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First game of the season is underway. We face Kazakhstan tonight and should cruise to a victory. A secondary advantage of having HCA besides the team playing better is that every game this season will be on at 7pm Queensland time unless it's a scrimmage, so hopefully that means we can get some people coming to watch the games.

(35423)

Australia untroubled in 40 point victory

To Kazakhstan's credit, they managed 91 points and only lost the second half by seven points, in a very fast paced game with a combined 192 non-foul field goal attempts, and 38 free throw attempts. But the 22,567 in attendance at The Kennel were treated to an outstanding offensive display from the Australian team to open our campaign. 131 points at 55.9 FG%, with seven members of the squad scoring in the double digits. At one point it looked like the final score could've been even higher, with the first quarter alone yielding a 40-24 score-line in Australia's favour.

McMillan top scored with 22, whilst Scully's official NT debut was a great one for him, shooting 7-8 to finish with 14 points and 12 rebounds. It was a disappointing night for Ryder and Cicvaric however, especially considering the players they were back-ups for, Catic and McMillan, had played well at the SF and SG spots respectively. Another statistic of note in the box score was Scully registering no blocks despite being a shot blocking specialist, whilst Anderson managed three.

The next three games on the tournament schedule look set to be more of the same, as the Australian team has time to bank enthusiasm before the tougher games against Malaysia and Japan later on. However, those tougher games are unlikely to have much bearing on the outcome of the tournament either, as the top four all advance to round two, at which point the results in this round won't matter any more.

3 points: Ryan McMillan (22 points, 9-14 FG, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, opponent starting SG 2-12 FG)
1 point (three way tie): Kerehi Scully (14 points, 7-8 FG, 12 rebounds)
1 point: Poluta'u Brar (20 points, 9-15 FG, 6 assists, opposing starting PG 2-8 FG)
1 point: Keith Anderson (16 points, 6-8 FG, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks)

Is everyone okay with me changing the 3-2-1 to a different model totalling 6 points when I feel there's more than 3 players worthy of points?

Your the boss you can award votes however you like!

(y)

Ok so this week is a bye week for us and I just remembered that I actually have to book a scrimmage on the bye week (otherwise I'll look like a fool). A search through the national team tournament brackets led me to Uruguay still needing a scrimmage themselves this week, so I have sent the scrimmage invite to them. Assuming they accept in time, I believe they can provide a tough test for our current squad.

Referees have campaign against touring Australian side in loss

(35626)

The fix was in. Leading by one point on what was going to be the final possession of the game, Australia played great defence to deny Uruguay an easy look. But just when it looked like Uruguay would have to settle for a contested fade-away to win, Michael Wayne was pulled up for an alleged foul that looked like your standard jostling for position in the low post on the replay. Of course, the pro-Uruguayan crowd cheered the referee for this blatant bad call that gave Uruguay two free throws with two seconds on the clock.

Ramon Moyano sank both free throws, leaving Australia with just two seconds to win off the following play. This wasn't nearly enough time to draw up a proper play, so the play ended up being Dwight Catic receiving the ball and attempting a contested three... which was missed. Uruguay managed a 120-119 victory on their home court, much to the delight of their fans, and disgust of the visitors who had the game won save for a referee that was clearly showing bias for much of the game.

I will not be awarding MVP points this week, as this was ultimately a scrimmage that doesn't mean anything in our Asian Championship campaign. However I will highlight the 3 stars nonetheless:

Keith Anderson (28 points, 13-21 FG, 16 rebounds)
Dylan Scoggins (26 points, 13-18 FG, 14 rebounds)
Poluta'u Brar (20 points, 10-13 FG, 5 assists)

Gives it a Davis Cup like atmosphere lol

Our next tournament game against Pakistan is underway. If you're interested in watching us get another easy win, come and watch the game here:

(35429)

Questionable team selection in 58 point win

Whilst I was afk for much of last night's game, I did read the chat after the game and understand that mllama questioned my decision to start Mahurkar over Wayne, whilst someone else (either whitewind or balev) felt that I was too biased towards game shape across the board.

Well, if being GS-biased is a crime then I plead guilty. During the easier games this season, I want to reward the players and managers with the best GS levels with more game time, hence why Ryder got another game, and why Grief got the start over McMillan and Brar. As for Mahurkar, my logic was that since Wayne played last weeks scrimmage, it was Mahurkar's turn to get more game time. If he and Wayne are on the same GS again next week, I will favour Wayne next time.

Anyway, whilst the Motion offence wasn't quite firing on all cylinders, the team as a whole was in the win, outclassing Pakistan in all four quarters of the game and limiting them to a dismal 18-85 FG. Dwight Catic and Ryan McMillan were the best players on offence, whilst Luka Cicvaric excelled on defence by smothering his opposing man who was trying to play Kobe ball, and Dylan Scoggins constantly crashed boards throughout the game.

3 points: Dwight Catic (22 points, 9-14 FG, 4-5 3PT, opposing SF 0-8)
2 points: Ryan McMillan (19 points, 6-9 FG, 5-7 3PT)
1 point: Dylan Scoggins (8 points, 3-4 FG, 19 rebounds, opposing C's 2-11)

Luka Cicvaric gets an honourable mention for 9 points, 6 assists and the opposing SG shooting 4-34, but I felt that giving him points wouldn't be entirely fair to Gordie Waldron who likewise performed well at the SG spot, not to mention the cries of nepotism I would've received...

the game shape comment was from me, and was not aimed at your decision. I made comment that game shape does not always warrant a start over better skilled players. The comment was actually made in reference to my own findings in u21 team, with Snyder playing well despite his game shape dip.

My knowledge of Wayne/Mahurkars skills and game shape was not strong, it was just a comment adding to discussion on team selection.

Btw good choice on playing Macmillan over Brar. At first i was shocked you chose Rmac as a PG backup over him, then looked at offense chosen and it made sense. I believe you were rewarded in his output!

I just want to see my boy play. I'm not sure that playing 11 minutes in a scrimmage means that a better player should be benched in favor of an inferior one. Besides, that should really be applied consistently if you are going to do it - Wayne has played 11 minutes this season before tonight's game, while Scoggins had played over 50 - so going by that argument Wayne should have started ahead of Scoggins (I'm not suggesting he should have, for the record).

To be honest, I'm not terribly fussed for a one off game - these games are pretty meaningless at the moment. But I have my chip on my shoulder that Wayne is being pretty underrated at the moment, so I gotta push my boy ;).

(I'll note that Wayne backed me up by having a pretty darn good game in the minutes he played - 6 points and 9 rebounds in 16 minutes is handy, plus the fact that the opposing centers combined to score a grand total of 0 points while he was on the court).

I think the gameshape comment is fair to, but I'm not concerned if you want to reward good gameshape at this stage. I'd hope that, once the crunch games hit that, for example, RMac in strong GS starts ahead of Grief in proficient.