Hoops

Rd 1 Bullets v Wildcats tips

@GordonG,fair enough...you just like to watch and take photo's??

what does your therapist say about that??

Anyone know why Lucas didn't play?

And why was Hire starting?

The league needs awareness of names and personalities. It is such a fundamental and obvious requirement, to not have that is a baffling stuff-up. Perhaps it is easier to read names and numbers in person, but on TV it totally sucks. The only uniform choice that is worse is choosing a colour similar to the opponent.

Even misspelling the name of the team is better than not being able to see player names/numbers. Wait, maybe they did misspell "Wildcats". I couldn't read it well enough to determine.

Yep numbers and names were crap, non existent.

I agree with you, rjd. The numbers are awful (which we have known for a while now)
I expect another wave of criticism after tomorrow night's home opener. I'm guessing that a large portion of the crowd is going to struggle with the numbers, and have no hope with the names.

"Both feet must touch the inbounds floor before you can touch the ball again"

Ah, fairy nuff :)

I don't play, I just take photos ...

For an organisation that is so successful and professionally run, I am puzzled by the Wildcat's choice to persist with near-invisible player names. It was painfully obvious in the pre-season competition. Surely they can just re-stitch names with white (or some other more conspicuous colour), right?

Needed McKay more in the 3rd..

Both feet must touch the inbounds floor before you can touch the ball again.

I agree, Bruce's shot should have been called out out, but the Wildcats got away with some pretty blatant flopping too.

McKay looks a very solid 3rd import choice. Boti tagged him as the first import to be sacked this year... based on last night he won't even be the first import sacked from his team.

Kickert is interesting. He's not getting the open looks he did at United. That's kind of rendering him useless.

Gibson played the best game I've seen from him for a couple of years, while Petrie looks a bit off the pace. I have no faith that he's going to finish when he gets the ball under the basket. Obviously a great team guy though and I'm sure he can still be a solid contributor.

Great to have the Bullets back. The support was great last night, lets hope it keeps up.

GordonG - he was definitely out of bounds mate. I understand where you're coming from, namely that he dribbled the ball forward, let go of it, then re-gathered when he was back in bounds. That's what he was *trying* to do but the replays showed he was pretty clearly out.

I don't want to be one of those "blame it on the refs" guys because Brisbane won that game last night on the back of some really tough defence and shot-making in the second half. But that blatant no-call to start the fourth was like a dagger to my heart lol.

"Looking forward to Wildcat's fans meltdowns following every loss this season."

I reckon you'd find that after Wildcats' losses, its fans of all the other teams that go in to meltdown with predictions of their impending demise.

Seemed a majorly botched play phase for sure, but the Cats had way bigger problems than that anyway. I don't think we can be too mad - it's not like we deserved to win that one. Really shitty second half.

He took about 5 steps with all the foot shuffles before releasing that three ball as well.

If you step out of bounds and then touch the ball at any point before stepping in court again, then it's out of bounds.

"That Shaun Bruce triple to start the fourth - I cannot believe he didn't get called for out of bounds"

At no time when Bruce was out of bounds was he in contact with the ball. Isn't that what makes a legit out-of-bounds call, that you touch the ball while on/over the line?

If that was out-of-bounds, every time someone goes out of bounds to swat an errant ball back in then surely that should be called.

"Up your asshole - how charming."

But - surprisingly roomy ! ;)

That one stung a little bit. Felt like your archetypical Wildcats game. Six Brisbane 3's in a row later...boom game over.

That Shaun Bruce triple to start the fourth - I cannot believe he didn't get called for out of bounds with 2 refs in the direct vicinity. Speaking of which, I've seen this same reffing trio in the NBL for a couple of years now. Still terrible. Time for some new blood you'd think.

All things considered, I'm glad Brisbane and the NBL are back. Let's hope this season turns out better than those Chemist Warehouse ads.

2 flags in 3 years and 3 in 7 helps ease the pain :)

Looking forward to Wildcat's fans meltdowns following every loss this season.

Up your asshole how charming. Redhage is cashing in paychecks only at this point. He offers nothing of substance and should've retired already.

Is the white uniform Brisbane's main strip? I thought it was odd all their media and promo photos had players in the white and assumed the maroon one would be the main home jersey.

I fear Redhage is done all he can do now is stand in the corner for a 3 ball.

oh and ONE FREAKING REBOUND from Brandt. I said he projected as a bad rebounder and everybody was up my asshole about it.

Probably a good result for the league. An early win by Brisbane could help build momentum

Betting markets are crap and generally slow with the NBL, if you want to make money from betting agencies the NBL is how you do it.

I remember in late 2013 the 36ers being considered wooden spooners favourite for a lengthy period while having a lineup which was obviously going to make the playoffs - they ended up losing to Perth in the Grand Final 2-1.

I said Bullets would be smashed and they should have been. The betting line said they would be too a week ago. Then the betting line changed. If it was a horse race there would be an immediate enquiry. I have never seen anything like it ever.

Regular poster but will go incognito for this one.

Must remark that it was fortunate that the Bullets won, as the game night experience was extremely poor for what should have been a flagship night.

- music junk, just random dribble played consistently throughout the game, apparently silence is not golden. Here's a tip: if you feel the need to play something, at least give the crowd something to clap to

- cheerleaders terrible, two 'routines' (I'll call them that loosely) the entire night and generally looked a mess

- announcer was meh (ex-Blaze?). Heard longtime regular Neil HS wasn't even asked.

- scoreboards are bad

Wife said she's been more entertained at a SEABL Spartans game, and they're not of great standard if you haven't been to one.

Honestly felt insulted that the Bullets felt fit to offer us what they did, I can only hope they vastly improve this side of things. Some will say they've only been an organisation for a few months but this is a professional league and it takes little effort to get these things right.

Also a shame Brisbane has to adhere to 6:30pm tip offs during weeknights, this will kill off a chunk of patronage who doesn't want to fight through notoriously bad traffic.

Random observations

BULLETS

- Thought the side looked most dangerous when the ball was in Bruce's hands, boxscore won't show that.

- Finishing around the hoop was poor, but feel Bairstow will improve this.

- Young was a great foil off the bench, exactly what the team needed

- Offense in 1/4 sets looked shady, not sure if a case of Perth defending this well or Brisbane needing to improve

WILDCATS

- Having Redhage as a 10th man is an utter luxury

- Don't know how they dropped the game as they looked far superior in the first half and should've lead by more than 10

- Can't read the player names or much else on the jerseys from more than 10m away, how do these things get approved

- Previous poster in another topic touched on this, Perth will miss having an off guard who is a legit three baller

Peace

Bullets to get smashed

Do Perth have to pay for Jarons plane ticket home?

Good game, crowd filled up late ( no day light savings in Brisbane) no problem with the app, a few teething problems but good start to the season.

Knight will make a big difference to Perth's team. Well done Bullets, great return.

Well that was pretty weak
:/

Mckay nor Brandt bring the low post game and exceptional passing that Jawai did. I can see this team having major issues offensively

But at the other end they will be superb. So expect more games like tonight!

Someone should be looking into the betting changes.
Someone also will clean up it seems

terrible second half from the Cats, messy offense, no one looks like putting the ball in the basket

seeing the usual Gleeson offence.

"give it to the import and he will do something"

Ahh which one Trevor?

"I dunno, who ever gets it first. try the little one"

You can tell from Beals body language that he YERNS to be back on the Perth wildcats

So much for Bairstow being a certainty to play.

Yup.

Shot clock and game clock update at the same time, too, even if there's a half second difference.

I don't understand why on-screen scoreboards have been so difficult to maintain on screen over the history of the NBL.

Scoreboard not working? This is poon stuff from the NBL a PROFESSIONAL league

Uniform watch:

- Not a fan of the Bullets having a maroon logo but blue stripes.

- Other than that white stripe on the back, Perth's uniform doesn't look AS BAD as I thought it would.

Pretty poor crowd!

It's working fine for me, but seems to be delayed by a couple of minutes compared to Foxtel.

Is NBL TV working yet for this game?

‏@ShaneHeal · 4m minutes ago
Bairstow has not taken part in any pre game warm ups.

One baseline is indeed curtained off.

Watch for Bairstow's shrewd movement off the ball and his textbook screen-setting.

Game is also streaming live on Facebook.

Some seats available in every block other than one baseline means that baseline is all that could possibly be curtained off.

It's possible it looks more heavily-sold on Ticketek than it actually is. Guess we'll find out in a couple of hours.