Was disappointed..... in Skip

Ron Howard gets on court - no "Happy Days" tune!

C'mon Skip, it's like Moscow, just has to be played.

Overall, thought he played well. Imports need to be a constant offensive threat. 17 points. Statistically speaking, he was scoring at 0.85 points per minute, with the team at 0.43 ppm. Only the Hillbilly was better at 0.86 ppm. Balls and DJ were at 0.23 ppm, but they were playing more of a defensive role on Big Red. Why didn't he play like that with us?

3 TO's were the only blemish, but you could put that down to being new.

Sorry Jack, Not gonna happen.

"Happy Days" was a series that the actor and now Director Ron Howard appeared in for 6 years. He previously starred in The Andy Griffith Show for 8 years. He left Happy Days in 1980 to focus on directing, and has since gone on to direct several films, including the Oscar winning Cocoon, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Perhaps one of these themes would be more suitable for a person named Ron Howard.

If the new import was named "Richie Cunningham", then the Happy Days theme would be appropriate.

I think he is a solid player but doesnt look to be a go to guy? IMO the Sixers need an import who can play and has a bit of swagger ala Ervin from the Hawks Farley in his prime, someone who wants to take the game on and create his own shot when the team needs a score. I would have liked to see the Sixers part ways with Devries first, bring in Shannon and moved Winder to the 2 spot (his natural position) to see how he performed there. He was explosive and I think thats what we need - Howard doesnt appear to have that explosive aggressive streak?

I think Howard is a good defender with a nice stroke and can handle the ball, not sure he can create his own shot though?

He is also a smart baller! Realised when the Crocs were in the bonus and took it at them straight away to draw the foul and go to the line.

Was only his first game so he could be trying to play within himself for the time being and may be a different player going forward....only time will tell?

My biggest fear is that he is another role player on a team of role players and we need someone with that killer instinct!

IMO he needs to get the ball a lot more. However it seems the offence or motion is all about the guards dribbling the air out of the ball. There seems to be no iso plays drawn up. All the iso's seem to be at the end of the 24.

Secondly I'm starting (only slightly though) to get worried about the way the sixers are being coached. Seems we are trying to play too many guys in the rotation. I'm all for giving guys opportunities but if they don't perform in there first stint go to the guys that have performed and run with them.

I thought Hill was great at the start but then only sees 10 minutes for the game.

Tornado, he didn't really have a chance to show that Killer instinct. I thought he stepped up in the fourth, knocked down a few shots but then got pulled and never came back. I think he should have been in there to close the game but I can understand why he wasn't.

he had a good game for the time he got. i was more disappointed in Marty for not playing him when the game got down to the wire. there were so many opportunities where i saw howard yelling for the ball to put one up but they kept passing it to Jacob "im bound to hit one if i keep throwing it up" holmes. that game could have been won with less passes to Jacob on the offense.

Clarke was bad in the OT period. HOW did he NOT call a Timeout on that last chance at the tie or lead in OT, they looked so panicked and lost. Howard should have been in during that period too, both team were over the limit and Ron had proven within seconds of hitting the court, he can make FT's....

I thought Howard's first night was excellent. He seemed to score effortlessly, and while the banging his head when he turned the ball over is a little annoying he at least seemed to know when he'd done something stupid. He didn't play more last night because Ng was playing so well. Howard will obviously play more minutes the longer he is here. He appears to have a $hitload of pace. Overall, he is a massive improvement on DeVries and the club should be congratulated for making this move.

Im interested to see what he can do in the half court game. He was great in the open court, solid from the line and hit 2 nice 3's, but I didnt see him drive to the hoop at all. If Howard is going to be a good import for us, he needs to show us he can attack the rim and make good decisions once there.

Interesting in the post-game talks upstairs - Howard took some responsibility for the loss, blaming it on his lack of knowledge of the offensive plays, etc. He said that when he was in the wrong place, it upset the team balance and cost possession. I guess that's why he got so few minutes in crunch time. He said he had a lot of homework to do over the next week but hoped he would make us all proud. He sounded a really good guy! My first impression is that he will have a huge impact.

No Deal, you dont need to wait until the dying minutes of a game or OT to show you have the killer instinct. It's the ability to take the game on, create your own shot, get your team involved when they are struggling on offence and defence. I'm not saying he cant score or that he doesnt have the "killer instinct". I was just commenting on what I saw in his first game which is what this thread is based on.

He may prove to have it in the next couple of games and may have been a bit reserved last night being his first game? Time will tell, like I said.

By no means am I saying he is a bad player and I too thought it was odd that he was on the bench during OT. He gets paid the big bucks and I would have liked to have seen him in that situation.

However, based on last nights game he doesnt come in and have that immediate impact like Ervin, Hodge, Farley etc have before him - they are all game changers.

Anon, Creek is one of our better on ball defenders and with his length was brought on to defend the point and make it hard for him to pass and get their offence in motion. Whilst it didnt really work I didnt think it was a bad option, especially considering the last time we played the Crocs he managed that task perfectly.

Having Creek on during the pressure time will only benefit him and us for the future. Having him have to shoot FT's in OT and missing them, whilst it may have cost us the game once again, will only benefit us and him going forward.

Whilst I am disappointed with the loss I still think there were some positives in there and if you try to look at it as to how it will benefit us in the next couple of years it doesnt look so grim.

Agree with a lot of tornados views but my little dissapointment with him was when we had possesion did not do a lot of work without the ball and sat a lot in a corner.
But might be in just feeling way as well.
Not too sure about shooting but certainly knows how to drive at the basket .
More confidence in him long term than Shannon

regardless though last nights experience was a good one for the boys and particularly Creek, at his age with that much pressure i wasnt surprised he missed those free throws, but you have to start somewhere. next time id expect to see a more composed team.

RG, good to hear what Howard said, makes sense to as i noticed he sort of stood in the one spot when he was open but it looked like the other 4 are running the play and he was staying out of it. i guess that explains Marty's on court chats to him during free throws etc. we need to come back firing against wollongong, if we lose that its definitely lights out.

Bretts the man: I agree, Creek needs to work on his offensive weaponry! In juniors he has obviously been able to dominate with his athleticism and defensive abilities but in the big leagues he is running into opponents that have a similar athletic level. Look on the bright side though, he is only 18 and has a few years to develop muscle and a good jumpshot and when he does - look out!

Also agree that he did nothing offensively in OT but I think that was instructions from the coaching staff. Play on ball defence and then drag your opponent to the corner so we can create some room for Ng to get some good shots off?

Fizzle, not sure that you can call on-court, live timeouts these days? I had wondered the same thing in those final seconds.

Great athlete, fantastic defender, smooth scorer, but i dont think he has quite landed yet mentally or fitness wise.

Sure he may have admitted to not knowing some of offenses, but he also missed or or two defensive sets as well.

He will be massively better for the run though, and i am hoping that more of the offence in the future is run through him.

I hope that his expected wage doesn't send him out of this league at the end of the season if he does turn out to be an awesome pickup.

Not fussed about his game. It's the colour of his uniform numbers that sent me batty. Is it too much to expect a team to wear the same colours as each other? Lucky I wasn't reffing - would've been told to sit down and wear the proper uniform. Amateur hour?

I thought he was fine,give the guy a chance,hes beein in australia 5 days learning the sixers defense offenc game,new to the NBL,give another couple of weeks and get to know the league,we should have 4 guards oncourt to help with the speed to outrun the tall players of townsville.Mistake to put creek on with experience on the bench.Ng comes on few mins to end of 1ST Q and end up sixers to scorer.

Moses Guthrie agree re the numbers, its small things like this that our league does really bad, Ellis also had not name on his jersey. Shannon not having the right shoes it rubbish as well, go to foot locker in a pinch and get him something to tie him over. Back to Howard, i thought he was fine for a first run, seems like a good bloke and will fit better once he is up to speed.

I was told that Howard's jersey did not arrive in time for last night's game, the club had the name & numbers were printed locally and that's why they were a slightly different colour. He will have his new uniform for the game on the NYE.

Didn't think it effected the way he played...

He appeared to be a very small 196cm, but it was good to see that he could shoot the jumper with consistency. will only get better giving us some hope.

It was good to see that as soon as Townsville entered the penalty he started to draw fouls, get to the line and convert. Very professional, we need a bit of that.

Name GP PTS PPG
Gary Ervin (WOL) 13 303 23.3
Kirk Penney (NZ) 7 136 19.4
Shawn Redhage (PER) 12 233 19.4
Corey Williams (MEL) 7 122 17.4
Ron Howard (ADE) 1 17 17.0

Sorry accidentally posted before finishing last post. Was going to say the stats come from the Official NBL site. Pretty good for some one in his first ever game in Australia with only 5 days of training with his team. He is up there amongst the best in the league.

Also note on that picture the font size differential between Ellis' Townsville and the other Croc uniforms. Add to that the 3 different uniforms that the Kings players are getting in around in looks really unprofessional.

Love the canary yellow, and Aussie gold reference there Moses..Super effort that!