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?