Gold Coast Blaze recap

As mentioned, I made the trip down the coast for the Gold Coast Blaze's first game against the Townsville Crocodiles. I had organised a date (a girl I went out with a few times last year who lives on the coast) but she was working till later so we didn't end getting to our seats until half way through the first quarter. I haven't been late for a game since before I started working for the Brisbane Bullets and a friend and I had season tickets. We used to often rock up to games at the end of the first or start of the second quarter ... partly because the team was terrible at the time.

Anyway, here are my thoughts from the game:

• I was disappointed by the crowd numbers, the stadium was probably only 60 - 65% full
• The Brisbane Convention Centre used to be nicknamed The Library, the atmosphere at the Gold Coast Entertainment Centre would probably now have that dishonour
• I really noticed the shorter 10 minute quarters, they really seemed to fly
• James Harvey (24 points, 9 of 13 from the field) is in very good form early in the season, coming off the work he did in the off-season with Adam Darragh and Shane Heal, not to mention his time touring with the Boomers.
• Blaze import Michael Joiner did VERY little during the game
• The other Blaze import Ayinde Ubaka had a strong second-half when the Crocs contained Harvey (Ubaka finished with 19 points, 8 assists)
• The Crocs have a very balanced scoring attack and if they're hitting from downtown will trouble the opposition
• The Blaze will take time to gel and find their chemistry on-court (to be expected with so many personnel changes). They seemed out of sync on both ends of the court at times and struggled to get the ball to the right person (i.e. Harvey)

It was good to see a lot of familiar faces in the crowd. Players wise I saw Thalo Green and Stephen Broom prior to the game and ran in to Adam Darragh afterwards. The "celebrities" in the crowd were Scotty Prince from the Gold Coast Titans, Jamie Wincup (racing car driver) and Bree Amer (Big Brother).