Week #13 recap - Game #17 vs Joondalup Wolves (129 - 109 loss), Game #18 vs Goldfield Giants (117 - 99 loss)

Two tough losses, against two very well credentialled teams. The boys fought hard and there were a few surprises in there, but in the end not enough to get the wins.

Saturday night against the Wolves was a fiery clash. Both teams were hard at it, and perhaps there was a little too much 'attitude' from both teams. However at least the referee's kept it from turning into something I think everyone would have regretted and instead it was an exciting and passionate game.

We played zone the entire game, and came out hard...so hard in fact that at one stage I believe the score was 24-1 in our favour. We established a 22 point lead in the first quarter, entirely based on our defensive intensity. It was pleasing to see, and set the tone for the game. However you cannot keep a good team down and it was inevitable that the Wolves would fight back.

At the end of the third we were level, and the final quarter was an early tug-of-war, before the Wolves showed their class and we ran out of legs. I was very impressed with the Wolves team, they have tremendous depth and versatility, and will surely progress deep into the finals.

The next day we backed up against the Kalgoorlie Giants. In what became a bit of a comedy routine, we arrived at the stadium only to find that unless we were planning on a bit of hand to hand combat, we wouldn't be playing there. The center had been booked for a Karate tournament and apparently that had been overlooked. I did offer Coach Charlton a Karate match, winner takes all...I reckon with our lineup we would have had half a chance heheh.

We ended up relocating to Perry Lakes for the game at 12:30pm. My apologies to the Giants team, the spectators and many many thanks to the various scorebench and statisticians that came to our assistance with little notice. We managed to get the game going at 12:30pm on court one, and thanks to the Giants entourage the crowd was one of the best Perry Lakes has seen for a while!

A notable absence from our lineup was John Taylor, who had badly hurt his foot against the Wolves the night before. Also Jarrod Balcombe had hurt his hand badly and only played limited minutes. We battled on nonetheless and yet again put ourselves in a position to be competitive, being level midway through the third quarter at 66 a peice. We ended the third down 74-85 and ended up losing by 18.

Again our defensive intensity was pleasing, and we fought hard against yet another bigger team. At the end of the day with both games, players get tired but they don't shrink. And it is something that will continue to hurt us and we must fight hard to overcome.

In both games we had the pleasing outcome of shooting a higher percentage than the opposition. Against the Wolves we were 47% to their 43%, and against the Giants 46% to 44%. The major issue in both games was the shot attempts. Against the Wolves we had 86 to their 112, the Giants was us 85, them 117. And in case you hadn't guessed, it was all about rebounds.

The Wolves outrebounded us by 28. The Giants by a massive 44. It is extraordinarily difficult to win a basketball game when your opponent beats you that badly on the boards, unless you can make up the difference somehow. The reason the possession count wasn't further out with the Giants was because we managed to force them into 21 turnovers, whilst we kept ours at 13.

Highlights:

• Strong performances on Saturday night from John Taylor (29pts on 56%fg, 6rbds, 4ast), Jarrod Balcombe (22pts, 7rbds), Jon Moon (15pts on 55%fg, 10ast) and Andrew McLennan (16pts on 60%fg, 11rbds, 3stls)
• Similarly Sunday Jon Moon (12pts, 7asts) and Ty Alabakis (31pts on 50%fg, 10rbds, 5stls)
• The continued development of Jon Moon into a true point guard, and a legitimate threat
• Continued defensive intensity, forcing 23 and 21 turnovers

Not so highlights:

• Being massively outrebounded each game...28 and...ugh...44
• In particular with the rebound count, allowing opposition teams to obtain 34 and 32 offensive rebounds (those second chance points are killers)
  
• Undisciplined behaviour at various times across the weekend...we are working hard to establish a reputation as a hard working, competitive team, we need to also improve our attitudes and behaviour
• The ongoing injury toll
• Oh and just to add it for consistency...free throw shooting (63% and 68%)

We now head to Willetton to face the Tigers. Ty Alabakis is managing to play with his sore shoulder, however we received word tonight that John Taylor is out likely 3-6 weeks with what has been diagnosed as Plantar Fasciitis. We aren't sure how Jarrod's hand will heal up, here's hoping he is resilient and it's all ok. And to rub salt into the wounds, we had a visit from Justin Brown during training last week. Unfortunately he wont be playing with us this year.

Regardless, we will face the Tigers and put everything we have on the court. We expect them to do nothing less and let the cards fall where they may. It is guaranteed to be an entertaining game.

Week #12 recap - Game #16 vs Cockburn Cougars (120 – 106 loss)

It doesn’t matter which way you look at it, there’s one major issue that will prevent you from winning games…allowing an opponent to shoot 57% from the field.

We have done a lot of work on our defence, adjusted and tried to inject intensity and aggression. We play primarily zone as with the smaller, relatively inexperienced lineup we have it is tough to matchup well. The zones we have employed have generally worked quite well, however no defence is perfect. I believe we have certainly added a lot to the variations we utilise, and we generally do a good job against much larger and in many cases more talented opponents. However we did not work well together on Saturday night and the Cougars exploited that to consistently open holes.

Our offense was acceptable, we still had the occasional lapse but generally speaking we continued running the floor, attacking the basket and being aggressive. We shot 44% from the field and 40% from the three point line, both good numbers for us this year. The issue lies fairly at the defensive end.

Upsides:

• We still forced 21 turnovers from a team that averages 18 (second lowest in the league)
• We shot 44%fg/40%3pt and generally executed well in our offense
• Solid games from :
  John Taylor – 19pts, 14rbd, 7ast
  Jon Moon – 27pts (47%fg, 50%3pt), 11asts (a pleasing return to form)

Downsides:

• Allowing an opponent to shoot 57% from the field
• 62% - you figure out what for
• We actually won the rebounds…why is this a downside? I have a feeling this is largely due to the lack of rebounds available for Cockburn offensively, as they were all going in…

10 of the 14 SBL teams are involved in double headers this weekend, busy times. Next in line is another tough double header with Saturday night vs the Wolves at Joondalup, and Sunday vs the Giants at Morley.

Week #11 recap - Game #14 vs Lakeside Lightning (110 – 104 loss), Game #15 vs Perry Lakes Hawks (116 – 80 loss)

It turns out Lakeside did have a player out, Austin Bruton was still unavailable with injury. However Christian Moody was back, and Liam Rush also played. It’s handy to pickup an NBL player and add them to an already strong side. Liam has been training for some time now with the Lightning and when Moody and Bruton were injured he stepped up and has fitted into their style well.

We played a hard game against the Lightning and were actually in the lead for a good majority of it. Again the experience of the Lakeside veterans showed through, with Moody, Rush and Olsen stepping up at crucial times towards the latter part of the fourth quarter. I also made some mistakes in the last few minutes, with a timeout or two not being called when it would have been beneficial.

To be honest I haven’t had a massive amount of experience with late game close situations…over 8 years of being an SBL head coach (1 year of WSBL in there) my record is 24% (40-124), not something I’m super proud of but something I am aware of and working hard to overcome. It’s easy to read philosophies, or watch other coaches in those situations and think you’re prepared but when the pressure is on and you’re trying to judge for yourself…lets just say I learnt a lot and will be better for it next time.

We then backed up again to play Perry Lakes. Last time we had beaten the Flames and backed up against the Hawks, and lost 117 – 82. This time we came very close to the Lightning then dropped the game to the Hawks 116 – 80, 1 point more than the previous game. The Hawks played their usual tough, disciplined game and we were ready for it. Beyond that, there wasn’t much there. The team was overall very flat, and we struggled to find consistent contributors.

Unfortunately in the game against the Hawks we lost Ty Alabakis to a re-occurrence of his collarbone injury. It may be a break again, which means he is possibly out for the remainder of the season (but hopefully right to return to the US). We also had some off nights from a few players, but luckily that was the extent of it.

The good:

• Forcing 33 turnovers against Lakeside and 26 against the Hawks
• Solid games from :
  Jarrod Balcombe – 30pts, 10rbd and 17pts, 9rbd
  John Taylor – 25pts, 8rbd, 5ast (in 24mins)
  James Elliot – 9pts @ 80% in 8:29mins (nice for his first game) and 13pts, 9rbd

The not so good:

• Guess what…free throws …56% (14/25) and 58% (14/24)
• Whilst the defensive intensity is there, the outcome is still allowing an opponent to shoot 45% (Lakeside) and 41% (Perry Lakes)
• Being outrebounded by 18 and 26

If there is one positive out of this season, it has been watching Jarrod Balcombe mature as a player. He started off as an introverted teenager, who had potential. He continues to grow and mature this season, has added a more physical side to his game and is becoming more vocal. He still has a lot of potential to realise and I’m sure he will continue his improvement through the remainder of the season.

Next up is Cougars on Saturday night at Cockburn, with the following weekend a Saturday vs Wolves, Sunday vs Giants double. The Cougars sit fifth on the ladder with a 10-5 record and remain one of the best defensive teams in the league. Combined with a very efficient offense, it is a big challenge for us.

Week #10 recap - Game #13 vs Stirling Senators (119 – 91 loss)

Well a little late this week, what can I say…a long weekend and everything is nuts at work.

Well we had the ideal scenario of a single game on the weekend. I believe that when we have one game to focus on and throw everything at, we are at our best. With a younger lineup, it takes energy and intensity to be competitive. That is a little easier when there is just the one game to throw everything at.

However that wasn’t enough as the superior height and experience of the Senators came through. Carmie Olowoyo and Geordie Cullen, both players with NBL experience, really stepped up to the mark. Carmie hit 40 points and Geordie 32 points and 13 rebounds. The remaining Stirling players also contributed strongly, and Chris Dodd in particular had a solid triple double with 12 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists.

One thing I was a little disappointed with was the fact Stirling kept their starters on throughout the fourth quarter. We were 25 points down with about 5 minutes to go and I put our bench out for a run. Stirling kept Carmie out until he fouled out, and Geordie until a few minutes left.

We played a strong game for half, and had a good run in the third but unfortunately dropped off across the third and fourth quarters. The players played hard, and there were some pleasing signs but the bottom line is it’s tough to overcome the height deficiencies.

Good parts:

• The usual defensive intensity (forcing 22 turnovers and 13 steals) and ‘only’ being outrebounded by 10
• A terrific game in foul limited minutes by Andrew McLennan (16pts, 10rbd, 7stls in 27:55min)
• Another strong game from John Taylor, with 22pts (60%fg), 7rbd, 4ast, 5stl

Bad parts:

• Allowing an opposition team to shoot 48% from the floor
• Free throws, free throws, free throws…64% this time (18/28)
• 36% shooting from the field…20 turnovers…and some very poor shot selection

Not the most detailed summary but the best I can muster at this point. We have the weekend from hell coming up now, with Friday night at Morley against the Lakeside Lightning and Saturday at Perry Lakes against the Hawks. I believe Lakeside have a few players out, but the handy addition of Liam Rush has helped them maintain a formidable lineup. I’m not sure how the Hawks are travelling player wise, but I expect them to be at full strength.