Mystro
Years ago

R5: Crocs Vs Breakers

New Zealand attempt to finish the Sunshine Swing on a high today with a win against a quality Townsville outfit after beating the previously undefeated Taipans on Friday in the first leg.

The Breakers have been fairly helter skelter so far with great performances against Perth & Cairns and very poor games against Melbourne & Adelaide so there is a big question mark over which Breakers squad will turn up.
Townsville on the other hand have their maestro Point Guard Steve Markovic in better shape after a leg injury severely limited his minutes and then they demolished the Wildcats in their last game so will be feeling pretty confident at home.

Jackson Vs Markovic
Conklin Vs Vukona
Ibekwe Vs Gladness
Blanchfield Vs Abercrombie
Carter Vs Norton

Plenty of good match ups all over the court and with NZ winning their last match against Townsville in Round 4 I imagine the Crocs will want to square that up.

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LC  
Years ago

Odds: Townsville $1.86; New Zealand $1.94

Should be a close game this one. I think given the way they beat Cairns, the Breakers should ride that momentum to a win over the Crocs. Let's hope more than 1,500 fans turn up to the game...

Breakers by 5.

Preview: Breakers to complete Sunshine Swing against Crocs

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Titan  
Years ago

Gladness might not play due to a finger injury

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Mick  
Years ago

I think the Crocs actually play better on the second leg of a two-game round, so I'm worried they will head into this one with some complacency. They often need a butt-whooping earlier in the week to overcome the passivity and toughness issues that pervade the club.

Having said that, I think Brian Conklin is going to be a man on a mission after getting emasculated by Vukona and co. last time these two met, and he would have watched plenty of tape and be ready to prove a point.

No Gladness is bad for us defensively (obviously) because he cleans up lots of defensive mistakes due to Shawn Dennis' hyper-aggressive defensive system which has guys overplay their man and get burnt often.

I think after Townsville's demolition of Perth last round and with lots of time off, they will come into this one a little underdone, but I hope I'm wrong.

Also, it sucks that Townsville keeps getting these Sunday afternoon home games when they are struggling is at is to get people along.

Hopefully the stellar game they played last week will get a few locals interested, but at the same time it is questionable whether on-court success will evem make a difference given there is an inherent issue with the fantastical ticket pricing system that the Crocs front office cooked up between tokes of the ol' glass barbecue.

I'd be picking New Zealand in a close one.

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Darryl  
Years ago

Without Gladness and with the form the Breakers big men are in I see NZ getting this one.

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MACDUB  
Years ago

About 24 people in the crowd.

The seating is so dark..is this done on purpose to hide the empty seats..i can still see them anyway.

The two rows of seating on the baseline makes it feel like an amateur game.

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Mystro  
Years ago

Nz playing pretty well so far

Reply #501970 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Kudos to the 24 spectators. You can hear them cheer a home bucket. They do their arm raising thing on the free throws. Good on em.

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MACDUB  
Years ago

Yes good on them for making a lot of noise.

Just sad..the fall from grace.

I remember when Crocs had Rillie and then Williams and the swamp used to be absolutely rocking. Miss that.

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Sean  
Years ago

Anyone else having problems with NBL.tv?

Reply #501977 | Report this post


Sean  
Years ago

There is something wrong with NBL tv...

aaarrrghhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reply #501982 | Report this post


Harry Hackrein  
Years ago

NZ up 73 - 66 with 4 + mins to go. Those 24 people look like a lot more.

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MACDUB  
Years ago

Yep. Lost a quarters worth of coverage on Sky Sport over here. Frustrating.

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Harry Hackrein  
Years ago

So the feed is from Sky?

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Anonymous  
Years ago

No

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MACDUB  
Years ago

Nah not from Sky. We get the NBL Tv feed (quality isn't the best).

So when NBL Tv isn't working, Sky sport just shows an apology message.

I can't imagine Sky Sport NZ would be happy with NBL Tv.

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Mick  
Years ago

I know this has been asked here before, but may I posit the query again:

WHY THE HELL DO TOWNSVILLE FANS STICK UP THEIR ARMS WHEN THEIR OWN TEAM IS SHOOTING FREE THROWS?!?!?!?

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Anonymous  
Years ago

It was something the Bullets started doing back in the 80s. Hands up and then drop them when the ball goes in saying swoosh at the same time.

Crocs biggest crowd tonight too btw - I must be the only glass half full guy on here...

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Harry Hackrein  
Years ago

Crowd looked good and sounded excellent. The new Croc sucks, but hey they are still in the competition.

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The Situation  
Years ago

@ MACDUB, You're not alone cuz I don't think many people rate nbl.tv at all.

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Mystro  
Years ago

It was terrible yesterday, literally missed out on a quarter of the game. Sky Sport will be tearing them a new asshole for the shitty feed.

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Mick  
Years ago

It's a damn shame that a few more people finally came out to watch the Crocs play and they respond to that generosity by grabbing 17 (!) rebounds as a TEAM.

This town isn't going to get behind you if you don't put in effort. They don't care if you win or lose, but don't leave anything on the court.

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paul  
Years ago

Mick you picked it before the game, lethargic start cost them the game. Their final 24 or so minutes were quality, but NZ smashed them in about eight or nine minutes across quarter time.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

I think grabbing only 17rebs has a bit more to do with stats taking than effort on the floor

Crocs 30-69 FGs - 39 misses - NZ had 9 Off Rebs - so 30 available - Crocs had 5 offensive rebounds so only 12 defensive rebounds??? so 18 team or dead ball rebounds???

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The Dream  
Years ago

so who won?

Reply #502095 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

I apologize, the stats above are incorrect - i should have been counting how many misses NZ had! they were 32/58 with 9 Off Rebounds
so - 27 opportunities and the crocs only had 12 defensive rebounds!?

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Mick  
Years ago

When you only have 3 more defensive rebound than your opponent has offensive rebounds, you're not gonna win too many ball games.

No excuse for a guy like Brian Conklin to have only two rebounds total, that says to me he's putting all his focus on the wrong end of the floor.

When you're the tallest team in the league, every time you lose the rebound count you deserve to be ripped to shreds.

Throughout Dennis' tenure as head coach here, this team has had a history of poor starts and losing the effort / toughness battle. He's never really had any high motor players to remedy that, but at the same time it has to have something to do with the intangible motivation side of coaching that is lacking. In terms of Xs and Os, there is a lot of work to do on the defensive end. I hate, hate, hate the way Dennis approaches that end of the floor when compared to the personnel he has available.

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XY  
Years ago

To the anonymous stats poster - I think you are getting yourself confused? You certainly confused me.

Using your numbers-

NZ were 32/58 - so 26 misses.

NZ grabbed 9 offensive boards - leaving 17 misses.

Crocs were accounted 12 defensive boards, leaving 5 unaccounted misses.

That does not seem so unreasonable.

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paul  
Years ago

With Gladness out Townsville are one of the smallest teams in the league.

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Mick  
Years ago

Even with Gladness out, the average Crocs player is still (marginally) taller than the average Breaker.

Crocs 199 vs NZ 197.5 with gladness
Crocs are 197.7 without Gladness

Losing one guy shouldn't make that much of a difference, especially with all those big, athletic wings who should be crashing the glass.

If you want to play a lot of zone though you are going to give up a few too many offensive rebounds most nights, so Dennis might have to take a look at what he's doing on that end.

I understand he's trying to leverage that length by playing hyper aggressively in trapping the backcourt, and then falling back to a zone, but it's just not working and I don't think playing like that is sustainable. Would rather see that used more sparingly when matchups dictate it, and a more conservative approach taken for the majority of the game.

I don't think I've seen a team give up so many fast-break layups off made-basket-inbounds, maybe ever, and I think there's a point where you have to realise that guys like Clint Steindl, Steve Markovic, and Todd Blanchfield don't have the killer instinct required to play an aggressive trapping scheme and just go with your strengths.

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Mystro  
Years ago

agree with your comments Mick re: giving up so many baskets from trying to trap the PG from made basket inbounds plays.
Cedric would either pass through the trap or beat it & then pass off to Ibekwe for another dunk almost everytime.

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Mick  
Years ago

It happens every game and is super frustrating to watch as a Crocs fan.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

i should never have tried to decipher stats haha - my bad, math was never my strong point

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paul  
Years ago

Crocs played the start of the game like Gladness was still there. Once they adjusted they were ok but it was too late.

Mick, can't agree that the Crocs are tall without Gladness, with two 6'6-6'7 guys playing the majority of minutes at 4 and 5.

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