Jonno
Years ago
Talking Hoops Recap!!
Talking Hoops Recap 21/11/06
Hosted by Paul Bell and Brett Maher
They spoke about the Gold Coast team being announced coming into the league next year, Maher said it was great news, Dave Claxton is heading a syndicate and they are playing out of the new convention centre being built, Maher said it was great to play in the Gold Coast, said it was good to spread the talent around and living on the Gold Coast could help pull players there. Spoke about having 4 good teams in Queensland, Maher said he thinks they would keep it as doubles of the North Queensland teams and Brisbane and Gold Coast.
Spoke about Cal Bruton coming back as Razorbacks Coach, said he is good for the league with his character, being well dressed and said he will be entertaining if nothing else. Spoke about Harvey sitting in the coaches seat vs Adelaide and they said its poor to do that to a coach.
Spoke about Sutton, said he has done well in his opportunity and congratulated the club in signing him. Spoke about possibly getting Timmons, said he is apparently a bit out of shape, and not sure if he would have been the right fit, said he still gets by with his size and has a good basketball brain, said he may still come in to replace Ng but didn't think it would eventuate.
Spoke about Farley going in the dunk comp, Maher joked he has now taught Farley to dunk!!
Spoke about the All star starters being announced, said the game being in Adelaide no surprise Ingles received the most amount of votes, along with Newley, Mc Donald, Anstey and Mackinnon. World Team Starters are Farley, Abney, Tucker, Groves and Redhage, Maher said its not a bad team either said it will be interesting to see which team sacrifices and gets the right shots for the team, said it will be interesting to see who carries the ball for the world team as they don't have a specific point guard in that line up.
Spoke about the West Sydney game, Maher said it was a relief to get over the line, early they seemed to be stuck in 2nd gear, and then a light clicked and they played much better, and hoped it carried on in future games. Said West Sydney had lost a few close ones and the 36ers must have been confident once they got it back to a close game, said Cal Bruton must be happy considering they have been close in a lot of games but just don't quite know how to close it out at the moment.
They spoke about EJ Rowland being cut by the kings and going up to Townsville and had a good first game, and said he will be a good fit for them being a good defender and distributor.
Dave Claxton Interview: Said it had been a big day and had taken 4 years to get going, said there stadium is magnificent and the Gold Coast has doubled in size the last few years. Said the sport spot light is on the Gold Coast mentioning the NRL and the AFL going up there. Said the name of the team hasn't been decided as yet. Since coaching the 36ers in 1997, he went to Wollongong for a year, went to Brisbane in 2000, started the Gold Coast ABA team and has been working at the South Port School, who bring the boomers in for a camp each year. Asked about his role CEO? Coach? He said there is a board meeting soon where they will discuss those things, will do what ever is best for the club, said Heal lives up in the Gold Coast, they said he is doing a good job for the Dragons, Maher said then you get a player and a coach, Claxton said he doesn't think the league is able to have player coaches any more, and asked Maher if he would do it, Maher said he would probably never coach a NBL team, they said there is quite a few basketball players living on the gold coast also mentioning Bradtke.
Asked about the owners back ground, Owen Tomilson is a basketball nut and local horse breader and friend of Claxtons and Tom Tate who is a local business man who owns some hotels on the Gold Coast. Asked about coaches, said they will go through a process of opening the channels and he will field some enquiries and see what is available, said same with players, you can only get the players who are out of contract.
Asked if it was hard to get support of the council and NBL, he said it was time consuming, said the local support was outstanding, and corporate interest has been terrific, and Ron Clarke the mayor loves sport and does everything he can, and the Gold Coast Convention Centre is fantastic. Said he has seen over the past 2 or 3 years the owners and NBL have got basketball back on the way up, and thinks the timing is great and hopes the sport can go from strength to strength. Said lots of kids are playing and they all have terrific skills coming through.
Bell and Maher spoke about Gold Coast and said it would be interesting to see what name the go with.
Cal Bruton Interview: Said it was a great opportunity and is excited about it and looking forward to the challenges ahead, said he is looking forward to the next round after being smacked by 35 points. Said he is trying to tweak the offense to get the most out of the players, having good size in SF and guard, and turned the heat up on Defense, they have a big challenge against the Dragons. Said it's a confidence factor, and it can be drained easily, compared the Razorbacks loss after the Adelaide game was like the Boomers losing to Greece and being smacked by Lithuania, and without Rush and Read he thinks he has some good players and hopes to take them forward. Asked about playing coach, said he is done with playing and is admiring what Heal is trying to do, and said its no mean feet and if anyone can do it Heal can. Asked about him and Black coaching against there sons, said he had done it in 2000, with the Cannons and they had to beat Wollongong to make the play offs and CJ wouldn't let that happen, CJ had already given him a call saying he will kick his but. Asked about his playing highlights, said his first year in 1979, as he knew nothing about Australia and led the league in scoring, 1982, coming back into the NBL after playing in the VBL going to the grand final playing against Leroy, 1985 winning the title with Leroy, 1987 moving onto Perth captian coach to a losing grand final and capping it of 3 years later with a Championship in 1990, said he has had a fantastic career as a player, said he always gets the coaching jobs when the team is struggling, and some even financially like Hobart and Canberra, said he likes those challenges, showed his championship ring to his players, and said this is what you play for, and believes you always have to play for the title. Asked if he has spoken to Mark Watkins, he said, he has spoken to Mark, he took him through the video equipment, said he was great, and offered to assist him if he needs more help, said he is philosophical about it having a 18-56 record, club sticking by him, Cal said with a 18-36 record he probably would be out the door so he had a extra 20 games to prove himself. He thinks West Sydney has been loyal to all there coaches, he said the players were pretty happy just not quite performing at there best, having lost 4 close games. He said he likes to dress well and feel good, said Goorj had said in West Sydney have all the ugly girl friends and he wants to change that, he said he hopes to raise the bar, said he doesn't want to be called the pigs anymore as they are sloppy and the Razorbacks are a different animal, you wouldn't want to be in a paddock with a Razorback. Said they are trying to get a whole lot of people in to the games, he grabbed the microphone after the game, said he guaranteed that they will see a better effort, and he thinks this is a great opportunity to get the razorbacks on track with 2 games against the Dragons, Asked about all star selectors missing Powell, said it was tough in the SF spot, having Thomas, Tucker, etc, said they picked some bigs to match up with some of the Aussie bigs, and with Gardner being cut he gets the chance to play.
Maher and Bell spoke about West Sydney said Cal will spice them up, has some talent there, and will help boost the promotions of the club.
Read out last rounds results, see NBL website
Maher and Bell spoke about Horvath, said Horvath is engaged to a New Zealander, and said when you marry a New Zealander you get dual citizenship, which means he could play in the NBL as a local, and they could get another import along with Horvath and Farley, said that would be very interesting and would raise Horvaths stock enormously, and provides the 36ers with some great recruiting options for next year.
Dana called in: They asked her what they thought of the Horvath brainstorm, she said shes not sure how it works, as her brother married a US citizen and didn't get dual citizen ship straight away, Bell said he thinks it's 12 months, and mentioned Truslove has married a New Zealander, and he now has dual citizenship. Dana said on Hoops people speculate on who should recruit for next season, and she said a lot of the players are tied up on contracts anyway which makes it very difficult, Bell said it is really people who are off contract or have a mutual option and can become available. Dana said a lot of people also say get Ingles and Newley back, but she thinks it could leave us in the same situation as we were with Cat and Rogers leaving for Europe a few years back, depending on European out clauses, and it's a bit short sighted as chances are they will head over seas anyway. Maher spoke about European out clauses and said the clubs have a cut off date which makes it very difficult to get a European job, due to this date. Bell said with Ingles and Newley, Ingles has 2 + 1 in Dragons and Newley is out of contract this season, so he may be a option. Dana asked if this makes it harder to get guys like Newley top commit to a contract in Australia, Maher said it could make it difficult, he said NBA clauses are in any contract so they can go and play NBA at any time, and with Newley being young teams may take a chance on him over there and if he has a pass port he would easily get a spot, so it probably wouldn't change his mind on things here. Bell said that with Europe a lot of players could go to Europe at the drop of a hat, where as its not as easy in the NBA, being the top league and not having as many spots. Dana spoke about the rumour of Mahers salary taking half of the 36ers salary cap, which Maher said isn't true. Dana spoke about some of the Lithuanians players playing in Greece, Maher said they do spread out, Bell said he would be wondering if we will ever get European imports in the NBL again, and Dana said Rumas K& who is now in line for the Lithuanian Coaching job.
Matt Sutton Interview: he said its good to be signed, but is sort of difficult to take it with Brads injury but he is happy to have the opportunity. Maher said Sutton is doing a great job of taking the opportunity, said Matt wasn't expecting to see any court time. Sutton said it was good to get time in his first game which were not just token minutes at the end. He said he is getting used to playing in the NBL but still definatly gets used to it. Asked if his role has been mapped out for him, he said his main role is to lift the tempo and intensity on defense. Asked what he needs to work on, he said his scoring ability is something he needs to work on, but its not his role at the moment, and defensively he has a long way to go. Bell said him not being a scorer is a strength for him in his role as he has come in and distributed well to the scorers on the team. They said him being 6'4 helps him as well. Asked about his back ground, he started playing district when he is 7 with the Adelaide Giants, who merged with the Suns and he played one year with them and then joined Forestville after that, and he won the Brett Maher medal with the Academy last season. Asked about his future goals, said he wants to lock down a back up point guard role and hopefully progress to a starter, and hopes to get a spot from the start of the season. Asked about training against Maher, said they are pretty loose, a lot of fun and challenging. Said Copeland is good at geeing up the young kids and he is a lot of fun.
Maher and Bell spoke about Sutton, said hopefully he will continue on and deserves the contract and Maher said he is playing well and stole it from Maher and Farley at training, Maher said he is the right player for the team and also allows him to play the 2 spot which he enjoys.
Bell asked about his book, he said it probably wont be out before Christmas and they are waiting for some more information to be returned and it will hopefully be out early next season.
Maher spoke about Phillips allowing his wife and him to have a 3D scan of there baby, and said the images were fantastic.
Liam Flynn, Sturt Coach interview: Said he had his first training session with the guys and is really honoured to get the role and to be with some of the great names who have coached the team in the past. Asked about the talent that will be available, he said they wont have Oscar Forman, they wont be having a import, said the focus is to get more out of the guys they had last season, and not rely so much on Darren Ng, he thinks they will have Darren Ng and Jordan Dodman back again. Asked about his coaching back ground, he said he has mainly been a junior coach, at ABL level he was a assistant coach at Southern Districts in Queensland, and assisted Ninnis at Sturt for a couple of years, he said it's a lot different coaching juniors to seniors, he said you have to be a more empowering coach in seniors, and coaching under 18's he has tried to be a more empowering with them. Said with there personnel they will have to play some up the floor basketball, and it will be a more fun thing for them. Asked what teams will provide the stiffest competition Forestville will be up there. Asked about other new coaches, mentioned Justin Schuller from North. Asked about the NBA, he said tis a topsy turvy league at the moment, 2 surprises, 1 being Yao Ming, who is a monster this year, and he is good from the foul line and getting to the basket, thinks he will be close to MVP, said the other surprise is the Jazz being 10-1, asked about Bogut, said he is more settled playing in the 5-spot and Redd is 2nd in the league in the scoring and Bogut has had a few good games to start the season.
Maher and Bell spoke about Sturt, said ti would be interesting to see how they go with a drop in talent, and mentioned Marcus Ng being exceptionally athletic.
Maher and Bell spoke about Willie Farleys dunking and mentioned some of his dunks in games, the one over Heal.
Maher and Bell did there tips: Brisbane v Cairns, Tipped Brisbane, Tigers v Hawks, tipped Tigers, Dragons v Razorbacks, tipped the Dragons, Breakers v 36ers Maher said if they continue on from there last game they should be able to win, Bell tipped the 36ers in a upset, kings v wildcats, Belltipped Perth, Maher tipped Sydney.
Bell and Maher tipped the Aussies to win the All star game, Mahers MVP tip is Anstey, Bell tipped Ingles. Dunk comp tip, Maher said Farley with the home crowd.
Another Great show look forward to next week!!!
