Hoops

WNBL Semi Finals

Dandy to beat Perth in 3.

Any predictions of the game outcome???

Yes huge congrats to Rangers, far too much talent on one team for Perth to compete with. They rely solely on Sammi, it might win you some games when a player like that has a hot night,but it's not going to help you beat a team with multiple scorers.

Congrats to the Rangers. In the end, their depth and their discipline in sticking to a solid game plan got the job done.
Lots of well deserved praise above for Cheryl Chambers, but I rate Larissa Anderson right up there as a coach too. That's 2 very impressive WNBL seasons from her.

Perth never quite looked convincing to me this season. You could see the potential there, but you could also see the glaring deficiencies. Sometimes some individual brilliance was able to patch over them, but it just wasn't sustainable against good teams that played smart.

Looking forward to a competitive GF series, and hoping it goes to 3.

Semi Final game 3 tips off in an hour



Pretty quick turnaround from Friday night's game in Perth. Will be interesting to see how they pull up - Sami especially, since she was cramping up down the stretch of game 2.

I read the crowd at the Lynx game was over 1,000. Anyone know the capacity on that Bendat Basketball Show Court?

^well said........certainly a far better option than both Maher and Molloy, and she's done a great job with Sydney.

To the rangers v lynx game last night, once again Rangers ran out of legs, poor coaching really, listening g to the commentators they called that , Lynx coach opted for to "run them ragged" tactic knowing how little Rangers coach uses her bench.
Predict a Lynx vFlames GF unless the rangers coach looks to use her bench during the game so her starters don't run out of steam when it's needed.

They had no answer for SW, they literally just let her do what she wanted, yet the game before they played far better d.

Be some very tired bodies come Sundays game from both sides but Rangers in particular.

So, Cheryl Chambers is back to the GF her first season back as head coach of a wnbl side since the last time she was head coach also making the GF. You remember, she took a pretty ordinary Boomers side to the GF and lost by a point to a much Capitals better team. She was then sacked so that the mesiah Tom Maher could take over Boomers, which of course took them from strength to strength, oh wait a minute.

Is there a GM of the year award? If so, it should go to Karen Dalton for finding a way to convince Chambers to uproot her life and be in Sydney for most of every week away from her young family. Sadly for Chambers it was this or continue to play 2nd fiddle to male coaches who aren't fit to carry her handbag.

The sad thing is that Boomers should've recognised that she is easily the best wnbl coach available in Melbourne, sacked Molloy and given her that job.

Enough of the men who have continually dominated the coaching ranks of the womens league, it's a new era, 3 out of the 4 top teams have females at the helm. Get with the times Boomers and try and lure her back!!!

Very unfortunate timing!

It sucks that rangers/lynx game three is at the same time as Grand final game 3.

Cumming had a ripper. 30 points & 7 boards will get you game MVP most nights.
I thought Blicavs was excellent too at both ends, before a pretty weak call (from my vantage point anyway) ended her night prematurely.
For the home team, Ruth had a nice game. We did a much better job of getting her involved than we did in game 1. We stuffed it up a lot too, but persistence paid off in the end. Sami was handy too I thought.

Cumming also...

Friday night screening of the Sami Show and it's an entertaining episode

Semi Final game twos are this evening.

Townsville Fire vs Sydney Uni Flames at 7pm local time (8pm AEDT)

No live stream link yet, but presumably it will be show up fairly soon from the Fire's YouTube Channel


Perth Lynx vs Dandenong Rangers at 6:30pm local (9:30 AEDT)

This crap of being good "internationally" Clydesdale, Todhunter and Cummings ran rings round Lavey, this " international" tag is a Joyce mentality.

She's a good player for sure, but she certainly was not and is not Opals
Mitchell can make any guards work load seem better, when they play with her

I think Lavey is a good defensive PG internationally, but isn't there offensively.

It worked better in 2014 when she played alongside Mitchell off the bench. I thought it was a mistake to have her leading the bench unit in Rio, she wasn't ready for that.

Interview with Flames star Asia Taylor where she has some nice things to say about the WNBL

Fringe WNBA player Asia Taylor making waves in WNBL

I didn't think Lavey was too bad. Her effectiveness is down tad on last season, but I'm guessing that her injury might have something to do with that. She was initially a controversial selection into the Opals squad but I think that in the time she has been there she has become a solid player. I'm not saying she'd make my Opals 12 today, but due to the other PG options I think she belongs in the conversation.

I was hoping that Perth had kept a little something up our sleeves last weekend when we lost badly to Dandenong, but last night made it clear that we hadn't. Same issues with scoring, same result. The Rangers are excellent when they're locked in.

It could have been worse though ... like Townsville. Yikes. The Flames are a great team, so nothing they achieve will surprise me, but I thought the Fire would be much better than that after storming into the playoffs in great form.
Both games were basically thrashings but at least the Lynx managed to put a run together at the end to make the scoreboard look respectable, and give me some hope that game 2 will be competitive.

Watching the rangers v lynx game last night , seeing Lavey and Burton play ( and they looked no different last week either) you still have to,scratch your head and wonder what the hell was Joyce thinking.
Clydesdale, Toddhunter and Cummings all absolutely trashed Lavey not only defensively but offensively and speed wise, as fir Burton....words fail, only time she hit the basket was when she was left standing in the key all alone and even then she hesitated then put the shot up.

Batgirl would eat her for breakfast and use her legs as tooth picks.
She was no contest for any of the bigs last night nor any other player infact.

Good game, but Anderson needs to rotate that bench better, when they get up by that much get those bench p,ayers on for a few minutes, if they start to drop off , you still have time to get your starters back in. That was just pure fatigue that allowed lynx back into that game, Rangers bench run 12 deep with those young ones she has ,
Half of the rangers bench would be starters in any other team, crazy how she never uses them, Sherf played 7 mins last night again, after two really great games in a row it was back to sitting.

Sydney smashed Townsville.....stamped their authority on that one big time

Joyce's ego...

And batkovic was left out after winning MVP.
A few other players too.

Do you guys remember back when Burton started every game in the Olympics? Those were some good times.

Early in the 2nd quarter and Perth leads Steph Cumming by 2 points

It didn't surprise me, match-up-wise, just to reduce the likelihood of the Rangers bolting out of the blocks.

Both sides starting with very athletic lineups.. I do think that it is quite risky to shake the lineup up like the lynx have putting Burton in for Hamblin especially during playoffs. Also great to see Blicavs flying early!

Oops, I meant

So the last games were a week ago, the next games are next Friday, so can anyone tell me why the WNBL scheduled their 2 games this weekend to start within 30 minutes of each other???
This is such stupid scheduling.

I'm really looking forward to watching Townsville take on Sydney Uni. I just noticed that in the regular season, the winning margins between these teams were 1, 1, 2, and 6 points. Plus they're the 2 form teams of the comp right now. Plus Sydney's usual (terrible) commentators have been replaced by Jenni Screen and Carly Wilson for this game! But I won't be able to watch it live due to it clashing with the Rangers-Lynx game. So Booooo!!!!! to the WNBL for that.

The players don't generate enough revenue for there to be an awards night.

Judging by the WNBL's latest tweet about announcing the first of the season awards tonight, it seems like the players won't be having a formal award night or similar yet again which is disappointing to say the least. You'd think for a league the standard that it is they could at least throw a little something for the players - even the state leagues / SEABL get award nights.

NBL classic reruns are way better than WNBL.

the irony is they continue to play repeats of ten years ago of mens basketball rather than fill that slot with current women's basketball. See the government want to promote women's sport ....they have chosen rock climbing to put money behind....who the hell is at the helm making these ludicrous desicions

Coverage for basketball? Womens basketball?? Laughable suggestion.

Once the hype of womens AFL dies off and the AFL run Super Netball quietens down, the WNBL might get its turn. Actually, that wont happen.

Some coverage of the playoffs would be nice, finally the league goes to a proper best off series in their finals and we have no tv coverage.

Many thanks Luuuc

Beats me!

As much as I enjoy watching the Lynx, I'd have to tip the Rangers in that series. They have home court advantage, and our 2 away games there have resulted in losses by 20 and 22. Dandenong have been inconsistent but they seem to lock in for Perth games. Unless we can get Hamblin going in the middle we have no chance because Dandenong's perimeter D is the best in the league, and outside of Ruth our offence is very perimeter-oriented.

Townsville have struck some nice form recently so I think they can challenge Sydney. Their roster is stacked and experienced, and finally starting to click at the right end of the season. Really could go either way, but I think I still have to favour the Flames just because of how consistently good they have been all season. They're a well balanced side with threats everywhere. Should be a top series.

Who will win and why?

Today's Herald-Sun in Melbourne confirms that Australia is one of two remaining bidding countries chasing the 2014 World Championships for women.

Fingers cross that we get over the line for the event that would be staged in Melbourne.

Link: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/basketball/australian-bid-for-nba-game/story-e6frfgbf-1226006512442

From the article:

BA WILL make its final bid presentation on March 13 as FIBA votes on the host of the 2014 women's world championship.

If Australia beats Turkey, the only other bidder, the world titles will be held in Melbourne. Pre-tournament events will be held around Australia, including country Victoria.

"It would be a massive boost for the game in this country," Sengstock said.