Hoops

Wildcats v United Friday 20th October

Anyone else notice Chris Goulding running into a lot of screens during this game? I made a video of it

Two quality teams going at it , but tooo much whistle..Pretty hard to guard anyone at all ..
(one time ago we trialed play on advantage , but got too rough....)

Yeah can't believe they called against sucha sick play with hardly any foul. Pathetic.

or nbl.tv or abc

on foxtel

What's the point LV? Let your best players rest. No matter what they may have done the refs would have screwed them over and ensured Perth won. This is LV logic.
Please go to http://vba.asn.au/

That was just bizarre.

Is there press conf recording anywhere? I hope they asked him that.

United had the ball. If they'd drilled a quick 3, it would've been a 5 point ball game with 45-50 secs left.

So what is it the lovebroker? You are quick with the sarcasm which tells me you are a feeble minded idiot.

My God, you Melb supporters are just pathetic. If any of you are over 13 years of age, you should hang your head in shame. Forget sport, go join a library or a bridge club. The bridge club may help you get over it.

"I see the favouritism.. is it league mandated or are the refs told that the revenue stream from the wildcats is too important to jeopardise by calling a fair and even game?"

Yes its favourtism, the owner of the league (and the United) ordered the Refs make United lose.

LV - just loved your breakdown of calls/no-calls during the game, obviously with the benefit of slow-motion/rewind.
Each call is a split second, and can never be repeated.
Just hoping someone can do that for you, to help you improve your life's journey. That way, you'll always be right.

The refs were shocking last night and whilst the wildcats are always benefitting from some favourable calls, last night it was exceptionally bad. Melborine wasn’t allowed to breathe on a wildcat at one end whilst the wildcats were allowed to play their brand of defense of which the cornerstone is physicality and contact down the other end with impunity.

The wildcats were struggling offensively early in the 3rd when the refs started giving out fouls to Melbourne like they were candy. The fact the wildcats were on the foul line shooting bonuses so early helped them withstand a run from United.. that along with United’s best players riding the bench by the end of the third due to foul trouble.

I see the favouritism.. is it league mandated or are the refs told that the revenue stream from the wildcats is too important to jeopardise by calling a fair and even game?

The wildcats are already a very good team, do they really need the extra help to win consistently?

Teams always tend to get some home cooking; and as paul says, Perth is no different (but arguably slightly worse than others). Even as a Breakers fan I'll concede we get some really bad home cooking (as in bad for the league; obviously good for the Breakers)

We really need Perth games to give really high quality, competitive games as they did last night. Last thing we want is for Perth to be so dominant at home that people aren't interested because the result is a foregone conclusion. But heck; I'd still tune in to all Perth games if they're as close and as high quality as that (but I fear the likes of the Hawks and Cairns going there)

I'm talking playing styles. Relative to the competitions they are in.

As in, I could see Tokoto having a Kawhi like impact in NBL like Kawhi has in NBA. Great 2 way player potential

Prather already is

LV did you just try and compare Casey Prather...a 0 time NBL MVP to Kawai Leonard? I've been a Perth fan all my life and I've never been that delusional. I guess you think Ware is A better IT and Goulding shoots as well as Steph Curry LOL

(And Prather is a logical fit alongside Adnam because you're putting easily your strongest perimeter/wing defender on court with your weakest)

Tokoto reminds me of Kawhi Leonard about 2 or 3 seasons ago. Just before Kawhi took the final step to NBA superstardom.

Prather is already there.

Looking forward to seeing what Prather can do when Goulding is fit and firing.

If I'm Vickerman I'd be tempted to run Barlow alongside Ware and CG. Let Prather be the man with Adnam alongside him. I reckon the big 3 are wasted a little when on court together. I'd be making sure 1 of them is on court at all times

Tokoto could be just as effective in the NBL as Prather. Maybe not straight away but by the end of the season.

Prather I think is better at handling the ball and getting to the hoop, Tokoto is taller, more athletic and longer wingspan. On ball D I think Prather may shade him, but Tokoto looks Slightly more troublesome and disruptive than Prather on the glass and off ball D in the passing lanes.

Cats absolutely got some home calls... but we were at home! That's what a 13k sellout gets you.
LV get over it, breaking down every play to find a missed call to justify your team losing is just sad.
United will be absolutely be in the GF this year in my opinion but they can't have Ware, Goulding and Prather all having off nights together.

Tokoto is certainly not Prather 2.0. Cannot create scores for himself, and not ready to say Tokoto trumps him defensively. Both are probably the best wing defenders in the comp though

Melbourne could not play strong enough D without fouling. They were in team fouls with 7 mins left in the third.

Then Boone, Goulding & Ware were all on 3 fouls. Overall 27 fouls to 17. Sending the Wildcats to the line for 26-30. When you score 30% of your overall score as basically uncontested shots your going to win.

Tokoto is Prather 2.0, is more athletic and once he gets settled in could be phenomenal for the Cats. Remembering Prathers first few games, I thought he was going to be sent home!

Overall great game, going to be a great series between these 2 teams!

Pretty cool to see the Facebook Page 'Basketball Forever' (Usually NBA posts, but its an Australian Admin) do a couple of posts about the game. Over 2mil followers who are basketball fans is some good exposure. Always going to be those handful of NBA snobs talking trash about the NBL, but quite a lot of the comments on the posts were pretty positive.

"Jesus LV, you're a little bitch"

That's unfair, bitches stop once no one is listening. LV kept going after everyone left the Stadium.

Didn't watch the whole game but IMO the standard of the league this year is pretty crazy (granted we were watching two of the best teams probably but still)

Really enjoyed the arm wrestle of the first 3 qtrs.

Once again a defensive momentum swing orchestrated by Martin swayed the pendulum the Wildcats way.

When Martin decides to lockdown (in this case on a rookie) why don't opposing coaches send a barrage of on balls....immediately??
Coaches/teams seem to just let him take the momentum, which is infectious within the Wildcats group and activates the fans(mission accomplished)

Although beautiful watch, at this level Martin alone shouldn't be allowed to have such control of the pendulum...

First off Redhage is the most biased commentator ever and is boring a fuck. 27 to 17 team fouls with 12 extra freethrows didnt help us. Refs were influenced by the crowd and called the softest of fouls. Wildcats fan getting all arrogant now when the game was gifted too you. Over the foul limit with over 7 minutes to go in one of the quarters?

Can LV have their own thread for future games, shit to read after the game when you are interested in more than just complaints. Like maybe the players and plays.

As for pulling players, it was really weird. It was unlikely but not mathematically out of reach, especially when you have Goulding/ware who can hit pressure threes.

my general thoughts -

cotton/ware seemed fairly passive considering we know what they can do, mostly taking what came to them and not so much creating.

Prather was a bit fumbly but came good and was probably MUs best.

Tokoto fumbled even more, honestly looks like he is thinking 2 steps ahead of where he actually is instead of being in the moment and reacting to defense. Some places you can get away with planning your moves on the approach but defense are ready for it here.

Brandt is legit, clearly the international stint has given him a lot of confidence. Willing to back anyone down on the post. teams will pay more attention to that left hook shot.

Cooke is exciting, can't say much more than that atm

Doubt wildcats will see another game against MU this season without Goulding nailing a 3.

Tensions were boiling over long before the walker incident, could see little bumps by both teams behind play.

Perths depth was the difference in the end. Matty knights move there gives the bench a whole new look and if Cooke keeps that up, the second unit is very strong with wagstaff offensively and defensively.

Also LV Prather didn't get those calls on drives even when he played for Perth. Why would he get them now?

The refs dont have benefit of sitting in a chair watching TV footage like you seem to be doing LV. If you actually watch what Melbourne do you'd realize that every time a refs veiw is obstructed they grab on a jersey, hook a body or grab the arm of the player cutting. From my courtside seats I saw that on almost every play. Sure perth do it to be no where near as much as Anderson, Boon and Wesley did. If you stop being a 1 eyed fan you'd notice that if every foul was called on both sides it would still be a plus 10 foul count because Melbourne still got away with alot of off ball fouls.
But at the end of the day you play to the whistle. Gotta adjust to what the refs are calling. They made crap calls but were consistent crap calls. Gotta adjust to it thats what they big $$ are for.

'Seriously tho, I feel like Cooke Jr impacted tonight's game more than McKay did any game he played last season'

Selling McKay short. He was a beast defensively last year

LV this site isn't your own personal blog.

Quite the meltdown, LV. Holy ....

J- what about the foul on Goulding 9:00 3rd quarter? Thing is, if you call a foul cos someone brushed someone with a fingernail, well then they missed about 15 fouls on Perth - every time Prather went on a drive.

So don't say "adjust your close outs". NBL needs better refs in Perth. It's a longstanding issue.

4:30 3rd quarter that was meant to be

It's simple.

Melbourne had loads of soft foul calls against them. Perth didn't. All of Perth's fouls were fairly clear cut fouls. And Perth actually committed a number of fouls that weren't called.

With fair reffing United probably wins that. So with your star shooting guard returning and in round 3 of the season with a new coach, losing by 5, I doubt Vickerman will be too upset about losing tbh. It's a long season.

I think one thing United can learn from Perth is defending the post

You can't let a big unit like Brandt back his man down and go one out, so close to the hoop.

Contrast that to around the 430 (give or take) watch Perth doubling Andersen when he was posting up. Sure Martin is DPOY but we need to apply the same principles.

There was beaps of holding off the ball both ways. MU should have adjusted how hard they closed out after the second time

Never quite reached the heights it could have with the talent on the floor, but still a pretty intense game.
FWIW I partially agree with LV. Felt like Perth copped some softish ones early, but after that there were regular serves of home cooking.
Loved DCJr's contributions.

WTF were MU doing pulling the starters with the game still winnable?

It's funny actually, just this morning I was watching the Jonny Flynn '8 v 5' press conference.

"That was one thing I heard when I first came to the NBL was you come here and you have to be ready to play a little extra, play a little harder because things aren't going to go your way."

"I'm looking like, 'what do you mean?' everyone knows this and nothing has ever been said about these certain things not going your way."

Keep looking im sure you can find more

Q3 1:25 NO foul on Cooke screen?
0:56 No foul on Cooke pushing opponent off the ball?
Q3 0:25 No moving screen on Knight vs Goulding in the backcourt?
Q4 8:28 Prather arm grabbed and interfered with while getting rebound on baseline? not called
Q4 8:05 Cooke over the back on rebound not called
Q4 6:53 No charge called?

Thing is these aren't necessarily obvious calls. But if you're gonna call every tiggy touchwood foul on one team.... Then you call it on both.

Surprise, Ainsley is actually me.

Seriously tho, I feel like Cooke Jr impacted tonight's game more than McKay did any game he played last season

Carn the us!

Got some good/bad footage. Strange ref calls tonight.

Taking the win but would prefer not to talk about it. You guys would likely just ruin it for me with jealousy!

And facts

I hope for the same outcry when there us a plus 10 foul differential against the cats. Oh wait that's just called justice isn't it?

Q3 2:16 Casper was fouled but they missed a foul on wagstaff on same play

Q3 2:38 Cotton sticks his leg out. Incidental contact on arm after shot. Why a foul on Adnam? Let it go

Lv thinking, cooke jr fouled adnam so that justifies Wesley shirtfront. But the theory doesn't apply when Wesley fouled walker approaching the loose ball, walker is a flog. For the record dumb play by walker.

Q3 4:17 No foul on Cooke screen?

Perth is much better at defending post

...Took a while to develop...