Good news. Let's hope he has a safe plane trip over here.

Business Class seat on the flight maybe? Or at the very least an exit row? Whatever it takes to avoid a back strain!!

I love that someone has already updated his wikipedia page with;

"Hodge and his raft of guns are about to embark on an adventure to Adelaide, Australia"

Looking Fwd. to seeing not too sure what type of plyr to expect but will certainly score and defend better than Chappel and add to team it would be great to get a excitement player like Homicide Williams who we could have picked up to get some more fans back and get crowd more involved again.

NO "GELLING" jokes please!!!!!!!!!!

Disapointing he cant play wednesday.

Agreed Kobe-for-MVP,

Julius V Sean Lampley would have been a very interesting and testing first match up. Sean looks like someone who has no trouble scoring, and the 36ers need an import urgently to guard guns in that spot.

His stats with Current team Legea Scafiti make it to judge how good he will be.

Played 6 games with them averaging 15 minutes a game.

5.8 Ppg @ 43%
60% at the stripe
3 Rpg
3.3 Apg

In 154 minutes thats good. The thing is how many minutes will Phil give him? 35+ hopefully.

lol 15 minutes.

So begs the question why is he only getting 15 minutes per game?
Stats are decent for 15 minutes though.

Do we need another guard?
I thought we needed someone in the small/power forward position.

I just got $20 on Sixers at $81. I know its long, but if we can scrape into the 8, who knows..

I expect Hodge to add 15ppg in the 3 spot, and I think that will make a world of difference.

Kad you just lost a six pack + some change on that deal!

They were paying $101 just last week I think, out from $17 at the start of the season. Worth a gamble given that a half-decent import could give them an outside (but better than $101) chance.

Bake, definitely need a small forward more than anything. Power forward has Ballinger for much of each game (close to 40 MPG?), plus back-up from one of Cooper/Mottram/Dench. Given that Mottram and Coops rebound reasonably well and the guards board above their height, they can probably err on the SG/SF side more than SF/PF perhaps?

FWIW KingJames, I put $50 on the breakers at $26 before the season started :)

It should also allow them to switch up and keep fresh the aging legs of Maher and Davidson .
Ng can come on and gun a little with Copeland having his minutes reduced slightly also .
Much better make up on paper lets just hope it translates .

To go further with that i believe we should open with
DAVIDSON , MAHER , HODGE , BALLINGER , MOTTRAM .

After 4-5 minutes bring in NG to spell preferably DAVIDSON for a 3 minutes on the bench then DAVO re-enters for MAHER to finish the quarter , this can be switched between the two. So MAHER and DAVO have played 8-9 and NG has played 6 .
A few more G rotations throughout game need to be exercised to keep fresh .
Also , throughout the game we need to have either Brett or Brad on court at all times .

COOPER should replace MOTTRAM after 5 minutes or 2 Fouls whichever comes first then those two can rotate throughout the game with cameos by DENCH if need be .

COPES can breather HODGE for 2-3 minutes each quarter.

BALLINGER can be spelled by COOPER and DENCH or we could run a small ball lineup of DAVO , MAHER , NG , HODGE and COOPER for some run and gun action . Sure we may be exposed a little on D but for gamble situations it could be potent .

BURDON should be seeing extra G minutes until SUTTON earns them back .

DODMAN is an active big so use that for a spurt here or there .

I don't think we are the murder capital of the world ... I think the stat is we have more serial killers per captia than anywhere else in the world - I don't know how true that is thought

"murder capital of the world"??? what?

Where have you been? 8 *

We've had (Mod: Removed.) bashings, Snowtown, the Family, dirty water. We're world class.

NB: Wikipedia doesn't discern between real people & interstaters. ; )

LOL @ Kad... 50 bucks on the breakers... Thats a very outside in my opinion.

Kad thats a carton and change down the toliet but I guess the drinks end up going down the toliet anyway but at least everything is all good for a few hours :P

That posse/murder capital of the world joke is the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. Whoever wrote it deserves little balls.

Adelaide has this myth of being the murder capital of Australia, which is a little weird due to the majority of significant murders having taken place in the country, examples being Snowtown Murders and the Truro Murders which are probably the most publicised.

To a degree, Sth Australia has had the more interesting and more horrific incidents dating back to the 'Beaumont Children' through to the 'Bodies In the Barrel' cases in Australia than any other state with probably the only exemption being Martin Bryant and the Port Arthur Massacre and maybe the Anita Cobby murder in Sydney.

Ivan Milat's and the Backpacker Murders are also interesting especially with the death bed confession of his solicitor. He's still a suspect in up to 10 missing person cases where it's believed that the person has been murdered.

Another interesting story is the Milperra Massacre involving the Bandidos and Comancheros OMCG.

If any city should have the rights as 'Murder Capital' it should probably be Melbourne with the Hoddle Street Massacre, Gangland Murders, Russell Street Bombings and Queen Street Massacre. Also add Peter Dupas and Paul Denyer as sicko Victorians.

Add to that the Frankston serial killer and the Carl Williams saga who is well mentioned in any of the 'Chopper' Reid periodicals.

Then there were two old ladies from the 1940's-50's that were known to poison their victims. I think one of them was known as Aunt Thaddie.

In one school history book it said that SA was settled by free men, whereas other states were settled by convicts. "hence there would be less crime in SA than in other states due to this heritage"
Our teacher told us to cross that statement out.

Does anyone agree that in a way the season has only just started for the 36ers? I have a very good feeling this team bar further injuries is going to make a lot of noise come early '08. Unlike last season, no one team (Brisbane) has broken away from the pack, and if Hodge gives us what i think he will, why couldn't we win it all from here. A decent 5-7 game win streak and a very loud Dome would put fear in EVERY other team. Sure its early blah blah blah, but i'm sick of all the negative thoughts 'same old' talk. 36ers could just be a contender from here...

Anyone agree that our goal should be to get back to .500, then we can do damage and look for finals?

I've a contact in Denver who has written this about Hodge-- That is going to be a huge pickup for your team! Julius starred for 4 years at my college, North Carolina State University that I follow very closely. He was even player of the year in the Atlantic Coast Conference which is year after year the best conference. Unfortunately he was shot in the leg while driving on a highway one night around Denver during his rookie year and you can imagine how such an injury sets back your game. In the NBA he had to play shooting guard because he's too skinny to play small forward and not quite quick enough to play the point guard. Problem is he is not a very good shooter so shooting guard is a tough spot for him. In your league he should be able to just play like he did in college, doing a little bit of everything, he is outstanding running the fast break and an excellent slasher to the hoop. I would expect him to be one of the best players in no time flat. He's one of those guys that dominates until he gets to the NBA level but just lacks the over the top athleticism and body mass to make it at that level with his skill set. In the NBA developmental league he was tearing it up.

Completely off topic - but following on from TR and comments about 'interesting' crime stories - For any one likes reading about true crime the book "Young Blood - the story of the Family Murders" is an intruiging (and often disturbing) read.

I know a couple of guys who follow NCAA ball so close its not funny. One of them said 'he was real good...basically made nc st good for 3 yrs'.

I'm very optimistic.

Stats from the 2007 Summer league suggest he can still put up some numbers..

http://www.nba.com/summerleague2007/players/index.jsp?player=julius_hodge

And compare that to Ebi's numbers..

http://www.nba.com/summerleague2007/players/index.jsp?player=ebi_ere

Lets hope he can consistently score 25 for the rest of the season. That way we won't have to look elsewhere for another import and start next season with a good core and gelled team.

Seeing as we only have one player over the age of 35 I fail to see what you mean?

Seriously, anyone who makes another lame-ass joke about the 36ers being old should be banned FOR LIFE.