QABL weekend wrap

Yes, I have been VERY slack with blogging over the last week. It is the off-season, but I'll try and make up for it over the next few days.

Starting with a quick wrap of the QABL games on the weekend. Not a good weekend for the Brisbane teams with the Northside Wizards dropping both their games on the extremely tough far north Queensland roadtrip and the Brisbane Capitals losing one and winning one on the road.

The Wizards were always going to find it hard taking on two of the top five teams on the road. Game 1 was their chance to steal a win but they went down 119 - 131 verse the Townsville Heat. For the Heat it was a pair of young Crocs that did the damage, Michael Cedar with 36 points (including 8 triples), 7 boards and Cameron Tovey with 21 points (including a surprisingly good 5 of 6 from the line), 16 boards. For the Wizards, Cameron Tragardh had 45 points, 8 boards and Tim Coenraad had 28 points, 7 boards, 6 assists. Adam Gibson didn't make the roadtrip but Josh Darragh filled in nicely with 19 points, 6 boards, 5 assists.

Against the league leading Cairns Marlins, the Wizards went down 89 - 108. For the Marlins, Kerry Williams led the way with 31 points, Aaron Grabau had 23 points, 10 boards and Dean Brebner had 23 points, 6 boards. For the Wizards, Tragardh was "restricted" to just 35 points, 9 boards and Coenraad had 20 points, 7 boards.

The Wizards will looking to bounce back next weekend when they host the second place Rockhampton Rockets at my old stomping ground, the Boondall Sports Centre.

QABL - Wizards lose??

I was shocked to check on the QABL website and see that the star-studded Northside Wizards lost on the weekend. They have been on a tear of late, just destroying teams on a 9 win 1 loss stretch so it was a surprise to see that they lost to the cross-town rival Brisbane Capitals.

The surprises kept coming when I saw that the scoring machine that is Cameron Tragardh didn't actually score 50 points! He wasn't that far off tho with 41 points and 12 boards. Tim Coenraad showed he's human after some impressive form of late, apparently well contained by former Brisbane Bullet Ben Castle. Tim had just 13 points & 7 boards, about half of what we're used to from him of late. Adam Gibson was rock-solid with 24, 6 & 6 as was Shane Davis with 27, 5 & 4 including 7 triples.

For the Capitals, as mentioned Ben Castle seemed to have found a time-machine back to 2005 when he was last cut for the Australian national team. Ben had 26 points, 11 boards to go with the defensive job he did on Coenraad. Another development player for the Bullets, Michael Shaw was solid with 19 points, 6 boards, 4 assists and Mark Ferguson (who I don't know) had a season high 29 points, 7 boards.

The Wizards have a tough weekend ahead on the road against the Townsville Heat and the league-leading Cairns Marlins.

More Cameron Tragardh

After my post last week about Cameron Tragardh in the QABL, he had yet another 50 point outing on the weekend as his Northside Wizards easily took care of business against the Bundaberg Bulls 149 - 87.

For the Wizards:

• Cameron Tragardh had 50 points (21 of 31 from the field), 11 boards, 4 assists
• Tim Coenraad had 37 points (13 of 20 from the field, 8 of 13 from downtown), 13 boards
• Adam Gibson had 20 points (5 of 7 from downtown), 9 assists, 4 boards

For the Bulls:

• Matthew Hanson had 33 points, 23 boards

Cameron Tragardh & the QABL

Since there's no action yet in the NBL and the NBA has just started summer league games, it seems appropriate to report on the QABL that is in season at the moment.

One of my friends (Tux) work with Tim Coenraad's mum and so we have taken an interest in how he's been playing since he returned from college in the US. Tim used to be a development player for the Brisbane Bullets and has been putting up good numbers over the last few games for the Northside Wizards.

Looking at one of their boxscores, the Wizards team is STACKED with quality players. Adam Gibson (just back from China with the Boomers), Cameron Tragardh, Tim Coenraad, Shane Davis, Toby Zaremba and Josh Darragh (younger brother of one of our Shooters, Adam Darragh).

While there are a number of "names" on the squad, the star is Cameron Tragardh. Cameron was a development player for the Townsville Crocodiles before joining the Brisbane Bullets briefly. He really came in to his own in '08 when he became one of the main offensive weapons for the Wollongong Hawks and earned himself the Most Improved award for that season.

Tragardh is now definitely a player at the NBL level but in the QABL he is a SUPERSTAR. The numbers he puts up are ridiculous! This season he is averaging a league-leading 42.4 points per game, 14.5 rebounds per game (2nd in the league) and shooting at over 60% from the field. Last month he scored 70 points vs Toowoomba on an amazing 29 of 34 from the field and 12 of 13 from the line. In four other games this season so far he has has broken the 50 point mark!

The knock on Cameron at an NBL level is that he's defensively challenged ... but the name of the game is to outscore your opponent. Tragardh has NO problem doing that!