Gold Coast Blaze vs Wollongong Hawks

It had been a few weeks since I'd seen a Gold Coast Blaze game live and with the Wollongong Hawks in town, the top of the table clash seemed like the perfect opportunity.

With their Brisbane Bullets and Northside Wizards connections, a number of my friends were also at the game and thankfully we weren't the only ones and there was a decent crowd in attendance. They still have a long way to go before the stadium is full but it was probably the best crowd I've seen so far this season.

Here are my thoughts from the game:

• I'm not sure why Ayinde Ubaka (pictured right) came off the bench and didn't enter the game until a minute left in the first quarter. Check news articles in the next day or so as I'm sure the real story will come out.
• There were again times early in the game when the Blaze defence looked awful
• Erron Maxey has noticably cooled off from his hot start in the NBL
• Tywain McKee is very similar to Corey Williams in that when they want they really want to score, its extremely tough to stop them
• Cameron Tragardh is an offensive machine
• The game came down to a battle between Ubaka (28 points including 6 triples, 5 assists) and McKee (24 points, 5 assists)

The 88 - 84 win now moves the Blaze to top of the NBL ladder which is great considering they still have so much upside/room for improvement.

Hawks clean up monthly awards

Congratulations to the Wollongong Hawks for taking home both the NBL Player on the Month and NBL Coach of the Month for October.

Hawks' import Tywain McKee (pictured below) won the Player of the Month for averaging 21 points, 4.6 boards, 4 assists and over 2 steals per game. Gordie McLeod won Coach of the Month for guiding his team to 5 wins 2 losses to star the season.

Its great to see the Hawks getting recognised in this way ... especially considering that they were originally tipped to finish bottom of the league by a fair margin. After they won the pre-season tournament I had higher expectations for them but there aren't too many people outside of the 'Gong that would have picked them to get off to such a good start.

Hawks swoop on monthly honours

Wollongong’s surprising fast start to the2009/10 National Basketball League season has seen them scoop the pool in the NBL monthly awards, with Hawks’ star Tywain McKee named Player of the Month for September/October and Gordie McLeod honoured as Coach of the Month.

During the Hawks’ seven games in September and October, McKee averaged 21.0 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 2.1 steals. The Hawks’ import shot 52% (47-91) from the field and knocked down 17-of-33 shots (52%) from behind the three-point arc.

The exciting new American import had two 23-point contests against Gold Coast (Round 2) and New Zealand (Round 4) and his lowest score in the first six rounds was 19 points. McKee received 36 overall votes for Player of the Month, just edging out another star import in Corey ‘Homicide’ Williams from Townsville, who received 33 votes. Melbourne Tigers’ forward Mark Worthington came in third with 14 votes.

Hawks coach McLeod took home the Coach of the Month award after guiding his team to an undefeated 5-0 home record and an overall 5-2 record in seven contests. McLeod’s team averaged 82.1 points per game while holding opponents to 75.9. During September/October, his squad posted a points differential of +44 points over their opponents and was on top of the NBL ladder virtually the entire time.