Anyone interested in Australian basketball would have heard about the fiasco that has been the Julius Hodge saga in recent time for the Adelaide 36ers but will which truth are we to believe?

Many people (me included) were ecstatic to hear that Julius was returning to Adelaide as a replacement for Mark Tyndale, as we knew Julius as an excitement machine – we saw that last year when he came in to replace Mike Chappell. There was even a facebook group created called “Julius Hodge single-handedly saved The 6ers” everyone thought he was going to be the teams saviour and take us back to the play offs and maybe even deep into the play offs.

Well there story appears to be now a little tainted. Julius posted a video on youtube about drinking the poison (link) this was the first time I started to get a feeling about Hodge and what he was on about. He sprouted about wanting to win Adelaide a championship at the same time as wanting to get back to the Show (NBA) – so which one was it, NBA or NBL Championship – money I think it was. If he plays a certain number more NBA games he will get the NBA pension (not too sure what this is about) and that is his goal.

So he was paid four days late – that is a problem – the 36ers have said he was to do with the bank, four days is excusable but what was going on around that isn’t. Before the problems existed he was turning up late and not even turning up to training according to coach Scott Ninnis (link) and Brett Maher doesn’t seem to impressed with his work ethic either.

Who do you believe, I take a person on their word – and there are two sides to every story, but I would take the word of Brett Maher over Julius any day of the week and I think there was only one thing that could be done and that was to release Julius no questions missing a game without contact is inexcusable.

I think as a player it is a great lose to the team, but at the same time team chemistry is important. We saw a team on the court Wednesday night that wanted to win – they still lack defensive intensity – and that is a key aspect they will need to continue with. A new import will be an interesting twist to the side and it is looking like Rob Grizzard may be an option – but whoever it is needs to be ready to go by next Saturday night to qualify for the finals.

More stuff to read and watch on the whole saga – still looking for some of the articles about the pay dispute
Hodge and Sixers to part ways
Ex-Tiger en route to Sixers
Sixers shade Wollongong
36ers Press Conference
Import quits Adelaide 36ers
Hodge Finally Found Pt1
Hodge Finally Found Pt2

I think we are up for an interesting year, with 3 teams out of the competition we should expect that teams will be stronger and I think for the first time in a while the 36ers go 10 deep and the second 5 don’t lose much over the starting 5.

My Starting Five
Aaron Bruce
Brett Maher
Mark Tyndale
Adam Ballinger
Luke Schenscher

I think this team will be quick up and down the court (apart from Luke), but they will also be able to hold other teams defensively. In the 2 games I have seen, Aaron Bruce and Mark Tyndale have only played 1 game but they were impressive with limited minutes.

Bruce is a genuine ball carrier and controls the point as well as anyone we have had in that position before and yet he is still young (Boomers with Bruce and Pat Mills in the future will be a formidable pair).

Tyndale is quick and loose, a little too loose in the game that I saw at times but will only get better in the system. Defensively he seems to be able to guard anyone from 1-3 and possible even a short 4, but that is yet to be seen. He gets his hands in on the ball which may see him score a few fouls but will also seem him create some nice steals. He passes well and along with Bruce and Brad Davidson the rest of the team will need to be on their toes for some precision passing this year.

Schenscher was slow and seemed out of place in the first game I saw, but came out a lot stronger in the second, I think he blocked Dusty Rychart 2 or three times in one play against the Hawks. His presence in the key will be invaluable and should lead the league in blocks unless his team mate David Cooper gets jealous and tries to out do him (wouldn’t that be an awesome sight). If our ball carriers can create mismatches we can also expect to see some monster hooks and dunks from Schensch also and should play a significant role on both ends of the floor.

Ballinger will keep doing what he does, he wont have to play on the bigger players much if at all this year which should see him dominate even more than he did last year. Not sure if he will score as much as he did last year, due to the fact that he wont be relied on as much as he was, but will still be a major contributor throughout the year.

Mahersy what can be said about him, it is supposed to be his last season, but I think with some clever coaching from Scotty we could see his career extended. Reduce his minutes and Maher could maintain last years scoring output but could also see him extending his career. Will continue to be our Mr Clutch and will do so for a while if his minutes are well managed.

The Bench
Brad Davidson – PG
Brad Hill – SG
Paora Winitana – SG/SF
Ryan Kersten – PG
Erik Burdon – PG/SG
Peter Hoban – F
Jacob Holmes – F
David Cooper – C

Brad Davidson our number 1 point guard last year I believe will take a backwards step to allow Bruce to start in the PG role. Davidson will still play a pivotal role but with a back complaint that has kept him out of some of the preseason he should be eased into the year and therefore will mean he has to take the back seat.

Good to see Brad Hill back, lets hope he can return to the form he was showing with us previously. I still rate him as a SG/SF not as a PG so hopefully he plays that role and backs up the others well, far from being a starter at the moment, but hopefully he progresses well and gets the court time to start forcing his way up the pecking order.

Winitana is the pick up of the year I believe, its tough not having him in the starting line up, but the spark he can create off the bench will get the crowd involved in the game and oppositions wont like him one bit. He is quick and likes to get to the basket – will be a big lose in the few sunday games that we have, but on the court will make an impact.

Kersten back from NZ, needs to shed a few more kilos (pot, kettle, black I know), will play limited minutes but hopefully can be groomed as a replacement for a few years time when Maher and Davidson will be retired.

Erik Burdon will fight with North Adelaide team mate Kersten for minutes and may actually come out on top. Was impressive on very limited minutes last year and I can see him stepping in front of Kersten early on.

Peter Hoban rookie NBL year – wont play a lot of minutes

Holmes returns from South Dragons with Shane Heal’s attitude in his back pocket. I am not impressed with where Jake has taken his game, unless he can find some air in his shots and stops pouting I would rather see him cheering from the bench. Having said that he is a scrapper and will hopefully get onto some offensive rebounds and get some valuable points. I am not convinced he was a good pick up yet.

Cooper with limited minutes behind a fit Schenscher will be useful, hopefully we get the shot blocking Cooper back from a couple of years ago, he was impressive in defense. Probably doesn’t need to score a lot looking at the rest of the team, but needs to rack up blocks and rebounds.

All in all I am looking forward to the coming season, and there is supposed to be a new PA system and the Dome so that should be fun – still no new scoreboard, hopefully once Eddie “Mr Bankrupt” Groves sells the dome we might get one.

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Norwood had the upper hand most of the game, but Forrestville came back in the last quarter and took the lead with less than five minutes to go – I think they got out to a four point lead. But Norwood leveled it with 8 seconds left and the scoring celebrating that it had gone into overtime, only to find his opponent was now down the other end scoring the leading basket and getting fouled to possible now lead by 3 with 3.5 seconds to go – now I will let youtube finish the story

So you probably would have noticed that I enjoy my sport (as a spectator mostly), so I like to keep up to date with what is going on. There are so many web sites out there with news about my 2 favourite sports – basketball and motorsport, it is hard to keep up with what is going on. I had a stack of sites in an RSS reader but even that didn’t cover everything. So I have created my own site – My Sports News, it has 2 main areas Basketball News and Motorsport News. Feel free to use it, it doesn’t track all categories within those 2 sports it is designed mainly for me to keep up with what I am interested in. It is basically a collection of sites loaded onto a single page for easier access to all the news that I want.

What was disappointing about it you ask, a number of things actually. I’ll summarise a few things, because there was some good things too

The Good

The Bad (not necessarily bad, but definitely needs work)

The Ugly

Ok so we won, not exactly convincingly but we did win nonetheless.
Adam Balinger & Axel Dench look great together
David Cooper looked a little out but may take a couple of games to sort himself out
Motts looked a bit lost but had limited minutes will be better for the run
Chappell started slow but showed a little promise – lacks match conditioning but should improve
Ninja looked out of sorts & out of position
Davo is an absolute star, scrappy bump & grinder – my fave already
Sutts needs to step up if he wants to keep getting minutes
Copes was hot & cold – could become a defensive liability
Last & most importantly Mahersy – well he was the Brett Maher that continues to be the glue that holds the team together, hopefully we can rely on him less he aint getting any younger.

There was definitely some good signs, lets see how we go against Tigers next Friday night, with hopefully a full team on the pine for the whole week -also lets hope the crowd improves too.