Thursday June 7, 2007

Hi there

As a long-suffering Harbour basketball supporter, I've waited all season for the Appliance Shed Harbour Heat to inevitably crumble after their 7-0 start to the Dominion Finance NBL.
It was bound to happen ... but it never did.
Their last three performances, all gritty wins over tough opponents, have finally made a believer out of me. Congratulations to the Heat on their regular season success and good luck for the playoffs.
The scramble for the semifinal spots is still on and Saturday's Youthtown Auckland Stars v Easy LPG Bay Hawks encounter - last year's final - will now be the final stand for Auckland if they are to stay in the hunt.
Meanwhile, Harbour have a shot at another title this weekend when the unbeaten Breeze head into the Women's Basketball League finals as favourites.
And congratulations to Porirua and Canterbury for their titles at the Oreo NZ U19 Championships last weekend.
Cheers
Chappy

Shot At Redemption

One thing has driven Curves Harbour Breeze and especially coach Brett Goebel during their unbeaten run through the Women’s Basketball League northern conference … they want the last laugh.

In his first year north of the bridge, Goebel steered the Harbour women faultlessly through the conference last season, only to fall by one point to archrivals Auckland in the national final.

It is a memory he literally carries around with him every day in the form of BBNZ’s website report on that title game, printed out and lovingly preserved in a plastic cover.

Home Sweet Home

Appliance Shed Harbour Heat showed the whole was much bigger than the sum of the parts when, short-handed, they overran Century City Wellington Saints 94-74 to wrap up the 2007 Dominion Finance NBL regular season title and home advantage through the playoffs.

The Heat, who had been the competition’s best team since starting the season 7-0, confirmed their favouritism for the title with an emphatic win over a team that had dominated them on the road just last month.

They came into the game without import Oscar Forman, who had left for Australian national team trials, and were forced to play small line-ups for much of the game without any real height coming off the bench.

M-V-Three?

With less than two rounds remaining in the cut-throat Dominion Finance NBL, there is more at stake than championship honours … there are also individual accolades to consider.

With so little separating the top six teams (and the leading scorer and rebounder both coming from outside the playoff scramble), the voting for Most Valuable Player promises to be just as contentious.

Here are three that have put their hands up …

Dominion Finance NBL Guide (Round 14)

Glory Days

When the Porirua boys are old men and remember their triumph at the 2007 Oreo NZ U19 Championships, it will ultimately be their dramatic short-handed semifinal win over Canterbury that looms large through the mists of time.

But they completed their destiny with a 90-74 result over arch-rivals Wellington in an encounter that could very easily have slipped into anti-climax after their heroics the night before.

If the boys’ final was over soon after halftime, Canterbury’s 73-68 victory in the girls’ title game was a more fitting spectacle as upstarts Auckland gave the hot favourites everything they could handle.

Full Tournament Results

Crowe Flies

Dominion Finance NBL Player of the Week - Jason Crowe (U Park It Waikato Pistons)
19.5 points (42.3% FG, 40% 3pt, 84.6% FT, 6.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 4.5 steals, 1.0 blocks) v Scenic Circle Canterbury Rams & Cartridge World Otago Nuggets

Ever since he arrived in Hamilton as a replacement for American centre Jason Fraser, Crowe has lit it up, carrying the Pistons deep into the thick of the playoff scramble.

He debuted at the top of the Player Power Rankings and hasn’t looked like fading from the front, hovering near the top of several statistical categories.

Read More ...

Bendigo Say Pardon

The Jimmy Possum Bendigo Spirit has signed New Zealand international player Lisa Pardon for its inaugural defencejobs Australia WNBL season.

The 2006 Commonwealth games silver medallist has spent the past three years playing in the South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) for North West Tasmania (2005/06) and Launceston (2007).

Pardon is currently ranked sixth in the SEABL in scoring with 17 points per game and ninth in assists with 3.4 per game and is averaging 5 rebounds per game.

Briefs

Weekly Honours For Meehl
Former NZ Junior Tall Black Zane Meehl was named Queensland Australia Basketball League Player of the Week after compiling a huge “triple double” in the Maroochydore Clippers’ 131-98 win over Gold Coast.
Read More ...

Guard Goes As Stars Struggle
Steve Deane, NZ Herald
The Auckland Stars will finish the NBL season with just one United States import after shooting guard Brandon Cole was released yesterday.
Read More ...

X's & O's - Coaching On The Run

Coaching on the run is a key practical technique to ensure athletes are at the centre of the coaching process.

When done effectively coaching on the run ensures that athletes get maximum opportunity to develop the necessary understanding and ability to achieve success in the game and most importantly have ownership of this process.

At core of "coaching on the run" is ensuring there is optimum athlete activity for a maximum amount of the time. This ensures practice time is efficient and the person at the centre of the coaching process, the athlete, garners maximum benefit.