Hoops

Big V chatter

Anonymous,
The competition with all the country teams is the CBL (Country Basketball League). Which back in the day did turn into the Big V. This is run over summer. You will see the link to it all on the Big V website. The current CBL has 3 divisions. South West which includes: Corio Bay, Colac, Warrnambool, Portland, Hamilton, Horsham, Mt Gambier Lakers and Terang. North West includes: Shepparton, Echuca, Albury/Wodonga (joined as one last year), Shepparton (apparently talks of joining Big V again), Wangaratta, Maryborough, Denni....couple teams more but can't think of them off the top of my head and the other conference is Gippsland. All teams play off in their own conferences and the winners play off for a Country State tournament.

In regards to SCM, Ringwood came out blazing after half time thanks to Sturt, looks to be the difference as he stretches the defence from his 3's, which allows Belt to go to work inside and Bowlin to penetrate with his reliable runner. Game 2 looks very tough for Eltham, as Ringwoods crowd are very vocal come finals time and will be tough to beat. Hoping to goto game 3. Was great watching the live stream except for the no commentary.

Tiger, the score doesn't reflect the hard fought out game by both teams. Stingrays got within 4 in the last quarter, but Stingrays foul trouble (couple techs included) and big important 3's by Sturt as well Bowlin runners got them the breathing space and once game got out of reach it was the young kids on both teams that ran it out in junk time. The game was over reffed with over 50 fouls called. There wasn't much flow thats for sure, which was frustrating for players, coaches and spectators.

Ringwood will be extremely tough to beat and had a full house and loud fans. They have plenty of offensive weapons and get to the charity stripe early in quarters. Eltham might get one and take it to 3. Should be a cracking grand final. Both teams deserve to be there.

Stingrays let game 1 slip after having the lead at half time and it's going to be a tough road from here but anything can happen in finals. The lads believe they can still defeat Ringwood. Some stats will need to improve free throws 10/23 won't cut it in finals especially the top team all season. Plus Ringwood made 26/32. More makes than Stingrays attempted helps. Also getting outrebounded by nearly 20 needs to improve. If they can contain Sturt, Belt, Snowball and Bowlin they will be in for a real shot. Reardon will need to step up after a quiet game 1. Williams will need to be back to his MVP form. Osborne, Smith, Walker and Hutchison will need to help their captain and league MVP favourite to have a chance of creating an upset. There is a bus load of Stingray supporters coming to this game and from what I have heard Ringwood get a lot of fans to games too. Should be a cracking game 2 and hopefully goes into 3 and Stingrays get up in that too. Nothing bias.

Eltham came out guns blazing by all reports against Waverley and held that for the rest of the game Big win for them and they seem to be sharing the load around. Eltham could have this in 2. Waverley don't seem to be the same side since Eric's departure.

Anything can happen in finals though.

Some huge upsets in D1 too. Feel sorry for Werribee, a young team who were on top majority of the season bowing out first round. I know they will come back and be a force in years to come. With a great young core group and add in an import (currently don't have one). Could they be a chance to move up to Championship?

Tiger Watcher,

Yeah the boys went down in a disappointing loss infront of the home crowd. First half cost us, they didn't play well and Cuffe and McDonld made us pay. Cuffe had 2o in the first half. Eltham are a quality team.

Hopefully the boys turn it around this Saturday night when they take on Ringwood, they need to if they want to cause an upset. E-Will and Reardon will need to have big games but also a couple others to stand up and share the scoring load like Osborne and Hutchy to be firing as well.

Haven't heard anything about us talking about signing players for next year. The club is focused on their first final appearance and will wait til seasons end before talks and signings for next season.

The match up between us and Ringwood is going to be hotly contested. First game we lost in double overtime, had the chances to win the game but didn't. The second game we were with them for 3 qtrs but their bench came on and fired to win convincingly. That game we were missing centre Walker which will help come finals so Reardon and E-Will can play their forward roles instead of centre. We will go in as underdogs especially with Ringwoods current form. They have a target on their head. Whoever can play better defence will win this series, both teams can score. Bring it on!

Waverley-Eltham. I think Waverley will get up, too many offensive options and I feel Eltham play better without Trigger by results only, plus he has only played a handful of games which could disturb the chemistry. This series will goto 3 games though.

Tips for the last week of regular season games:
Corio Bay v Eltham: Massive game and could be good mental win for either team going into the playoffs. 7 foot centre James Walker returns for the Stingrays which will help out Reardon and Williams inside the paint. Stingrays seem to find another gear at home infront of a big following. Stingrays to get up in a close one infront of their crazy fans at a packed out Stingray Stadium.

Bulleen v Sherbrooke: A battle of pride, this could go either way. Standerfer to lead Bulleen to victory.

Ringwood v DV: Ringwood too big and too strong and will continue their winning streak.

Melbourne v Waverley: Will be closer than what the ladder indicates. Tigers never say die and always put up a fight but Waverley should be too strong with their core players Threatt, Platenik, Lewis and Dillion.

Eltham v Hume City: Eltham will be coming off an important game the night before. Fatigue could play a factor but Eltham should get the win in this one.

What is everyones tips for season awards:
Tips for SCM awards
Seasons MVP: Eric Williams (Corio Bay)
All star 5:
Eric Williams (Corio Bay)
Jason Reardon (Corio Bay)
Ivan Platenik (Waverley)
Jamal Brown (Hume City)
Corey Standerfer (Bulleen)

It's a tough one to choose, no PG has dominated the stats, it has all been the forwards and centres. Also not sure if the all star is selected by position either. If that was the case the team would be different.
Unlucky to miss out:
Adrien Sturt (Ringwood)
Skyler Bowlin (Ringwood)
Liam Norton (Eltham)

ROY: Stefan Osborne (Corio Bay)

Further to other UPL comments ... or ABL if that is what it will be called.

SEABL D-League moved out from SEABL back to Basketball Victoria this season - so BV D League is just all the Victorian clubs from SEABL D-League. My understanding is that for 2013, Big V Youth League and the BV D League will merge into one competition - unless someone can correct me. But not much information around about that at present.

The transition of the rest of SEABL has been delayed, (reading between the lines a bit) no doubt because of the issues already mentioned. In some states, there is no state competition for SEABL teams to fall back to - this is no doubt taking some time to sort out.

But overall, having a top down, structured set of competitions must be the way to go - but as with any change, will create some shifts for a number of clubs/teams as to what competitions they play in.

Hopefully the big crowd at Stingray Stadium can be the 6th man and lead them to victory. Big advantage and best crowd in the league from what I have seen.

Ringwood def the flag favourites at the moment with their current form. All 4 teams can win the whole SCM though, any team can win on any given day, it's very tight in the top 4.

Huge game this weekend with Corio Bay taking on Eltham at home. If Stingrays get up, they should finish 3rd and take on Eltham in the first final series but if they lose they will finish 4th (if Waverley get up against Melbourne). Going to be a cracking finals series, looking forward to watching how it all pans out.

Interesting to hear comments about "no juniors coming through" - but I don't think Hume are alone in that respect.

We hear lots about basketball being one of the highest participation sports in the country - but my observation is that many (most ?) clubs struggle to get many of their juniors to transition through and stick with it into senior ranks.

So the broader question is, why do so few juniors stick with it ... is there just too much else to do once you can drive your own car, or is there something else wrong that means senior basketball is not attractive in our associations ?

No clear answer on that from me, just interested in other comments.