Hoops

Ibekwe and Holt Confirmed as imports for United

Barlow is a pretty nice 6th man to have.

Goulding & Blanchfield is interesting, Goulding needs the ball in his hands and likes to put up shots, even tough ones. Blanchfield is versatile but is used to getting to touch the ball a lot on offence coming from Townsville.

Can they co-exist together?

Luckily I don't think Blanchfield is overly egotistical and may just pick his poison like Abercrombie does for NZ and take the scraps when required when on court with say Corey Webster but when needed he can put points on the board from range or attack the basket drawing fouls.

NZ were trying to snag him when their season turned to shit without Jackson but he was completing his studies and now that he's finished the timing isn't right with Websters rapid improvement and as Macdub said, the rest of the teams make up.

From what I am hearing yes he was keen. But at the same time was equally happy to play elsewhere in the NBL (because he understands the Breakers situation and has been happy to pass the torch per se).

He also knew their financial position so was resigned to the fact that he would most likely get a gig in OZ.

Bit of a lose lose situation.

Because even if he didn't play very high minutes then it becomes an issue of 'why are we throwing our points and money at a guy who were not fully using'. And if you play him a lot..well your under utilising CWebb.

Was a tough decision for the Breakers given who they have and the stage of his career.

As Mystro said, Ibekwe was coming off injury before Breakers got him and he said so many overseas teams were passing on him because of the injury. So he signed with NZ for relatively cheap.

Of course, with his performance the past season they simply couldn't retain him because his worth went up.

Presume they passed on Penney because they a) didnt have enough points to get him or money (or both) or b) they didn't see how he would fit in with Webster, Ced, Abercrombie, Te Rangi etc.

I think that would actually be a fair enough reason - given the way Webster is tracking did they really want to bring in Penney to take away a lot of his minutes.

He was pretty foul prone but very effective, finished well at the rim and got up and down the floor pretty well.
NZ could cope with his foul issues by being able to play Pledger for small spells and then playing small ball with Vukona & Wesley.

NZ passed on Ibekwe & Carter as they wanted big pay rises over what they had previously been paid and with Abercrombie, Vukona & Webster all renewing contracts there simply wasn't enough peso's to go round.

Ibekwe was coming off a reasonable injury lay off when he signed for NZ and improved as the season went on. There is a big chance we haven't seen his best basketball.
Cedric Jackson & Rhys Carter's passing ability definitely helped Ibekwe's catch & dunk game but his jump shot wasn't too shabby either and in the low post his long reach and scoop shot/finger roll with either hand proved difficult to defend.

He was amazing when he wasn't getting into foul trouble.

Was Ibekwe really that good last season?