SACBA Week 2 Results - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I should have said this last week but it slipped my mind – huge shout out to Ryan “Manners” Williams and “Dangerous” Stu MacDonald who have both come back from a year on the sideline with knee injuries. It is a mighty effort for them to both come back from major surgery – no one would have begrudged either of them if they retired from basketball, it is great to have them back as they are both club legends and important to the club.  

This week we will be having a committee meeting - I will send the details on Monday to your email. We need to discuss a few things - but the main focus will be our new uniforms and the next social event.

We had our first training at the new gym  last Tuesday – it is an amazing stadium and is going to be a great training base for us. There is a rate to be organised with the School – but paid up members can become members of the RED Centre (to use the gym, pool etc) for $250 for the rest of the year. Details to come.

Here are a couple of photos:

 

Hands up who is the all-time leading games played, all-time leading scorer and all-time leading 3 point shooter in the club’s history.*

How handsome are we?

It is Derby Day this weekend. We will be going to The Seven Stars from 3pm after the 3 derbies this Saturday – A’s v B’s, D’s v E’s and F’s v G’s.

The stats page I have set up for the A Grade is now a PAOCBC Stats Page. It has all of the stats for all 11 PAOCBC teams - A's through G's, Lady Reds and the 3 mid-week teams. Just click the league there on the left. The A Grade league has stats for all the 8 A Grade teams ... the other grades just has the PAOCBC teams. Once the regrading happens after next week I will be putting all the schedules on here so you can go on there and check your game times.

Not that we want to make this blog a Classified webpage that we can use to hock our wares – but Jon “Road Train” Read is a sponsor of the club so he gets special treatment. Jon is selling his car – you can find the link to the car here. Jon has guaranteed me, if you purchase this car, the ladies will find you irresistible.

As an aside before we start - I am watching TV and Tom Waterhouse comes on, he is everywhere … I wonder if he offers odds on him being a douche – probably unbackable.

To the reports:

A’s (2-0) v Brighton A (0-2) – Not sure if this game warrants a report … possibly one of the worst games of A Grade ball I have ever seen. It is a weird vibe at the Powerhouse, Brett Maher Court – the benches are at the end of the court and it makes tough to coach and run the team.  Brighton had 4 ringins and their big guy injured himself in the first 2 minutes. It was close with Brighton making shots and the Reds seemingly not overly engaged. Reds up 23-18 at halftime and Foo was playing well with 10 points. Second half – another Brighton player got injured and they were down to 4. Brighton showed some impressive fighting quality but 4 players will never beat 5 players – Hobbs enjoyed the downhill skiing conditions in the 2^nd half. Reds ran out winners 50-39. Foo had 16, Hobbs 13 and Liam 11.

B’s (1-1) v Gateway A (1-1) – An important matchup even this early in the season, Reds were missing Darcy and Jamie, Gateway were missing their entire backcourt of 4 quality players. Gateway jumped early with Smith and Meyer 10-0 lead causing issues down low. Palky got the scoring underway with a couple of 3’s and Mike and Lachy were getting inside. Reds down 15-24 at halftime. The Reds then went on a 13-2 run – Mike, Lachy and Ned on the break, Goody hit a jumper and the Reds got a 30-26 lead. In the last 30 seconds – Gateway down 3 – Smith was fouled for 3 and made all 3 FTs – tied game. Reds went down and shot too early (see; Palky) and missed. Gateway got the board, went down shot an airball, Meyer caught the airball and laid it in and won on the buzzer 33-31. Mike had 10, Lachy 7 and Palk 6. Gateway's report here.

C’s (2-0) v Unley Park A – Written by G - This week the C's were up against the Unley Park A who were a mix of an A and B grade team from last year. We started slowly giving them too many easy looks and offensive rebounds on defence and not getting the ball inside enough. We called a time out at 12:00 and refocused on these issues. We were hungrier on defence and they had no answer to our inside-outside game on offence and managed to get up by 6 at half time, with the C’s clearly in control. Our goal was to beat them by another 6 in the 2nd half. We did that in 4 minutes. They were playing a terrible trap that was giving us layup after layup. A great game all round and one of the best team performances I have seen. Final scores were 49-34. G had 17, Thommo 9 and Phill 7. The bench were all very into the game … like these guys.

 D’s (1-1) v Dunn A – Written by Simon - The D's started well against Dunn, containing their offense with Man D, while moving the ball well to find good inside & outside looks for Jono, Nick & Angas, all with 4 for the half. Aside from getting into the bonus & being called on a couple of dubious travels, the Reds were controlling the game & led 14-7 at the half. The 2nd half started the same but a few minutes in we got a little lazy in D, Dunn lifted, & went on an 8-0 run to put the game on level pegging. The Reds scrapped to try to take home the chocolates, Pritch with good hustle & a well needed bomb, Jono converting a plus-one, Reggie hitting a 3 & Krantz dominating inside & getting to the line several times in the game. Lunny played great D to force several turnovers/bad shots & Wildy & Kirkham moved well to create opportunities - and gave some slick passes. All in all everyone played ok, but we were outscored by 10 in the 2nd half & couldn't overcome Dunn's lead, going down 33-30. No-one dominated the scoring, Jono & Krantz best with 7 each. Big thanks to Phil for scoring for us & Cam for helping on the clock in the 2nd half. 

E’s (2-0) v SPOC C – Written by Diamond –  The E's only had five this week due to injuries and unfortunate circumstances and the lack of subs showed as the game went on. Defence was the story of the game, with neither side doing a great deal to trouble the score bench. Scoring for the Reds was dominated by Bubner throughout the game (even to the point of including making a couple of free throws). With scoring difficult, the game went down to the wire and Saints managed to edge closer in the last couple of minutes. Fortunately, we managed to hold onto a slender lead to get away with a win. All up a good outcome under difficult conditions. Win 24-23. Bubner 16, Smith 4.

F’s (2-0) v East Allstars A – Written by Brown Dog – The F’s fielded a full squad on Saturday and broke out to a solid early lead on the back of Phil and Road Train’s work inside the key and a crisp triple from Stu. The lead was slashed to 3 at the half when they started penetrating our defence. We had a shaky start in the second after Road Train was pushed by number 7 (who was  not a totally pleasant chap**) and nearly broke Phil in half when he fell on him. Brad got the bench to its feet with an amazing three point play and heated up finding holes everywhere in their defence. Road Train got revenge on the gentleman that wore** number 7 with a massive block that knocked that sir ** to the ground while Brad capped off a good half with a pull up triple on the buzzer, extending the final winning margin to 12. Brad ended up with 17, Phil 8, Jay and Stu 5 each.

G’s (1-1) v SPOC E – Written by Nige - This week G-Force took on the SPOC E grade.  Unfortunately, three of our 8 players were unavoidably delayed and arrived late, and the five who were there to take the court were just as late in getting their act together.  Some sloppy play resulted in turnovers, and when we did get a good look, the shots just wouldn’t drop.  At the other end SPOC managed to get a few buckets and half-way through the quarter they led 8-2.  Offensively the turnovers had dropped but the shots still wouldn’t, while SPOC managed to add a couple more buckets to get out to 12-2 late in the half.  It took a couple of fast breaks in the shadows of half-time to bring the deficit back to 12-6.  The second half was much better than the first, but too many shots were still finding the outside of the rim and the scoreboard movement was glacial from both teams.  However the margin was slowly but surely cut back and stood at just a single bucket with a couple of minutes left.  The Redmen needed a stop, but instead SPOC made a three.  At the other end we repeatedly came up empty, while SPOC added a lone free throw to make the final score 25-19.  Reid scored 9, Brendon 7 and Jackie 3.

Lady Reds (1-1) v Trinity A – The  Lady Reds were up against a team of young girls … on an unrelated note – Flair was in attendance for his first game of the season. The Reds started slow in a grind but got going with an Alicia jumper and a couple of FTs, Georgie started dominating down low with 4 baskets and Jordy's aggression was too much for the youth of Trinity. Wans, in here 2nd game of basketball ever, showed that she is going a really important player for the Reds - she is very athletic. The 2nd half the Reds started bombing 3's from everywhere - Alicia found her jumper hitting a couple of 3's and another long j and Megan was on fire scoring 15 points in the last 10 minutes with three 3's, a short corner j, a couple of FT's and a crafty lefty layup. Reds win 50-10. Megan had 15, Alicia played her best game for the Reds with 12 and Georgie with 10.

Palky’s Super Tops Trio - Week 2:

3rd. Jon Foo – A’s
2nd. Alex Bubner – E’s
1st.   Brad Hughes – F’s

Game Times – Week 3:

May 18	A	B's	1.50	Powerhouse	1
May 18	B	A's	1.50	Powerhouse	1
May 18	C	Holdfast A	1.50	Powerhouse	2
May 18	D	E's	1.50	Cedar	1
May 18	E	D's	1.50	Cedar	1
May 18	F	G's	1.00	Cedar	2
May 18	G	F's	1.00	Cedar	2
May 18	LR	Unley Park B	4.20	Powerhouse	1

 *Manners just got fucking mad
**Made an edit to the originally submitted report

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SACBA Week 2 - Game Times and Previews

Week 1 was a great success with all men's teams getting a first up win and the Lady Reds playing a great game against the A Grade's best women's team (an honourable loss I think they call it).

I have started a site for the A Grade Stats. I will be attempting to keep this updated - it relies on me getting all the scoresheets but shouldn't be too hard.

Derby Day is May 18th. Please if anyone plays in a team where they can get us 8 uniforms please let me know. We only have 2 alternate strips and we need a 3rd.

Game Times Week 2
A's v Brighton A - With Orks and Corey out the A's are centreless. Brighton have a really good big guy but the A's should have too much class.

B's v Gateway A - Gateway are a really good side with a solid big and good shooters ... they definitely play basketball better than they spell. Gateway have had good luck when facing the B's - they met the B's last year both times when their best player (Davel) missed games against them and their best player this year (Darcy) will be missing this week. This is an important match up this early in the season but Gateway would be favourites going in.



C's v Unley Park A - Unley Park are a former A Grade side - they have some crafty guards and decent bigs. The C's showed how good they are last week and should get the win.

D's v Dunn A - Dunn are the best team in the C/D Grade having won the league a few times in a row. They have 2 good bigs and surround them with good shooters. The D's will need to work hard to get the win.

E's v SPOC C - Saints C's haven't been very good for the last few years. Not sure who they have playing for them - so let's say the E's will win.

F's v East All Stars A - This must be a couple of teams combined. They are All Stars ... so surely they will pump our F's =)

G's v Saints E's - Saints E's struggled last year - we held them to less than 20 every time we played them last year and the G's looked good last week - so I reckon the G's will get it.

Lady Reds v Trinity A - Never seen Trinity - let's say they do as their name suggests and shoot 3's. Lady Reds were good last week and this is another week of them together.

May 11	A	Brighton A	2.40	Powerhouse	1
May 11	B	Gateway A	1.50	Powerhouse	2
May 11	C	Unley Park A	3.30	Powerhouse	2
May 11	D	Dunn A	1.00	Cedar	1
May 11	E	Saints C	1.50	Cedar	1
May 11	F	East All Stars A	1.50	Cedar	2
May 11	G	Saints E	1.00	Cedar	2
May 11	LR	Trinity A	4.20	Powerhouse	1

SACBA Week 1 - I Got That Winning Feeling

I might be a total nerd* but the first game of the SACBA is my favourite day of the year … other than SACBA Grand Final Day, any home game against Melbourne Victory Toddy’s Beergustation BBQ, Breaking Bad first episode of the new season, first day of the Adelaide Test (if I have members tickets) … and I guess I should say my anniversary. As always, this year holds some exciting opportunities – the A’s have rebooted their 5 time champion team by adding promising youth, the B’s want to take one more step this year and make the A Grade Grand Final, the D’s have become the C’s and have added some good players, the D’s are a team filled with 6 promising rookies (want to see some cool rookie pictures here … the E’s are a team of solid veterans, the F’s have Brad, Jay and Road Train leading what seems to be the funnest team in the club and it is even more exciting with Dangerous Stu returning from 2 years off after a knee recon and the it is the first time we have run a G’s. The Lady Reds are back and are looking to build themselves into a title contender.

The A’s, B’s, C’s and Lady Reds will be plying their trade at The Powerhouse and the D’s, E’s, F’s and G’s are at Cedar.

SPOILERS: We couldn’t have hoped for a better week – with all men’s teams winnings their first game of the season.  

Next Social Event – May 18^th (Week 3) is Derby Day. The A’s are playing the B’s, D’s v E’s and F’s v G’s. The games are all over by 2.40pm – so we will head back to The Seven Stars to put the nastiness of the “Dance With Your Sister” games.

To the reports:

A’s (1-0) v Gateway A (0-1) – Written by Liam - First up for the new look A team were the familiar faces of Gateway. Early on it was clear the match would be a far cry from the quality of the final round classic the teams played last year, so the focus was on getting the win and moving on. Their D allowed plenty of looks from wide deep, but the touch wasn't quite there. The plan for Gateway seemed to be hit the posts and we gave them too many fouls so they could get easy points from the line. It wasn't too bad though as we looked decent in transition and built a reasonable buffer. The second half was much the same. We missed a stack of mid and close range but were all over them on the boards. We probably got it out to a 15 point game before a late run on their part tightened it up. A good win 39-30 in what was not a great match. Almost highlight of the game was Orken rising above Kerwin to almost throw down a cracking two-hander in transition. Kinda summed the day up. Having said that, they were without some key players so it's tough to read much into this, but a good start for the new additions to the side; Foo, Orks and Corey. Good spread of scorers - Jack 8, Phil, Hobbs and Orks 8.

 

Here is Gateway's summary of the match (likely up on Sunday afternoon/Monday morning)

B’s (1-0) v Brighton A (0-1) – Written by Palky – The B’s have had a few changes – Foo, Orks and Corey have left for greener pastures in the A’s – replaced by two of the A’s best players – Mike Hill and Andrew Good. With the B’s 5 best players from last year out of the team (the 3 newest A’s and last season’s 2 leading scorers – Davel and Leo), the B’s have also bought in Darcy “Isotope” Aistrope.

 

This week, the B’s were up against last season’s A Grade cellar dwellers Brighton A. The B’s jumped out to a fast start – Darcy was scoring on the break and hitting 3’s, Good and Lachy were controlling the boards and we were up 21-8 at halftime – Darcy with 16. The 2^nd half – the Reds starting hitting 3’s – Mike, Jamie, Darcy and Palk all hit shots, Davey was scoring inside and it was an absolute walk in the park. Brighton are a little feisty (with one guy a bit angry ... not as mad as this (loads of swearing in this link). In the infamous words of Homer (Simpsons … not the poet) “you talk better than you fool” … or in this case play basketball. Reds win 55-21 – Darcy with 28, Mike 8 and Davey 7. Great start.

C’s (1-0) v The Corner A (0-1) – Written by G - Revenge how sweet it is! This week, the C’s were up against The Corner A (formerly Crossway) who we lost to in the grand final last year. We came out in a man-to-man defence led by Ryan "Manners" Williams. The Corner didn't know what to do with it, not being able to get up an open shot inside the arc all game. Our offence took a little while to get going with good shots not dropping. G hit a 3 and Madman a couple from "Madman Corner". Then Tom came on and lit it up on both ends of the court. With our stifling D and getting some shots inside we built a tidy lead by 1/2 time. The 2nd half we traded baskets and ended up winning 39-27. Tom should get all the 2's and the rest of the votes will be an even spread. Thommo had 15, Hendo 7 and G 6.

 

The C's frontline looks scary ... almost as scary as this.  

D’s (1-0) v Taperoo A (0-1) – Written by Sime - The full squad of 8 took to the Cedar pine (a woody joke I know) against Taperoo. We were ready for the general thuggery and played a cleaner running game as a counter and Man D the whole way through. Crawford was in everything & finishing well early en route to 9 for the half, Reggie hit 2 treys & was fouled on another. The team was moving a lot better in offense than in the trial game & creating opportunities - Mitch K getting some good looks as a result. A 22-18 lead at the half. More of the same in the 2nd, although because it was Taperoo it got scrappier. Reggie drew an unsportsmanlike foul by simply stepping in front of a cherry picking player to steal the long pass & getting thrown to the ground for his troubles - Taperoo player arguing 'but HE stepped in front of ME'. The boys rebounded well & stuck with their D, & although there were a couple of turnovers, held their nerve & the lead for a 35-29 win. Angus Crawford & Reggie finished with 13 each.

E’s (1-0) v Knightsbridge B (0-1) – Written by Diamond – The E’s had a significant size advantage over the team of children Knightsbridge elected to field. We use our size advantage well in the first half and managed to go into the break with a comfortable lead. In the second half Knightsbridge resorted to the defensive tactic of hacking at every opportunity, we obliged by shooting 1 for 9 from the. Fortunately, our defence was too good for Knightsbridge to capitalise on our lack of scoring and we managed a nine point win. Top scorers were Josh with 11 and Bubner with 8, nice to have an early win, but there is some work to be done over the season.
 

F’s (1-0) v Golden Grove A (0-1) – Written by Stu - The F's kicked off the season facing last year’s premiers of Golden Grove A. We started with Jay, Hanzolo, Phil, Udit and Brad with Road Train and Dangerous on the bench - missing was captain/coach/manager Brownie and Mark Davis who was promised to us midweek. Hanzolo led proceedings for the season with a handy baseline bucket - he finished up with 2 and I wish I could say that he didn't trouble the scoresheet any further. We started off strong and got a lead out to 12 - 6. Brad controlled the ball well in O, getting the ball to the driving Jay - who had 7 for the half with a 3 point play to boot. Our man D was working pretty well and they were finding it tough to get a good look but a few second chances fell their way. We went into the half 18 - 13. We started the second  in a zone D as they weren’t really hitting anything from outside - it was pretty slow scoring for both and with about 8 to go we had put on another 14 to their 11 and a 9 point lead looked pretty, dare I say, safe. Their #43 and #13 then began to find holes in our zone - driving thru the key and finishing nicely. Scoring then pretty much dried up for us hitting only another 4 points whilst the baptists kept pegging us back. They were getting second chances now in the form of tech fouls -  thankyou Hanzolo. They never got the lead though, they had a couple of chances to hit the winning bucket - we won 36 - 35. Everyone contributed on the sheet with Jay finishing with 11. Road Train was great on the boards and had a couple of putbacks. Udit threw out some massive passes all thanks to carb loading with chicken rice whilst driving to the game. Yours truly bombed a couple of threes. Good start to the season with a win over premiers and pumped for the rest of the year.  Note for future -The refs were pretty keen on the whistle with 28 fouls called and didn’t like any chat. Our foul shooting was 6 of 19 (with Jay 3 of 3).

G's (1-0) v Spicer A (0-1) – Written by Nige - The exciting blend of youth and experience that make up the Uncanny G-Men took to the court for their debut against Spicer, who also seemed to be a blend of youth and experience.  There the comparison ended, as the energy and teamwork showed by the G-men were a class above their opponents.  Defensive pressure led to turnovers which led to easy fast-break baskets by Brendon, Daniele, and Reid, and in the half-court slick ball-movement and unselfish play produced more easy buckets for everyone. When Spicer did put up a shot under pressure, Sam and Will cleaned up the boards with authority, denying second-chance attempts.  The half-time score was 28-11, and Spicer stayed on 11 for most of the second half while the G-Men kept their own score ticking over regularly. Play of the game was Reid forcing a turnover in the back corner of the court, as he was falling out of bounds flicking it to Nigel, who passed ahead to Brandon, who passed to James heading for the basket, but his momentum took him under the backboard so he threw a no-look pass over his head to the trailing Sam who made the lay-up – literally the full length of the court with all 5 players touching the ball. Final score was 47-16 .  Brendon scored 14, Reid 10 and everyone got on the scoresheet in a solid all-round team effort.  Thanks to Brad Daniel for performing the scoring duties.

 
I saw this photo (this is Palky writing this BTW) on my Facebook today - it warmed my heart to see 3 rookies excited for their first game for the club. It is great that this club is here to provide this for young fellas keen to come and be part of what we are trying to acheive. 
 

Lady Reds (0-1) v Adelaide A – Written by Palky – The Lady Reds are back together for another season after almost not being able to get a team together. The return Reds are the core of Megan, Jordy, Georgie and Tracey … with Alicia coming in from last year. We have added 2 players – Loz and Wans (sounds like a sassy crime fighting duo). The Reds were up against last year’s champs – the well drilled and robust Adelaide A.

Adelaide started well making a number of short jumpers as they do. The Reds focused on not letting Adelaide get any transition baskets – Jordy was getting to the line, Tracey got a nice layup and Alicia hit a 3 – down 9-14 at halftime. Adelaide got the lead out to 14 in the 2^nd half, the Reds stuck to their game – and shots that were not falling, started to drop – Loz hit two 3’s, Megan hit a 3 and Tracey got 4 layups. It was a bit too late – Reds down 31-38 – Tracey had 10, Loz 8 and Jordy 6.

This year I am doing away with Palky’s Player of the Week – I am going to Palky’s Super Tops Trio:

Palky’s Super Tops Trio - Week 1:

3^rd. Brendan Francesca – G’s
2^nd. Thommo Oliphant  - C’s
1^st.   Darcy Aistrope – B’s

Game Times – Week 2:

May 11	A	Brighton A	2.40	Powerhouse	1
May 11	B	Gateway A	1.50	Powerhouse	2
May 11	C	Unley Park A	3.30	Powerhouse	2
May 11	D	Dunn A	1.00	Cedar	1
May 11	E	Saints C	1.50	Cedar	1
May 11	F	East All Stars A	1.50	Cedar	2
May 11	G	Saints E	1.00	Cedar	2
May 11	LR	Trinity A	4.20	Powerhouse	1

-Palky 

*Who am I kidding – of course I am – I am writing a blog and doing stats on a Saturday night … it doesn’t really scream “smooth man about town” does it?