Hoops

Ninnis' last chance?

Me too, I still have an unopened can of Sixers Camel Piss. I think I drank the others and saved one for posterity... or maybe I just couldn't stomach any more Duff!

Those were good days. I look back now and realise how lucky we were to have a lineup like that. They'd still kill most teams the NBL had to offer in the past decade.

Duff beer I have...lol. Unopened, suprised really..

At the risk of side-tracking further...

I have a six pack sitting on the fridge - still unopened and in the original plastic - of West End Draught with the Sixers on the side of the can after winning the 99 (?) Championship.

I'm amazed I never downed them in a drunken / coma enducing stupor. Duff beer for me...Duff beer for you...

Damn, wish I had one Loco!

I'm up to three Rose singlets hanging on the walls at home - dug up another one out of the blue from an old Torrens Valley mate :p Only the South-East jersey eludes me...

Loco engineers the conversation so as to create another opportunity to mention Robert Rose... why am I not surprised? :P

As I said, just my opinion. Then again, I'm not huge on the dribble-drive offence either, so I may be biased.

Everyone reacts differently to pressure. Throw guys like Robert Rose and Willie Farley in front of a rabid Dome crowd, and they rise to the occassion.

Throw other guys like Mark Tyndale or Mike Chappell into the pressure cooker of expectation, and it gets the better of their athletic ability and natural talent.

To me, that's what it looked like Cortez Groves was enduring against Townsville. A guy with pressure to perform, thrown a life line by an organisation that expects results from its imports putting more pressure on himself to perform.

He seemed to force shots in an attempt to get in the groove, which only tightened him up more when they didn't drop.

I may be off the mark, but that's how it appeared to this fan; a guy with ability trying too hard to carve a roll into a squad. 'Tez can play. He just needs to remember he wasn't brought in to score 30ppg - he was brought in to compliment a guard rotation in other ways.

Hopefully he settles in and finds his niche in the rotation sooner rather than later. Personally, I'd prefer Ng or Hill to start, depending on the opposition.

Yeah, Groves is far and away a better backup point than Hill and Ng hasn't really shown the composure and vision needed there either. So its pretty obvious why the Sixers loaded up on imports in the backcourt!

Isaac, I've noticed the same thing with Groves. He keeps getting to the basket no problem, but inexplicably keeps missing shots that look very makeable!

He generally has handled the ball well when spelling Gilchrist at the point and also missed out on a couple of assists in the first half against Perth because our butter fingers forwards couldn't catch the ball!

The main things I am concerned about though are that Groves appears to duplicate what Hill's role should be offensively, tends to over-dribble in trying to create at times and attempts so few jumpshots that I'm beginning to wonder if he can shoot from the outside at all!

I'm not ready to call for his head yet, but I might start calling him "The Enigma", because I just can't figure out how he isn't having a bigger impact on the scoreboard!

2-2 is not impressive when both wins were at home and both losses on the road. It hardly conjures up confidence in winning any games on the road. Its especially unimpressive when you consider the margins of the win and loss games. People should stop making excuses for the team saying they are a different team from last year and need time to settle. They have only played 4 games but have been training almost every day for the last 3 months together. To me that's plenty of time to settle. No excuses for injuries either because most teams at present have some injury woes. The season is only young, but the dangers have already been recognised. Action is needed right now to turn this around.

Cortez has been discussed many times. I'm not a fan but can appreciate what they are trying to achieve in running him and Gilchrist in the back court.

I feel Cortez should and always has played best as a swingman 2/3 with a bit of freedom, can he still play that role who knows, but maybe he needs a bit of freedom out there (the problem is we have young promising Brad Hill who deserves that role).


As for 2001-02 (post Darnell-KB) Championship the Sixers had 17 wins and 13 losses for the season.
On the road - 6 wins and 9 losses.

Losing on the road happens (and this season in the NBL quite a bit, is it only 3 away wins so far total?), I don't like the fact that a lot of sporting teams Not just NBL) are starting to accept it all to willingly. Where has the fighting spirit gone? To be blown out by 20+ is pretty poor but as mentioned it can happen as much. The biggest test is how well they bounce back not just agains the Tigers at home on Wednesday but the next time they hit the road!

Skull, in life, it doesn't matter what happens to you, how you react is important. The games was a shocker - how Scotty smacks the team into shape is important.

I would expect Scotty to rise to the occasion

Thanks for that Anon. I thought things were getting that tight in this league that Darren NG was going to double as shooting guard/club doctor. Would be great unless he himself went down.

Depends on what you call a "last chance".

They say there are only two types of coaches, those who are sacked, and those about to be sacked.

I would suggest calls for sacking are a little premature. The comp this season will be very tight and any away win will count. I believe you could count the away wins on one hand so far this season.

However, a 30 point loss (for whatever reason) is an embarassment and a good coach will turn this around and motivate his group. Two 30 point losses on the road signal danger signs, three 30 point losses on the road and then Scotty might pack his desk up himself.

Cortez was a strange call obviously to do with money. Is it true NG's Dad is the team doctor to save money? I think the latter is a smart move only. Get a decent 2nd import!

As for NZ i think they aren't as good without Jones. They also have import problems. Drey will have his full coaching nous under the microscope this season. Being under the tutelage of Brett Brown would be a plus one would think!

& i think the Wilcats will be the real deal this season so dont panic 6er fans, they will smash a lot of sides!

The question is - can he coach? Jury out!

Did the Wildcats have an unbelievable shooting night or what, cmon no one was going to beat the Cats last night, they were awesome.

When a team racks up 30 points in 10 minutes you know its going to be one of those nights.

Home team wins again.