Random Musings

Hi,

So rather than blog on a specific topic this week I just wanted to get a few thoughts out there.

Starting 5’s

I got a lot of feedback on my all-time WSBL starting 5, some on Facebook, some by email and quite a few people stopped me in person to talk about players.

Everyone talked up Fiona Robinson, it seems I missed out not getting to see her in person, descriptions like “amazing” and “awesome” and “can play everywhere” were used to explain to me how good she was.

One player I omitted in my honourable mentions list, and I have no idea how I did, is Katie Watts. At first I was stunned with how I forgot her, I did eventually find her on the list as Katie Gallagher so apologies for the oversight. My first year as a WSBL coach (2001) she played her final season for the Stirling Senators and she was a terrific player and formed a formidable front court that year with an in her prime Elizabeth Cooke. Her career started in 1991 for Swan City Mustangs and in her final season still averaged 16.3ppg and 13.6reb. Very tidy!

Now I also can’t believe I did it but the lack of an All-Defensive Team was a stupid omission by me. As I said on the SBL Slam radio show the spots of point guard, post / swing and post remain the same for me (see I don’t totally overlook defence in basketball) but I wasn’t sure about the two wing spots.

This made me think about how we measure this and what type of players I would want. Do I want people who can play 1 on 1 defence and get to the spots in the team system or do I want the players who often lead the league or are near the top of steals and blocked shots. For those that are real basketball nerds or aspiring coaches there are some great articles on exactly how advanced metrics is making individual and team defensive performance more measurable than ever in the link below:

http://grantland.com/features/department-of-defense/

My idea of an all-defensive team is to keep the opposition to as few points as possible, so for this reason I have looked for the players who I think give their team the best opportunities to get stops on each possession and because this isn’t statistics based I have stuck to girls I have seen from my time in the league. In the end I settled with the following two wing defenders:

Kim Malajczuk – A formidable defender and always drew the oppositions best, she could defend on and off the ball, had quick hands but wasn’t scared to be physical or take charges. Rarely gambled or got out of position and still averaged 3.3 steals over a 209 game career. Had an “infectious” personality that could irritate opposition match ups but was a team mate everyone would love to have. It was white line syndrome only with her as she is a super nice person to talk to off the court, and it would be great to see her back around WA basketball in some capacity.

Donnell Wallam – Who? This selection might surprise a few people given her short career but I thought she was dynamite, she is one of only a few girls who when subbed in genuinely scared me and I felt could change a game with her defensive presence. About six foot in height, with a far longer wing span and quick feet she could defend all over the place. She was great in man to man on and off the ball but up the front of Slammers 1-2-2 trap she could cause all kinds of disruptions and often got steals that resulted in breakaway lay-ups. Donnell is still only young and I would love to see her back in the league soon!

Honourable Mentions – Chelsea Armstrong, Chelsea Burns, Casey Mihovilovich, Emma Pass, Vicki Brown, Jasmine Hooper

By The Numbers

• Lakeside women cannot shoot! They average league highs in field goal (73.4) and three point attempts (27.3) but shoot only 32.2% and 27.3% respectively. Even more interesting is if you take Byrnes 20 for 69 on the season out the rest of the team has gone 39 for 177 which is 22%. Throw in their 54% on the season as a team from the FT line and it’s not surprising they are struggling for wins.
• Surprisingly the Magic women have similar shooting percentages. They go from the field at 32.6% which is good for the fourth lowest, they shoot the three at a league low 21.1% and are only modest at the line at 66.8%. So how are they sitting in 4^th place at 8-2? They make up these extra possessions averaging league highs in offensive rebounds with 17 per game and steals with 11 per game. Despite that, I doubt they will keep winning at their current percentage unless they improve their offence.
• The top five average scorers in the league are Samantha Whitcomb (23.5ppg, 1.37), Deanna Smith (20.2ppg, 1.59), Casey Mihovilovich (20.0ppg, 1.16), Deanica McCormick (19.7ppg, 0.99) and Thea Lemberger (19.2ppg, 1.25). The second number in each bracket is points per field goal attempt which makes for an interesting comparison; the number 1.59 is incredibly impressive for Deanna Smith. Her James Hardenesque average of 8 made free throws per game (9.1 attempts) really prop this number up.
• Rockingham Flames lead the league in points per game at 84.8 an outing but also in total points despite having played one less game than a few teams. Also impressively, despite their high pace of play, they average a league lowest 14.2 turnovers per game.
• Disappointingly only three teams in the league average more assists per game than turnovers, the Joondalup Wolves, Willetton Tigers and Rockingham Flames.
• Louella Tomlinson has a casual 40 blocks on the season, only 27 clear of Patricia Bright in second place.
• Briana Klasztorny has improved her foul discipline dramatically this year dropping her per game average down to 4.0 from the 4.1 she averaged in both 2013 and 2014. Despite this she is still on track to lead the league in this category for the third consecutive season. And for the record I’m a B-Klackers fan, hi Bri if you’re reading :-)
• The best extra possession teams in the league (Steals + offensive rebounds – turnovers) are Flames at +7.22, Redbacks (very surprisingly to me) with a +5.78 and Wolves with a +5.63.   The only two teams in the negatives are Hawks with -2.22 and Cougars with a tragic -5.40.
• The Kalamunda Eastern Suns, Perry Lakes Hawks, and Rockingham Flames women all are shooting a better clip from the three point line than their men’s team counterparts.

This is just what I picked out with a little fun in excel, the table is below if you want to do some investigation of your own:

 

The Officiating

So for the last two seasons I have sat on the SBL and WSBL Referee Advisory Group which helps set the SBL Philosophy Statement and how this relates to the points of emphasis and rules focuses for the league each season. This year I have also had the opportunity of volunteering myself to be a Referee Advisor on various games which has been a great experience. I’ve learnt a lot out of it and hopefully have been able to provide some interesting feedback about the dynamics of the games (especially from a coach’s point of view) which can assist with referees managing the environment.

In doing this I’ve been so impressed with all the professionalism, approachability, willingness to share, open-mindedness and standard of refereeing I’ve seen at the games I’ve attended so far this season. I also believe it exceeds what I have seen in a couple of rounds of Big V and Waratah League on the east coast over the last couple of months.

All Star Monday

All Star Monday has been announced for Monday, 1 June. This will be a topic of discussion on SBL Slam and my blog for next week. I think it is a great initiative and can only be a positive event for the league and help attract people to the game, the inclusion of a SBL three point shoot out is great and I would suggest a dunking exhibition, not contest, to show off some of the fantastic athletes we have.

Personally I favour the idea of the North v South format as it relates to the WABL competition, and while a format of Australians v Imports would have been tempting it wouldn’t have worked well for the women. I also like the idea of using social media and public opinion to shape these teams, although I’m wary of biases here. Where I’m not immediately sold is the fact that every team gets at least one representative (because let’s be honest some just don’t deserve any) and then one coach gets to decide the second half of the team (this is risky both ways, there doesn’t appear to accountability for who they pick and also they have to put their name on the line for selecting or snubbing a player which isn’t ideal).

I will admit though that is just giving it 30 seconds thought, on SBL Slam and when I blog I will have my thoughts more clearly and concisely (probably not, haha) laid out as well as start looking at who the selected players and coaches could or should be.

That’s it for me this week, I hope everyone once again enjoyed the read and has listened to the radio show. If you haven’t download it online and it is in a format that is now phone and Chrome friendly so you can listen anywhere and anytime.

Enjoy the games, I’ll be at the top of the table clash Friday night.

CM

craigmansfield@me.com

Follow me on Twitter @CMansfield34

SBL Slam’: Airing Monday Evenings 9-10 pm on 98five Sonshine FM

http://www.98five.com/shows/other-shows/sblslam/