SACBA Week 1 Results

Hey all,

The season is back - huzzah I hear you all say ... huzzah.

Before we get to the game reports - I would like to give you an update on the first two social events of the year.

Saturday May 17 after the games I think it would be good to have a casual catch up at the pub. The A's and B's are playing that day so a good way to let the healing begin. More details to come - lock in Saturday May 17th!

PUB CRAWL ALERT - Guys and girls the 11th Annual Pub Crawl or maybe 12th - has a date - Saturday June 7th. The mad scientist of Pub Crawls - Andrew "Big A" Williams has devised the most astounding Pub Crawl of all time ... the 99 Pub Crawl! Last year we did the Tram Pub Crawl ... this year we are doing the 99 Circleline Bus Crawl around Adelaide and North Adelaide. A has concocted the craziest pub crawl ever with wacky new games and activities. At this stage - all you need to know is we are starting at the Seven Stars on Angas Street from 12.30pm. More details to come soon.

We have been training now for months so it is great to finally get the games underway. I for one feel that this has been the most hectic preseason ever and I am already exhausted - getting to the games and getting everything underway was a welcome distarction. There have been a few major changes - with lots of movement from teams - older guys making way in higher teams for the younger guys to be given an oppurtunity. You could see that playing in the preseason has prepared us well - most teams we came up against looked scratchy at best.

Like last year I am updating the stats throughout the season - for both the Saturday leagues and the midweek teams. Once the final schedule comes out for the Saturday season and the midweek seasons I will update the whole schedule so you will be able to see your game times online for the whole season. Stats are here: http://www.leaguelineup.com/welcome.asp?url=sacbaagrade- the links to the teams are on the side.

Not many jokes or links from me this week - I will get back into teasing you all next week (totally think Jono is gonna be my whipping boy this year) and find some sweet links on the net.

To the reports:
A's (1-0) v Oakden A (0-1) - Oakden are back in A Grade where they belong - they have been in the Cedar wilderness for a couple of seasons. They were however without their best player Garfoot for 2 months who did his ankle - I would argue he would be in the best 5 players in the A Grade if not in the best 1 or 2*. The A's would be returning their full squad of 8 guys - this is the first time ever an Old Reds team has returned its whole team without a change. You could see from the start that these guys have been playing together for a while - they were picking apart the Oakden defence - either getting to the basket, to the line or hitting 3's - Phil, Jack, Hobbs all hit 3's. Tauny came in and hit the O glass and Foo finished on the break. A's up 24-11 at halftime - no one had more than 5. The 2nd half Oakden were scoring a bit more easily - finishing inside and getting out on the break. The A's went through a little scoring drought - not making their open shots - Tauny change that, he came on and hit a tough 3 and was scoring inside. Phil hit another 3 and a floater. The game was never not in control - A's won 48-29 - good win without being spectacular. Tauny 13, Phil 10, Jack 9.

Having watched all the A Grade games - the best 2 teams will easily be A's and Gateway - they are clearly the best 2 teams. Saints have lost De Cure, Charles and Scammell. They are returning McMicahel, Good, Hautop, Proctor (who I've been told won't play a lot of games) and Bobo - and they have 3 younger kids - they will be around the mark as always. The B's and Oakden will be the next tier with Saints. Knightsbridge are only returning one guy and for the first time in 15 years Scott Foreman is not around. They will be ok but not a top 4 team. Saints B's and Oakden B's might not be in the grade come rescheduling.

*Think this probably goes in some order - Harfords, Orken, Garfoot, maybe someone from Saints, James Smith and me.

B's (1-0) v Oakden B (0-1) - It is not nice to judge but when I looked down the court against our opposition they didn't really look like a basketball team. With a 23-0 halftime lead my suspicions were correct - they were not. The B's were a brand new team - with only Mike returning to the team that finished 3rd last year (with me and Lachy inured). We needed to use this game to start to gel and find our identity. Angus got the scoring underway early - getting inside for two quick scores, Kartik in his first game for the B's hit a floater and scored on the break. Jono was getting to the basket easily and getting fouled - what he didn't find easy was hitting the rim on free throws - on two separate trips he made one and airlballed one. Kartik hit a couple of 3's in the first half. The 2nd half was more of a grind - Oakden clogged the lane and we were not making our jumpers and Oakden started scoring on the O Boards (they had 2 pretty decent athletes). Jono found the skiing conditions to his liking as he cruised to the basket time after time on the break. Tomo, Phill and Angus played well inside and the Mike controlled the team well. Highlight was a Kartik sweet behind the back flick at 3/4 court to Mike on a break. Reds win 49-14. Jono and Kartik scored 15, Angus had 7.

From a coaching standpoint I am always trying to work out what kind of team we are gonna be - I think we might run a bit more than last year, I am not sure we will lock down teams like we did last year so we will need to make sure to get shots up every offense, crash the glass and look to run, run, run.   

C's (1-0) v Southwest A (0-1) - Written by G - Round 1 saw us come against Southwest A. Both teams came out in man defence and it was fairly close early on. 10 mins in the Cs started to hit their stride, Madman hitting a few and “Fancy Krantz*” dominating inside at both ends. The second half was a story of missed free throws. Early in the half we were getting good looks, making a few and “Fancy Krantz” mopping up the glass. Then they just started fouling and sending us to the line…5 of 14 for the half…not good. Southwest weren’t doing much to trouble the scorers and we ended up with a comfortable win, 43-24. Top scorers were Krantz with 15 (3 of 9 FT), Kirkham with 9 and Madman and Wildy with 6.
*Verdict still out on this nickname Palky…

D's (1-0) v Hope A (0-1) Written by Simon - A new season and a very new team – only 2 guys on Saturday had a returning team-mate from 2013.  So we expected it might take a little bit for the team to find its groove.  We were facing up against Hope Church A, a team that had delivered a GF loss to our C’s a couple of years ago, their El Palko beating our Palk (the original and still the best) on the day.  But El Palko was nowhere to be seen, perhaps also suffering a mysterious leg injury? The D’s started slowly in a scrappy first few minutes, and while we were controlling the play reasonably well, we couldn’t score.  Road Train’s game plan was simple – let’s put the little orange thing in the round thing more than they do.  As the half wore on we got our run on a bit, Brendon getting amongst it with 6, and almost everyone doing what they do best – Jon inside, Stu on the 3, Kobe on the reverse, Ned on the drive – and with 5 bonus points we had a 25-10 halftime lead.  Funniest thing from the 1st half was Ned drawing 2 players as the shot clock wound down, the mid-court umpire counting it down and Reg hitting a jumper with 2 seconds being the call – only to have it waved away by the other umpire who apparently counts more quickly… The D’s dominated the first few minutes of the 2nd half, our opponents living up to their name and with great D, forcing them to ‘hope’ on a lot of turnaround jumpers etc.  We held them scoreless for the first 10 minutes, and getting our running game working we piled on the points, B. Frangars in everything and Moorfoot hitting a couple of nice mid-range shots and icing some free throws.  Hope pulled out 10 points again in the 2nd – but all from one player - while we shared it around.  We ran away with it, 55-20, Brendon with 17, Moorfoot with 10, Ned 9.  Thanks to G-Man for taking the pen for the game, much appreciated.
E's (0-1) v Golden Grove A (1-0) - Written by Max - When I went to get ready for the game on Sautrday I discovered that my uniform was still in the laundry basket from my Thursday night match. This predicament was much like the E’s this week, unorganised and smelly. The first half we eked out a 14-7 lead, but in the second half we only managed 7 points, going down in the final seconds 21-22.  At times we showed glimpses of our potential as a team. Brad fought hard around the basket to get some space, and Rough Justice rewarded him by threading the needle to him on multiple occasions. Bubs was aggressive slashing to the hoop but didn’t have any luck with the roll. Foo hit a sweet 3 pointer from the top. Mostly though we looked stagnant at both ends of the floor and never really found our rhythm. Brad top scored with 10, and Bubs had 5.

F's BYE

G's (0-1) v SPOC D (1-0) - Written by Hitman - Last season, G-Force’s final four games were against SPOC E, SPOC D, SPOC E, and SPOC D.  Continuing the tradition, we started this season by playing SPOC (D version), who featured the same players as last season.  Not surprisingly, we knew exactly what their game plan would be, and thus our pre-game defensive plan was to play tight on their only outside shooting threat and box out strongly on the defensive boards.  On offence, we planned to continue with the good ball movement we had exhibited at Tuesday’s training.  We did all of these things, although we were over-doing the ball movement and not looking to get shots up.  Eventually we worked out we had to take shots before we could score, and got a couple of baskets ahead, but SPOC finally pegged back our early advantage and took the smallest of leads into the break, 14-13.  The second half was a scrappy affair and SPOC did the better of the scoring early, and got out to a six-point advantage, the largest of the game.  Unable to score inside, G-Force resorted to an aerial attack, and scored four straight threes.  Unfortunately we didn’t get all the stops we needed at the other end during this barrage, leaving us still trailing by a basket with under a minute left, when Reid drove for a lay-up to tie the scores.  With under 24 seconds left, SPOC brought the ball up under pressure and desperately looked for a shot but weren’t able to find one, in fact they couldn’t even get to the three-point line.  A desperate drive was headed for the corner but with a second on the clock, a whistle was blown for a foul.  G-Force were in the bonus and a very nervous SPOC player went to the line for shots after the siren.  The first attempt never had a chance, but the second went through to give them the 30-29 win.  This game was literally won and lost at the foul-line, as G-Force combined to go 0-7 from the stripe.  Dillon top-scored on debut with 12, and James scored 8 in his debut as team captain.

Lady Reds (0-1) v Adelaide A (1-0) - 3rd year in a row the girls started off against Adelaide A. Adelaide are the best team in that great and they have a wide array of skills. The Reds haven't played together since last year - you could tell. Adelaide got off to a 20-3 start with only Alicia banking a 3 - haltime was 3-23. The 2nd half was a lot better - with the girls only just losing the half 15-20 - Emma hit a jumper, Loz drained a long 3 and scored a 2, Tracy hit a couple of baskets and Jordy scored. Final score was 43-18. Loz had 6. We will put that one behind us and use it as a "rust get rid of-er".

Palky's Top 3 Players of the Week
3rd - Nick Krantz
2nd - Tauny Schmidt
1st - Brendan Francesca

This is where I usually give you game times for this week. We don't have the full and final schedule yet - so I will hold off until later in the week. It looks like the A's are playing Gateway and B's are playing Saints B - so they are fun matchups and the G's have a bye ... but I will let you know more when I know.

Keep the subs coming ... next Friday May 16 is the date where they all have to be in. So if they are no in and you haven't made arrangements - then we will start cracking down - this may even mean not playing ... especially for guys who owe more than one year of subs.

Full Time Employed: $120
Student/Part Time Employed: $80
Reimbursement Fee (Lady Reds): $25

Account Name – Prince Alfred Old Collegians Basketball Club
Account Number - 284123837
BSB - 085005
Reference – [Your Name] Subs 2014