The Good, The Bad and The Scheibs... ep.3
So team of the week in week two was Townsville. The Heat find themselves sitting alone and the only unbeaten team in the ultra-competitive North Pool. The coach formerly known as DJ Rod is showing the state he can spin tunes and prowl the sidelines with the best of them. He’s put together a talented deep roster of youth and experience. Sure it’s early days but so far so good for the top Men’s basketball team in Townsville now! Game one of their south pool tour pitted them against last year’s Cinderella the Toowoomba Mountaineers. Thankfully someone on Sunday finalised the paperwork for Tbars import pairing of Maxey and Whitehead, no idea why they couldn’t have sent the paper work in 24 hours earlier on a Saturday? I guess the Sabbath is the preferred working day for BA? BQ shot the messenger once again on this one, more worried about the delivery of the message and not the incompetence of BA,
disappointing but certainly not surprising.
The Mountaineer import pairing lifted the standards and combined for 55 points, 20 boards, 11
turnovers, 13 assist. 8 steals while shooting the ball at 50%. These guys were busy, but it wasn’t
enough to beat the balanced Heat attack. Story of the Heat weekend was their bench outscoring
Tbars 45-8. That’s all she wrote right there and I am going to say this group has the deepest roster in
the QBL. The Heat lead by 13 at the half and despite a spirted Toowoomba fight back held on for a
ten point road win.
Tville took on Ipswich 18 hours later on Sunday. One would assume that a team in this situation
might get overrun in the second half, well it was exactly the opposite. Proving they are indeed the
comps deepest roster they handled the Force. Ipswich jumped out to an 11 point first quarter lead.
The Heat outscored them 73-48 in the final three quarters, in an ass whooping usually only handed
out by a father to an errant son in the wood shed! Legan again played a lone hand for the home side.
Here’s the problem with Ippy; take Legan’s shooting stats out of the Forceless’s line up and they shot
16-63 from the field and a pathetic 1-13 from deep! That’s a one man team right there. The Heat on
the other hand once again outscored their opponents bench 29-8 and relied on a balanced attack.
You might notice I have not mentioned one individual player from Tville, this folks is a complete team
and they have talented players worthy of mention but let’s focus on this group playing as the
ultimate team.
Well done to Vandy and DJ on putting together this side. Thou their toughest test will come on
Friday night when they take on Brisbane at home. Now if Dusty returns from his USA holiday, as
appears likely this will be a good test. If not and BBI continue to start the worst player to ever notch
up a 100 games in the history of the league in Alex Barker the Heat will take them to the woodshed
too. Tville play it tough and physical, traits some attribute to Barker, but the comparison ends there
as they are talented too. Throw in the softest 4 man in this competition and I reckon the Heat will
probably be up for bullying and workplace harassment charges brought on by the Chardonnay
sippers from the big smoke!
Well Logan got the Rocky, Mackay split and almost pulled off the unthinkable sweep. Granted they
got a break when Rocky were short a restricted player and Auryn MacMillan. However a win in Rocky is as
rare as an innovative idea coming out of BQ. So I am sure D Ruck and his side will take it. Mitch
Young had a very handy weekend with 61 points and 25 rebounds in the two games. In the sugar city
it took the defending champions erasing a 4 point three quarter time deficit to ekk out a 4 point win
over the Thunder and avoid back to back home losses to start season 2016. What struck me about all
three teams is their lack of much coming off the bench. These three combined to score only 16
points off the bench in their two games. Rockhampton’s bench recorded a goose egg and showed
their Achilles heel is once again a paper thin bench.
The lads from Gladstone were very unlucky not to achieve their own sweep over the South pools Old
Coast and SWM. Thalo Green turned out a vintage fourth quarter on his way to another double
double to lead the Rollers to a very tight win over an unlucky Power side desperate for their first up
win. Power import Willis also had his paperwork in and was allowed to play and it showed. This side
with the ever improving Jake Allen averaging almost 25 points a game after three games and a
serviceable second import in Williams will probably win more than they lose in 2016. In their second
leg Gladstone stormed home to beat a disappointing import less SWM at Hibiscus. Willis was all over
the court and filled out every stat, if this guy cuts down on his turnovers and he’s a legit MVP
prospect and would not be out of place playing at a higher level.
Other winners were SClips opening up with two wins in a row with a tight victory over an improved
Bundy in Bundy. Rips home opener was predictable, but loosing import Hurdle right before tipoff
hurt the Rip and enabled the unimpressive BBI to stay unbeaten after two games.
Disclaimer: This article was prepared or accomplished by Rob Scheibner in his personal capacity. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect the view of the Basketball Expressions.
