State Basketball Centre is nice, and is an addition to the pre-existing Wayville Stadium.

Thanks LC, so they are connected? Two separate buildings?

stadiums are all a big improvement.

state basketball centre is 4 courts - continuation of the 3 courts at wayville.

Lights and the ARC are good - the old Hillcrest days are but a memory now.

Easter tournament has been great the last few years.

Don't think the state can reproduce last weekends Gather Round weather of 36 degree days.

yes they are connected by a corridor on the eastern aspect - 2 entrances though can use either - off car park inside showgrounds or off rose tce (old front door).

Be interesting with the parking - cause you have have to have the app with the QR code ?

I believe the ticket validators have gone ?

There was no need to pay for parking in 2024 at Wayville / SBC for the Easter Classic.

Are many local clubs fully supporting the tournament, not just teams here and there. For a while it was mainly Norwood and interstate teams.
Probably still some politics but would be great if other clubs got on board and offered some variety.

i think it's a good tourney - different from what it was 30 years ago - which is to be expected - a lot of interstate clubs have changed - not just SA.

Power bases seem to cycle through 5-15 year blocks

its a great tourney and great to see vics over here giving our kids a chance to get beaten up by them ahead of classics. all ambitious teams should do it imo. comp is limited here and this is best and cheapest chance to play better opposition. every team weve had in th ecomp has been better for it even if they were beaten by vics (quite) easily.

Victorian teams - reminder in lower grades the referees can call 24 second shot warnings - even if not shot clock. To avoid any hanging onto ball excessively.

In response to + , yep, had that called this afternoon in an U16 game. Think it caused some confusion between the two refs, which was cleared up when they called over the supervisor to clarify.

It's good to see so many teams come to Adelaide! What a fantastic way to spend Easter.

Tournament has been great so far.

Only downside has been seeing a couple of Under 12 girls teams resorting to playing a zone (one from Vic and another from SA). Nobody seemed to want to do anything about it...

Would be surprised if a Vic u12 team played a zone, unless it was an academy.

Any strong performances so far? Tried to look but the website is really poor!

The Vic U12 girls team I will not name (VJBL), definitely played zone. Stuck their bigs in the paint and there they stayed (they still got beaten though!).

Coaches in Vic (and other states) have worked out how to benefit from a 'zone' defence without playing one.

The most common method applied is having 3 or 4 players clearly matching up while having their big or 2 bigs sitting on split line playing help defence all game and just switching their match up so they always stay there, 'defending' the player on weak side. Some don't even do that, they just claim to be in help and the stadium staff either avoid conflict or don't have the knowledge to argue back.

The zone buster rules were broken 10 years ago, but its BA, they have no concept of what they're doing and that their zone busting guidelines have been worked out.

what i've seen this weekend Victoria will dominate classics and U14 club championships

O&B

where Zone buster gets into a grey area are triangle and 2 or box and 1 defences.

Kids that don't know how to respond as well.

Coaches that have taught zone then try to change it on 10 and 11 yos at a seconds notice.

Split line is ok as long as on ball reversal they move and attempt to close out / deny their players

Now that the weekend is over...
My final thoughts are:

It was a thoroughly enjoyable tournament.
The Highland Bakery providing sensational donuts at Reynella East College was truly appreciated.

The ARC provided great seating, and huge hot chips with gravy.
St Clair, a fantastic ambience.
The Lights (where we spent most of the time) was great!
Glenunga International perhaps had the best court, with great lighting.
Cedar was great but a bit cramped (but still fantastic).
There was not a single stadium that we visited where we went 'I wish I was somewhere else'. All had their positives. Great locations, and all close to food options.

The games were exciting, and the divisions were (for the most part) fair and on par.
Best uniform must surely go to Super Mario’s. Such a great uniform design.

The coaches had great attitudes and the players were (for the most part) positive and played the game. U12’s were sensational for positive attitudes.

I was impressed to see so many referees from interstate and taking other referees under their wings.

Yes; I am incredibly happy about how the tournament went. No negatives here :)

Parent - glad you had a great weekend.

In our group - the grading could've been better IMO - yet others get what they want every year.

+
A few hours ago

what i've seen this weekend Victoria will dominate classics and U14 club championships

Reply #964160 | Report this post

Fair enough everyone has their opinions but I do think it's a big call when you haven’t seen SA’s first and second team play

Not a new idea for vic to dominate. who from Sa will stack up against anyone? the mighty south team expected to win only came 5th last year. Vic usually dominate classics but Qld and WA are always a surprise until theyve been seen in the flesh so cant be so confident for nationals.

easter classics looked like subtandard fields in older Champ comps.

Well run tournament again.

As a Victoriam, I still can't believe how many SA clubs and teams choose not to participate. Crazy.

Was thinking the same LC.

I've never been but scanning through the results over the weekend it seems like a large majority are Vic clubs?

I saw a few pools that i think had all Vic clubs!

Around 70& of participating teams were Victorian based.

25% from South Australia, of which Norwood themselves had about a third of that.

Yeah it's interesting LC I’m from SA and there are probably a few more reasons as to why teams in division 1&2 don’t enter this tournament, besides it just because Norwood run it and I think every club has had issues with them at some time.

A lot of teams have prioritised attending the Eltham Tournament in January instead as it lines up well with our normal winter season schedule and gives the maximum benefit for us.

Our state championship is held in 4 weeks time, which you need to finish top 3 in to qualify for classics and nationals under 14 championships. So some coaches will give their kids a break to rest their bodies and also for family time.

Others at the top of the tables or on the threshold of qualifying will organise their own games against older age groups to go against bigger bodies as part of their preparation, I know my team did this. If these teams weren’t doing something like this I would be surprised.

teams always used easter as a chance to see / scout each other

Understand Vic teams have few chances to travel interstate and this one of the better options to play out of the state

Eltham used to come over quite a bit - don't think I saw any Eltham teams this year ?

Disappointing from Eltham given how many SA teams support their jointly hosted event with Dandenong (noting there were plenty of Dandenong teams in attendance).

Also, loads of Nunawading teams made the trek again too. King's birthday weekend tournament is a good one, especially for teams that do not qualify for the NJC.

Massive -

Stronger SA clubs across all age groups at present - Norwood and South.

Then Forestville and West.

In some intermittent age groups North and Sturt will put up a good show.

As someone from VIC, I used to take a team to this tournament every year (last year was 2016). But stopped because you played 5 games over the weekend, and 4, if not 5, of them were from VIC. And the worst bit, you drive over and play another VIC team your first game on Friday afternoon.

The VJBL season is so full, grading and then into the season, it every weekend, parents and kids don't get a chance to have a rest. So giving the families the long weekends off while the weather is good so they can enjoy a break is gold.

Forestville 16 and 18 boys and South 18 boys (Classics winner in U16 in 2023) are the only real chances at winning Classics.

Looking at results, Forestville u18 look strong - winning well with a short bench. Expect they are favourites for nationals.

While the competition was down, some good individual performances, particularly some good shooting with a few guys getting 5 or 6 made 3s per game presumably off limited minutes and opportunities.

cant see any of those 3 boys teams winning classics. might be a lean time for SA teams again this year.