordingly, that way we can have all our bench players playing a good consistant 20ish mins a game, with Hodge and Ballinger playing around 30-35 mins and Maher playing around 20ish (until he gets fit) and Schenscher and Bruce playing 20-30 depending on there form.

Thats a very solid and deep rotation, especially if Davidson can recover fully and hill can continue tonights form!

Go sixers get the next win and welcome back Julius!! I reckon we would have just about got that win if he hadnt hobbled off in the last 2 mins!

And I daresay half of the young Aussies (Schensch, Bruce, Holmes, Hill) we brought over in the offseason wouldn't even be here if Smyth was still coach.

What excuses? Tell me Bizzy who you blame now for losses that should have been wins. I've already backed up my ideas by saying that Mal has released the under performing Tyndale and replaced him with Hodge who from the moment he started playing, satisfied all expectations of him. He had a full squad tonight to play with (and last night). He has a team that I believe are capable of doing much better than they are. Its not a case of me saying who I would start or try to pretend that I could do a better job. I am not a professional coach but the coach who is employed in that role needs to fulfill that role. I have just run out of ideas of who is responsible for the results we are now seeing.

The obvious answer to what I would like done differently is coaching them to win games. Its his job and he needs to find the ways to do it. If he cant find ways to do it, then a coach who can is needed.

Yea give Ninnis a chance, he recruited brilliantly, getting guys like Schenscher, Bruce and bringing Hill and Holmes back, and getting Hodge back in now is pretty much the dream 36ers line up he has put together, sure they are not winning every game and are not currently in the playoffs, but the recruiting job alone should give Ninnis atleast another year. As above its likely many of them would not have come here under Phil. Remember our core group of recruits, Bruce, Schenscher, Hill, Holmes are all around 25 or younger, and remember with Bruce, CJ Bruton wasnt carrying teams to titles at 22 years old, so give Bruce and the young 36ers team a few years together and they will be strong IMO, a bit like NZ did this year if they can pretty much bring this same group back next season i think they will be much stronger with some more experience and improvement in guys like Bruce, Schenscher and even Holmes and Hill, and getting Hodge or a similar calibre import from the start will also make a huge difference.
Lets recognise the good things Ninnis has done with his recruiting, and also remember the dragons are top and we almost bet them, we may have had Hodge not hobbled off at the end, so there are some definate positive signs IMO.

Schensch has been courted by Phil for years so I wish people would stop giving credit to Ninnis for getting him here. That is rubbish...

The Ninnis and Hill Playbook is surely a vast and cunning social experiment.

Designed to thwart the ADHD generation Dragons, with their gas cooktops and plastic guitars, the four ball-less Sixers are directed to stand, evenly spread and deathly still, around the arc in an achingly calm attempt to neutralise the defence with boredom.

Meanwhile, the perpetual motion Dragons are draining jumpers and laying up layups with frenetic ease.

If I was Bruce I'd be suing Ninnis and Hill for restraint of trade.

Jonno., tell me the point in doing a fantastic job of recruiting and then not getting the best out of them? Its like spending thousands of dollars on an Armani suit and never wearing it.

well half the battle is getting the talent, and would the tigers really be doing what they are now if Anstey was in his first NBL stint, like he schenscher is, remember ansteys first nbl stint was with the titans who were stacked and they never won a title, so give schenscher some time and he will be dominant, same goes with Bruce as i said at 22 guys like Maher and CJ were not leading teams to titles.
This is the first time in years we have a good young nucleus to build on for the next say 3-5 years, in Bruce, Holmes, Schenscher, Hill, add to that a possibly naturlised Ballinger and 2 imports, hopefully 1 being Hodge and you cant say the sixers havent got an exciting team to build on. the last few years under Phil we didnt have any look of a core to build the future on, i think that was step 1 of a 2-3 year plan, which we have achieved i think year 2 and 3 will be the years we will be making a run at the top 4 and titles. So since Scott has acheieved step 1 i think he should atleast be given another year or 2 to see how far he can push this group. lets be realistic people, this team isnt as experienced and many would say as talented as the Tigers, Dragons, Breakers and Wildcats, i personally feel if we finish above any of them or even in the mix that would be a massive achievement, of course i want us to win the title this year but in reality we are probably fighting the taipans, Hawks, Spirit and Crocs for the 5th and 6th playoff spots, with all of those teams also having quite talented rosters.

A couple of quick points, if I may be so bold. The team we have IS a young team that we can build around but this same team is filled with talent at every spot and should be winning games now. There is no excuse for dropping so many this season against the fodder we've played so far.
Sorry but not enjoying the laction being presented to us from the Ninnis handbook week to week. We got speed but we don't push the break, we got size but we don't bang down low, we got handles but no penetration and dont even get me started on our impersonation of defence. Ninnis, or whoever has done a great job of getting these skills, now if someone could just coach them one weekend (yes I know or Wednesday).
As for the starting 5 and rotations, lets put that to bed right now.
PG - Aaron Bruce
SG - Brad Hill
SF - Julius Hodge
PF - Adam Ballinger
C - Big Luke Schencher

Maher can sub in for Hill if our opposition is giving up looks from outside from crowding the bigs.
Davidson can share the point with Bruce, bring some hard nose D.
Have Jacob backing up the SF & PF roles as needed. Use Paora for defence and wait for him to "blossom" or leave him on the pine. When Scench has a seat we can fill the spot small with "Balls" or have Coop. Coops can be used in bursts so we dont get hurt with pass first, second, third, fourth . . . . shit running left hand floater offence.

great defensive effort in the second half by the guys, but where was that effort in the first half?
Only 9 turnovers for the game was great as well, the offence is now much more in synch.

i thought Bruce and Hill were much improved from their last game against the Dragons, but Bruce needs to concentrate on the 1%ers, like blocking out, rebounding, and no cheap fouls. Hill defends great now particularly on the ball and is the only rebounding guard, but got caught occasionally off the ball when chasing Herbert.

I think Coach Scotts doing ok, but he has not had much luck with player fitness. Jacob and Davo stink it up at the moment because of their recent flu so that should change when they get their fitness back. Luke was visibly limping at the end of the game, and was sporting a big bandage on one of his calfs, but i thought he could have been on earlier in the last quarter just the same.

Still goons had no Cortez, and Horvath had a bit of a cold as well.

Much improved but still a long ways to go.

This is ridiculous.... I just can't believe we're still crapping on about Phil. Even by the standards that have been set by the ones making these claims....

We missed the finals two years straight. We didn't do anything for years before that. And you want to bring back the guy who was at the helm for all that time? [facepalm]

Nino, he can't shoot. From anywhere. He even missed 6 shots from inside the paint tonight. If he isn't standing on the ABC logo, then he is out of his range.

If he is getting to hole and making everything, great, but when he isn't (and yet continues to hold up the offence when trying to take his man of the dribble) and when he misses easy little 8-foot J's, he becomes costly. Plus, it's not like he was super efficient on offence.

And as I said, he was incredibly lazy on D tonight, and from all reports, he was last night.

I'm just not convinced yet that he is the answer that alot of people are already calling him. I'd love to be wrong and hope that he can be a big part in a turn around, but tonight didn't exactly fill me with hope. 0-2 since he got here.

Just IMO.

i'm just going to point out that calling our line up young is fair nut inexperienced is crazy. As I pointed out before, Big Luke and Hodge are ex NBA and both still have the goal of getting back there. Bruce, Luke, Holmes, Winitara and Maher have all played for their countries and you better believe once Balls is Australian he'll be called up too. and then uhave Coops and Davidson who havebeen around the league for years. leaving Hill who was in the AIS.

so don't anyone say we don'thave experience concidering we have 5 players who have played international bball. 4 players who played College and 2 who played NBA. Any good coach would be on their knee's asking god what they did right to have a championship handed to them which is exactly what Ninnis Has been given.

Bizzy, hestill hasn't coped it sweet as a coach because every time they lose 'Coach' Ninnis blames his players not his coaching or not that his team was out played by a better prepaired team. so he hasn't copped it. his players have.

and Jonno if you think Big Luke and Bruce are going to extend their contract with a team that can't win then you know nothing about the internatonal game. we are only good for them if were winning. Same goes for Hodge.

In the pre-game warmups Jingles was getting 90% of his 3's.

In offence, the 'Goons always seemed to have either Jingles or Herbie hanging outside so if the drive in didn't get results, there was always a 3 point option.

The other thing I noticed when they were in defence the double tag from Wothington

i don't know why people are getting so angry that the 36ers lost last night. Obviosuly, you can look at everything and break down each play and say they could've done this or that, but the fact was the 36ers got beaten by a better team.

I can understand people getting fired up about the Spirit game the other night, because the 36ers should've won that IMO.

Ok so now everyone has rambled on, to no avail, lets just make sure there is ahuge crowd there for the Hawks clash. There is nothing between 5th and 2nd to last!!! We have a much better team than the Taipans, Crocs, Hawks, Spirit and borderline the Wildcats....so if everyone stops playing coach for 5 minutes and starts doing all we can, get behind the team AND coach we have, good things will come of this season!

I refuse to worry about this season and missing the playoffs, because the teams around us are all struggling too, and when we get going which we will, LOOKOUT!

One more thing....

Someone questioned whether BG's butt would feel the comfort of the plastic courtide chairs?

I don't believe his glutius maximus touched plastic all night

SKUX101, you have completely missed the point of the last 5 or 6 comments I have made on this subject. Don't say we were beaten by a better team and then say that is acceptable. The whole point I have been trying to make is that we are as good as any as far as the talent lineup we have. That talent is just not being put to good use. Our team does not fall into the 5-8 category, its fits into the 1-3 category with the right leadership.

Anon #213456, try using your argument against the likes of Goorjian and then tell me the players are responsible for winning or losing games. A switch of coaches last night would have seen the quality of the 36ers displayed at its best and I do not doubt they would have won that game by atleast 15.

OK, well I am going to suggest something different for a starting lineup:

1) Hodge
2) Hill
3) Holmes
4) Ballinger
5) Schenscher

I love Brett Maher, but his body is finished. The guy will be able to hit a jumpshot with the slightest bit of room until he's 96 years of age, but he just can't MOVE anymore, so move him into Copeland's role off the bench. Davidson is in the same boat, he is showing how difficult it is to get going once you are 34+ and haven't had a preseason. Aaron Bruce is young, has had some great games, but also some shockers. His defence is non-existant. I propose starting and playing the guys who are actually contributing. Winitana had his best game of the season last night.

I agree with EC that Schenscher needs to be more aggressive around the basket. He has to be as aggressive as he is GETTING the ball once he's actually got it. But he's had one bad game all year.

On last night's game, I am impressed everytime I see a Goorjian team play how he is able to get great contributions out of average players. Carter's first quarter was fantastic, and Nathan Herbert was even better than in the corresponding game last year. Hodge could maybe have chased Ingles with a bit more vigor, but Ingles is 6'7", and was hitting NBA distance threes in the first half. His bullet bounce pass for the Darden slam in the third quarter was magnificent.

I actually didn't think our performance was that bad. South is the standard, and we aren't there yet, but we weren't disgraced. The scores were tied when Hodge left with cramp, and we were useless from then on.

I haven't made my mind up about Ninnis yet. His decision to move Holmes to the bench is flat out wrong, and our defence needs alot of work (I remember Ninnis being a pretty shithouse defender as a player, so go figure).

As far as Dana's sentiments, well, I can't honestly say that the outcome is dissimilar to the last two years. At the moment the main difference is that we are younger. But PS's result with this roster would have been much worse. He'd be starting Cooper and Winitana would be playing 30 minutes.

Maybe, Breheny to work with Scott and this group.

The young guys like Bruce and Hill are great for their youth, enthusiasm, speed etc, but we really need some leadership on court. We've lost a few close games recently due to what looks like 'hot potato' type offence in the last couple of minutes where there seems to be no designated or established offence and whoever happens to have the ball at the time throws up a random shot from anywhere in the court with 1-2 seconds left on the shot clock. Cooper, Bruce and Hill were all examples of taking such shots that they didn't and weren't in a position to make. Also, totally agree that Cooper is an offensive black hole which only serves to get other players double teamed

Mutley, I agree Schenscher has had 1 bad game all year although in the beginning it took him a while to settle in. What I don't accept is the reason why he had this bad game last night. It just looked like his effort levels were not there rather than showing he genuinely had difficulty for some valid reason or another. A game like last night would have resulted in a win if for no other reason, only Schenscher played his usual good game. This is where Goorjian would not have tolerated a player not giving it his best shot. Why is Schenscher allowed to get away with it from Ninnis? He had ample opportunity to take a few steps closer to the basket and finish off the play rather than looking to pass. 4 of these opportunities taken would already have reversed the outcome. He scored 16 the night before which in itself is quite average for him. Last night he scored 4. I don't care much for what roles players are to play and whether they are expected to score or not. The whole point is the end result is determined by points. For this reason, any player with an opportunity to score even 1 more point, has to take that opportunity.

EC, agreed, but sometimes that is about the flow of the game and where the offense is being played. Much of last night was high screen and roll by both teams. Bursten had 3 points, Horvath nil. It wasn't going to be a big scoring night from the centres. A couple of times big Luke was wet lettuce man around the basket, but he realistically didn't get many scoring opportunities.

Oh Dana, one more thing: Ingles was the guy who burned us and who let him leave SA?

EC,

That's like saying if Jacob had come of the bench and hit 5 3's we would have won.

If Schench had of hit these 4 shots you speak of, what's to say the Dragons don't go down and hit a 3 right back. On every one of those misses did the Dragons score?

I guess it's Ninnis' fault, he didn't prepare them enough? That's ridiculous. It is obvious that Ninnis and his coaching staff have set plays in place, he can't help it if players don't run the sets properly or that they don't get into the right position for passing angles.

The coach can implement and be the best motivator in history, but if the players don't perform on the day he can only do so much. You complain that he continually changes the lineup, if Luke was 'lacking' the effort as you claim, do you think Ninnis should have benched him? IIRC he benched Big Red for an extended stretch anyway?

To compare Ninnis and Hill to Smyth and Breheny is an embarrassment to the person who even mentioned it. The former group has 10 years of playing at a national level experience and 5 or 6 years of assisting; amassing to 15-16 years of national level experience. The later group having between them 60 plus years of national and international experience.

Dana - I didnt play The Launch. You might be confusing it with Sandstorm that I played at the start of the player warmups, right after both teams were introduced.

Another bad loss and @ home. We should have won against the Spirit.

Hodge has done well for someone that needs to learn Ninnis system and changes. He does create his own shots, calls for plenty of picks etc. He'll get better especially once he learns many of his new team mates.

I still think Hodge needs to tighten his defence a bit more. He slacked off @ times and left his men open. Ingles certainly took advantage of it sometimes by hitting a 3.

It's a shame Hodge cramped up towards the end of the game.

I think people are being too harsh with Ninnis and deserves another chance and season.

If Phil returned for another season, I doubt we would have recruited our strong SA based team.

Schens had a shocking game last night. I believe he'll bounce back though. He needs to toughen up in the post more and use his physical gifts more. Use the height, be tougher and not get pushed around so much.

Brad Hill has started improving in the last month and doing some good things. He could do with some more minutes.

Maher is sadly passed it now and struggles to move. He needs to be more of an impact bench player. He can shoot all day no problem, but general movement is a struggle. We did manage his minutes good overnight though with short bursts.

Coops played too many minutes last night with little production. He just stands on the outside and allows a teammate to be double-teamed as already pointed out in an earlier post.

Winitana is definitely still bothered by his ankle injury. He's looked proppy for weeks and still limps a little towards his right side. Now with Hodge in the side he'll be out of favour in the rotations.

Balls has been terrfic and confident in the last month. He's shaken off his back issues. He's shooting the ball well, talking and playing some good basketball.

I also want to ask everyone.

Was it just me or did the team actually finally change the pre-game video of the past highlights overnight? It actually looked different and I was getting sick of the previous one. I'm not talking about the channel 9 presentation either.

Let's hope to see a better run Vs the Hawks. Stick with this team and keep attending the games.

Of concern last night were a couple of runs that the 'Goons were able to get over us.

@ 3:43 Q1 the score was 21:14, at quarter time 25:30 ( a 4:16 run)
In 3:43 of play, we got 1/5 FG, 2/2 FT and 0/2 3P, they got 3/3 FG, 1/2 FT and 3/4 3P

Another bad run 54:64 to 61:82

For those that are interested Boti's wrap up of the game can be read here

Cavalo, a couple of points.

Bruce is often slow getting the ball up the court, the Cairns game is the one that stands out for me. Yeah he pushes it at times, but not often enough.

Completely agree with you re: Hodge's D. Love the guy, and he won't get exploited like that against other teams, but it seems he isn't willing to do the dirty work chasing his man through screens etc. Great game from him nonetheless.

Finally, that game was lost on D. For the last 15 years I've seen Brian Goorjan coached teams run the same on-ball screen, with great point guards and average point guards, but always with great success. We just cannot handle it. Then, we go down the other end and set the softests screens you'll ever see!

Need to sort that out or we won't be able to compete with the top teams. Again, BG's teams get away with murder off the ball, some of the most blatant moving screens I've ever seen, makes it hard to play D.

Still, great effort to come back from 21 down against one of the best teams in the comp. We will get better.

Interesting to read the diversity of opinion & blame-mongering for our season so far.
Facts:
1 .. 4 players carried over from last season.
2 .. Inexperienced coaching staff.
3 .. Bigger player budget.
4 .. 2 mostly healthy imports all season.
5 .. More injuries elsewhere throughout the team.
6 .. Very lucky timing to have Luke on the team.
7 .. Very lucky to have Jules so early in the season.
8 .. Young players now given big minutes/responsibility (by contrast, think back to Shippie's days).
9 .. This season has a stronger deeper league.
10 . Refs are worse than ever.

With such a mix of circumstances, how does anyone expect consistency so soon?

My vibe from last night was encouraging. I didn't expect a win going into the game, & feared the worst when we were down 10, called a time out & proceeded to give away 9 more unanswered points. To the guys credit, they steadied & chipped away against the odds. To snatch the lead in the 4th blew me away. Then Jules was assisted from the court with the Dragons coming back at us. I didn't find the loss hard to swallow, & thoroughly enjoyed the game.
FFS, I even enjoyed the Goorj Dragons. 60% from the arc at 1/2 time & it wasn't as if it was 3 of 5, they put up shitloads & were hitting 'em. Poor defence? Not likely, they were hao & ran with it. I liked their motion on offence, their ball movement & simplicity of execution. Super efficient, & a lot going their way.
What worries me, is that we don't have that fluid offence, or the confidence to take it at the opposition like we did. Are we coaching players out of their natural game? Davo passed up open shots which previously would've released without hesitation. I don't accept the injury excuse, he gives it everything, so if he's not up to it, hold him back a game till right.
Schensch does need to be more aggressive near the basket & not look to pass. Hard to stop 7' dunker.
In our guard rotations, I'd have Brett or Brad alongside Aaron to take the heat off & free him up.
I agree with who said that we should've worked on their bigs who were in foul trouble.
Horvath & Burston didn't muscle our bigs, they flat out mugged 'em (ran in with elbows out & pushed off. No call, so why not?
Scottie's been in the media bagging the players, I don't see how that's taking it on the chin.
Recruiting for next season. You guys expect Luke, Jules & a muscle import (when Adam naturalises) for day 1? Dream on guys.

SKIP!!! Yes!!! Sandstorm was GREAT!!!!!
Please include that..it got us all going...

Forgot to mention the sound system. I thought for a stadium system, it sounded superb, so kudos to Eddie & skip. Much appreciated.

Sheesh Skip...OK I'm a few years behind and given I don't go to discos these days..thanks for Darude.
I just emailed my Finnish friend and let him know what I havew just discovered. (Thanks to you)

we need to be better defensively. we gave up 110 and 106 points this weekend, not going to win many giving up those scores. when ninnis was hired didnt he state we need to be defensive minded? start playing defence and we'll start winning games, simple.

also wanna state im glad brad hill had a great game last night. i said yesterday i believe in an 8 man rotation, now definately think hill should be 7th guy. he needs to work on his j, but his drives last night and his d on ingles were impressive. hope jacob gets healthy, he didnt get much court time this weekend and if we wanna cut coopers mins we need him fit healthy and performing. having him healthy may have been the difference. with holmes healthy he could have had coops mins giving him 30, he had 7 boards in 15 to coops 5, and there 15 mins with an offensive liability on the court. with holmes we wouldnt have that.

bizzy,

next EC will be saying mal should have recruited Dusty as the coach, assistant coach , captain, forward, point guard, Shooting guard and Centre, that would be the perfect team which would win every week and be totally beyond critisim

Thomo, just go and face a mirror and repeat what you have just said in your post. You will quickly see how stupid you look and sound. Just piss off and take my comments as my own opinion and don't offer to add some of yours onto me. I can speak for myself without you having to add words to my mouth. If I wanted Rychart as coach, assistant, captain, forward, point guard, shooting guard, centre, water boy, physio, courtside announcer, spectator, umpire, music man and whatever other title people hold at 36ers games, I would have said that.

hook line and sinker

EC do u say stupid shit just to create an argument and have something to do? seriously? wtf? ur a clown!

manbearpig, you've contributed a total of 8 comments on this forum and now you are the expert on saying intelligent things. Below is one example of what you have posted. I think I will let others be the judge on what constitutes stupid shit.

"i love annoying assholes who arent funny so they pay ppl out instead. bolks will u marry me?"

"EC do u say stupid shit just to create an argument and have something to do?"

Well I've posted a few more than 8 times and I can tell you that question has gone through my head on a few occasions too.

wow you could work for a current affair with editing like that ec! just because youve posted almost 2000 idiodic comments doesnt mean youre not the biggest dumbass ever to touch a keyboard. thats like saying ddfan is a genious.

Thomo, don't be a troll.

Haven't read the whole thread so not sure if it's already been posted, but the crowd was 5,300 in the end. Made a good amount of noise for 5k!

Great to have the 36ers crowd numbers leading the competition.

Looked, and sounded like a lot more than 5,300!

Skip, good job with the music, Murray, good interaction with the kids..

Jeans looked good Bonz.. ; )

Boti on the game:

This was THE best game in the city of churches this season because it had everything.

Well, not quite everything because the 36ers lost, which never goes down all that well and certainly not when it happens to a Goorjian-coached outfit.

But as for action, drama, emotion and that long-missing roar of an Adelaide crowd in full voice?

It was all here.

manbearpig:

"wow you could work for a current affair with editing like that ec! just because youve posted almost 2000 idiodic comments doesnt mean youre not the biggest dumbass ever to touch a keyboard. thats like saying ddfan is a genious"

I WAS rated a genious once, but a head injury put an end to that. I love a laugh, & that's good enough for me.
Anything else I can help you with, dumbass?

noted isaac,

Coach Scott said on the coast FM radio interview last night that big Luke was carrying a calf issue into this game.

something along the lines of ...Luke did not train today because of a corked calf he carried into last Sat night game..

manbearpig,

"just because youve posted almost 2000 idiodic comments doesnt mean youre not the biggest dumbass ever to touch a keyboard."

I don't know what idiodic means but I assume you've read everyone of my posts to be able to describe them all as idiodic. Its taken me 4 1/2 years to post that many comments, you've only started this month. How come its taken you 4 1/2 years to decide that all my posts are idiodic?