Crocs scorers?

Williamson 5, Schenscher 4, Blanchfield 4, Blaylock 3

Thanks Eastern. Keep the updates coming.

Half Time at the Mount.
Sixers 48 Crocs 37

Winder 13 & 3
Ballinger 8 & 2
Hill 6 & 3
DeVries 6
Dowdel 5 & 1
Carter 4 & 2 & 5 assists
Ng 2
Holmes 2 & 5

Crocs
Schenscher 11 & 3
Willimason 10 & 5
Blaylock 7
Blanchfield 4 & 1
Crawford 2
M Cedar 2

thanks for the scores, nice to see crawford play so we can go up against a better side again. Out of interest does anyone know what the starting 5 was?

DeVries, Hill, Holmes,
Winder, Balinger

Blanchfield, Cedar, Blaylock,
Williamson, Allen

Sixers are 59% field & 54% 3pt
Crocs 37% & 30%

5:22 to go in the third Sixers up 55-46

Three quarter time.

Sixers 68 Crocs 59
Winder 21
Balinger 10

Williamson 19
Schenscher 11

At the break Sixers up 68-59. Winder with another massive block.

American import Gary Ervin had a brilliant debut for the Hawks, finishing with 24 points on 10/19 shooting, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 2 steals.

7 mins to go and crocs hit the front 69 68

Time out, 2.13 to go sixers down 76 72

Time out to sixers 33.9 to go. Sixers down 80 to 76. Sixers ball

Big thre by Winder. 5.9 secs to go down by 1
Blaylock on th line. Makes both

Game over, Sixers loose 82 to 79.

Stat leaders or box score available??

Sixers.
DeVries 9,2,1
Ng 5,3,1
Hill 6, 3, 2
Dowdell 7, 1, 1
Holmes 2, 8,1
Carter 9, 3, 7
Johnson 4, 0,1
Winder 25, 8, 2
Balinger 12,3,1

Crocs
Crawford 105, 1
Blanchfield 7,4, 0
Cedar 8, 1, 4
Croswell 9 0, 3
Blaylock 14, 2, 3
Williamson 21, 9, 0
Schenscher 11, 3, 2
Allen 2, 2, 2

Schescher didn't play second half

GREAT WORK Eastern!

cheers mate

Cheers heaps for that Eastern!!

Hopefully Johnson picks up some better numbers soon, we need him to play decent minutes in the season as our only real big.

Anyone know whats happening re a fill in for Herbert?

Nice one Eastern!!!!

GO CROCS!!!

bball fan - r u in China?

Yeah mate, currently in Beijing. Checked out the bird's nest today....CRAZY SHIT!!

Yeah thanks for the updates and scores. Winder had a nice line, as above DJ needs to show more, start him and slide balls back to the 4.

Oh my Craig Winder!

Would like to see DJ's minutes tonight.

Cheers Eastern.

Yeah easily put up 19points in just 22mins last nite
Strolled in 25points tonite.

( I liked Carter one day at training and his numbers look pretty good tonite.)

Not chasing Schenscer was SUCH a STUPID ASSED IDEA

Was interesting to see 80s pop stars Hall and Oates at the game tonight.
They were asking whether Benn Macdonald was about - they read Boti's write-up of last night's game and want Benn to join them for a tour!

http://linky.com.au/nacpj

There is a fine line between paying the $$$ a player wants and not signing him being a stupid assed idea.

With Ballinger already being committed plus 2 imports, there may not have been enough $$ to go around to retain the rest of the local players.

36ers got caught up a year or two ago with the "out clause" and Schenscer ended up at Perth so perhaps they decided to take the safer course of player signing.

Schenscher looks a lot stronger now.
Surprised when they started Ballinger at 5.
(Even though his girlfriend is short - I'd have Harris)

Biggest issue in tonight's game was the big zone used by the Crocs.

36ers were blitzing until the Crocs zoned, and the 36ers just couldn't score against it.

Winder just continues to impress. When he gets half a step to get to the rack, he is unstoppable. Good defender also.

He was the only shooter i recall to hit a 3 against the zone. No interior looks, no ball fakes, our zone attack was just awful.

No Camel... I think Sam Harris would have you! :D

I'll have a go re: Johnson. He is the same age or younger than Wagstaff, Goulding, Weigh, Coenraad, Abercrombie and Gibson and he scored more points at a better percentage than all of them, in less minutes than all of them except Wagstaff (17:54 to 17:48).

He is a player of the future and he is 212cm - good signing.

The reality is that Schenscher is six years older, and Harris four years older than Johnson. Schenscher and Johnson performed at the same level last season.

Now that Schenscher is fit he will most likely be a better player than Johnson this season, but he is also significantly more expensive.

Would you be prepared to go with one import? Or a SEABL import to have Luke over DJ?

And are you not happy to have a young player who in effectively his rookie season performed at a similar level to the best young players in the competition?

I'm not about to argue it was a bad signing, it wasn't. But in the NBL right now it isn't about growing 'players for the future'. With the amount players move around it is very unlikely DJ will be here by the time he hits his prime. As for the comparison with those other young guns, scoring has never been DJ's problem. Defence and rebounding is. Having said all that I'm certainly willing to give him more of a chance than a few pre-season games and hope he can improve drastically in those areas when the real stuff starts.

btw paul, what site do you use for stats?

Instead, I said that now he was uninjured he would have a good year. I would prefer an import for this Adelaide team though.

I think you'll find Schensh may be at the mercy of his agent.

One major reason Johnson's numbers are down is in is not getting on the court, it is splitting time with Ballinger at the 5, When he was out there last night he was impressive, I agree he needs to work on is rebounding and defence but he is only 21.

Schenscher is soft, next.........

"I agree he needs to work on is rebounding and defence but he is only 21."

Since when does AGE come into it, we pay a guy to perform, you either perform or gtfo. Im sick of ppl on this site using people ages as an excuse, the simple fact is your getting PAID at that age, you need to PERFORM at that age. How many years has Hill used to excuse, ohh hes just young, ONE day he will perform for more than 2 games a year???
And just how old was Le Bron and most NBA drafts now days?? AGE isnt an excuse.

This might not apply to Johnson, its to early to tell, but stop saying AGE is an excuse to play badly, we want championships not the training of mediocre young players who will then ask to much and go elsewhere if they ever improve.

Hey did anyone happen to notice a unfilled void without Herbie? i wasnt there so im asking the question legitimately. im slightly worried and wondering if we are alot more exposed without him or did the boys do a good job of covering for him?

If a single external fact triggered Johnson's signing - NBL AGE rule - he's U24 for 2 years.

Schensch looked pretty strong here Thursday.
Harris would have been handy. 'Seeya next game,Sam.'

What do people think of the names boty mentioned as Herberts replacements in Bruce or Markovich?

I think we could do with more size like a Mottram, but Bruce and Marko from a talent point of view are probably the 2 best available.

Could they go with say

PG Winder (10mins)/Bruce (20)/Carter(10)
SG Devries (10)/Winder (20)/Ng (10)
SF Holmes (10)/Hill (10)/DevRies (20)
PF Ballinger (20)/Holmes (15)/Dowdell (5)
C Johnson (20)/Ballinger (10)/Dowdell (10)

Johnson will be fine after a couple of weeks. Give him a chance. I don't recall Schenscher having a great couple of warm up games either (especially against the Dragons at Knox) a few years back

I don't like the sound of our star PG playing only 10mins at PG. I don't think a new PG or a new big man would help us much at all. We should go for the best available swingman, not that II can give you a name.

Feel free to put your name to that so we can discuss that statement with you later on.

I dont think we need another guard.
i think winder and carter can cover point, devries and ng the 2 spot, hill ng at 3 seems a bit weak, ballinger holmes power forward, dj and dowdell centre. Id like either mottram or a 3 man, not that a 6 point 3 man wold be easy to find. we could do worse than mottram imo. bt he doesnt seem to be in the mix from media reports. we will be overloaded with guards if we sign bruce or markovic, plus bruce hasnt seemed intereseted in a return and took great delight at the sixers sucking last season.

Too many guards.
When Johnson and Ballinger get into foul trouble trying to mark opposition bigs, who will Marty turn to?
Small lineup?
Sixers need frontcourt help desperately.

Yeah another guard would not only be redundant, it would probably be bad for team chemistry. Where are you going to find the mins for a Markovic or Bruce? Someone would be sitting on the bench grumbling.

I think either a big or a true SF is the go. If 6 points is all they have to work with, its probably going to be difficult to get an impact player though.
Ratzsch never got picked up by anyone did he? Probably a reason for that, but I liked what I saw in HSH!

Failing that, you'd think Sam Harris would be in the box seat to step into the team. His height would be useful in certain situations.

Shano, after watching both preseason games thye are playing ballinger and Johnson at the 5 with Holmes and dowdell at the 4, don't know if this will change. Johnson came in for ballinger (and ballinger was guarding Luke) and Dowdell came in for Holmes

Well I have one anon.

"he has no offensive game whatsoever".

Offence is the one thing he does do and do very well. He's probably the worst defender and worst rebounder of all the starting centres in the league but he can score in bunches. You discredit the rest of your argument by not recognizing his offensive ability when that's pretty clearly his only strong point.

I think Mottram is still recovering from an injury, not sure. Ratzsh is an import, right? Can't see them needing another guard. And though it sounds like he trains well, if Harris was going to be more useful than Johnson, I imagine he would've been played more elsewhere.

Two nothing preseason games aren't enough to make a ridiculous statement like "he has no offensive game whatsoever" when he has proven otherwise in the past.

His 7ft 4in frame would be handy inside and on D playing at 5 for 5 or 10mins a game with Ballinger at 4. I got the impression of the rest being reliable options

I didnt get to either game as live in whyalla, friday is my turn. i dont think balls is a 5 man, it will just get him into foul trouble imo but i defer to clarke's judgement of course. i think we will struggle with balls at 5, i thought we got dj to be a starter? whatever happens it sounds like we will be a lot more competetive this season. go sixers.

Johsnon hating anon - I ask you to put a name to your post because the discussion can have no meaningful reolution until we see Johnson play a number of regular season games for the Sixers.

At that stage, I am happy to say you were spot on or the opposite, whichever is supported. But if you dont have a name it is tough to re-open the chat!!

Like most , I'd prefer Ballinger at PF.
Maybe there are only 2 people who are going to start him at Centre - Clarke and Ninnis.
It was an anticlimax not seeing Harris have a run Thursday - for I don't think he got too many NBL minutes. While even here at trainings, that I saw ( 4 or 5) - Clarke gave the signed ten the most to do.
Winder and Carter look good PGs to me.
I think Harris is about a foot taller than Johnson - seeing them training.
Anyways - he'll be handy at Crows - should sixers not sign him.

Good point about Ratzch, I forgot he was an import! I wasn't suggesting Sam Harris is a good centre btw (or in any way as good as Johnson). I was just suggesting he'd be an obvious guy to take the 10th spot with Herbie down, because he is already training with the team and we are a bit thin in the front court.

I too would generally prefer to see Balls at the 4, but one thing that should work in our favour if Balls plays the 5 is his shooting range and mobility compared to the Schenschers of the world.

In theory, he should be able to draw big centres away from the basket by making shots and then either drive around them or hit a cutting player around a relatively undefended rim. Having said that, in the past the Sixers have proven pretty clueless in playing to their strengths, so lets hope if we are going to run Balls at the 5, Marty can teach them how to exploit that advantage offensively!

I'd bring Cooper back into the team on a 1 year deal. We know he can defend and aside from that, he is familiar with how half of the team plays. As a back up role in the front court I think he would be useful (only needs to defend, set picks etc....not expected to score). I'm pretty sure he would fit within the 6 points and wouldnt be very expensive.

Bringing back Coops would be worth it for the priceless reactions on Hoops alone. He's started a job with Peregrine though so might not be available?

I imagine Cooper was signed as a back up to Burston - but didn't get on the court much - due to Ballinger being played at Centre. ( Oh for Adrien Sturt then and now.- Aw well Ballinger is our Centre agen , at the moment.)