# NBL news 10/03



## truebluefan (May 27, 2002)

*Rillie: Break could help Crocs*

Townsville Crocodiles captain John Rillie has told the Townsville Bulletin that some quirks of the Philips Championship draw may benefit his team.

After the scoring an upset win over the Sydney Kings in Round One, the Crocs have been faced with a 12-day stretch without a match. Despite wanting to build on the momentum of their opening victory, Rillie told the Bulletin's Antony Stewart that the break could help the team gel.

"I'm sure we would have loved to have played, to try and get a bit of momentum going after the Sydney win, but we've been practising hard and we'll have our stretch of games somewhere along the line that we can hopefully build momentum on," Rillie said. 

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## truebluefan (May 27, 2002)

*Smyth looking for improvement*

Adelaide head coach Phil Smyth has put his team on notice, saying he might need to change his combinations if the 36ers don’t bounce back from their to 119-84 mauling at the hands of Perth.

The 36ers have stumbled to a 1-3 record to start the season and will host the Wollongong Hawks at the Dome on Friday, before tough road trips to Brisbane and Townsville.

Smyth told The Advertiser newspaper he might need to wring the changes if his side doesn’t start to show progress. 

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## truebluefan (May 27, 2002)

*Harvey returns*

West Sydney star shooting guard James Harvey says he is ‘jumping out of his skin’ and can’t wait to get back in the action when the Razorbacks host Cairns in their Big Wednesday Spectacular this week.

Harvey makes his return from injury against the Taipans at the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre in an opening game which promises to be a cracker.

The Razorbacks will be turning on the entertainment for their opening game of the Philips Championship season with the Razor Saver ticket still available for just $9.50 from Ticketek.

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## truebluefan (May 27, 2002)

*Razors sign Ya Ya*

Ahead of their opening Philips Championship game against the Cairns Taipans at Sydney Olympic Park on Wednesday night, the Westbus West Sydney Razorbacks have received a major boost with news that Senegalese centre, Cheikh Ya Ya Dia, has been signed as the team's second import.

Dia is a welcome return to the club where he played for two seasons in 1999/00 and 2000/01 before taking up a lucrative offer to play in Europe.

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## truebluefan (May 27, 2002)

*Cattalini edges out Ingles*

Cairns Taipans star Martin Cattalini has narrowly edged out South Dragons rookie sensation Joe Ingles to claim the NBL Philips Player of the Week award for Round Two of the Philips Championship.

The 202cm forward led from the front for the Taipans in their thrilling 103-101 victory over the Wollongong Hawks on Friday night, sealing victory for his team in the dying seconds of the match.

Cattalini top-scored for Cairns with a career-high 39 points (13-of-23) to go with his nine rebounds and one assist. When the game was in the balance ‘Cat’ stood up and collected 11 points in the final term before finishing with the game-winning play in the dying seconds to ensure his team took the W.

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## truebluefan (May 27, 2002)

*Crocs honour former players*

The Townsville Crocodiles paid tribute to former players David Blades and Pat Reidy on Friday night when they unveiled the clubs inaugural Crocodiles' Roll of Honour entrants.

In front of 4715 fans, Blades and Reidy became the first to be bestowed the honour, unveiling bigger than life-size banners to act as tributes to the contribution they made to the club.

The banners, which include an action photo of the players, their playing number and how many years they competed in the NBL, will be hung in the foyer when the Crocs play at home. 

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## truebluefan (May 27, 2002)

*Size the difference*

Size may prove the difference when the NZ Breakers go up against the Sydney Kings in Auckland on Thursday night, according to Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis.

He says having the ability to play either big or small men depending on what the game requires will be an advantage.

"We'll try our bigs and if that's not working we have the choice to go small to match the Kings, whereas they don't have the ability to go big," Lemanis said.

"Versatility is our main strength and rebounding will be another."

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## truebluefan (May 27, 2002)

*Crocs back local fans*

With the age-old rivalry between Townsville and Cairns as intense as ever, McDonald’s Crocodiles CEO is publicly backing the local Townsville community and touting Crocs fans as out-shining Taipans fans in the supporter stakes.

Mr Smythe said he was unconvinced that the Cairns community had embraced the Taipans or had the same level of loyalty as Townsville.

“Townsville has a long history and strong heritage of unwavering community and fan support for the Crocs. I am unconvinced that the Cairns community has embraced the Taipans the same way that the Townsville community has the Crocs,” Smythe said.

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## truebluefan (May 27, 2002)

*Fisher wary of unknown*

Perth coach Scott Fisher is confident going into Wednesday night’s game against Townsville, but admits he doesn’t know too much about the visitors this year.

The Crocs started their season with a fantastic win over Sydney on the same night that Perth started their season with a win over Singapore, but while the Cats have had two more games to sit atop the ladder with three-from-three, Townsville will be playing just their second game of the season.

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## truebluefan (May 27, 2002)

*Crosswell comfortable at home*

New Melbourne Tigers recruit Nathan Crosswell is feeling right back in at his old club after spending some time away at the Cairns Taipans.

Crosswell has come back with some big wraps on his shoulders, being rated as perhaps the best non-starting point guard in the NBL. However, he has no problems playing off the bench behind someone like Darryl McDonald.

“To come off the bench behind D-Mac who is arguably one of the best point guards that has ever played here I don’t have a problem with it at all. I’m very comfortable with it, I did it last year in Cairns behind Darnell Mee, so I find it the same”.

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## truebluefan (May 27, 2002)

*Melzer trains with Spurs*

NBA.com has reported that former New Zealand Breakers import star Rich Melzer is in camp with the San Antonio Spurs in France as he attempts to earn a coveted NBA contract.

The Spurs have 20 players in camp in Lyon and Paris with only 15 able to earn a berth on the team’s final roster for opening night. The rub for Melzer however is the fact that all but one of those fifteen places have been sewn up already, leaving the former Breaker to compete with five others for the final slot.

“At most, there's one spot available,” San Antonio assistant coach P.J. Carlesimo said Tuesday, “so you've got a lot of guys banging heads for, at most, one spot.” 

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## truebluefan (May 27, 2002)

*Bullets down Tigers*

The Brisbane Bullets have avenged last season's whitewash at the hands of the Melbourne Tigers with a hard-fought 98-85 win at the Brisbane Convention Centre on Tuesday night.

Bullets captain Sam Mackinnon led from the front with 23 points and six rebounds with valuable assistance from off-season recruit Dusty Rychart with 21 points, 10 rebounds and five turnovers.

For the Tigers, Dave Thomas and Rashad Tucker scored 20 points apiece but received little backup with the visitors struggling to recover from a sluggish first half.

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