The Tigers last night held their Hall of Fame dinner, from all reports the night was a big success and there is no doubt that next year will get the attention of Basketball scribes and word spreads further of this great institution.

Lindsay Gaze, Ray Tomlinson, Al Westover, Brian Goorjian, Andrew Gaze, Mark Bradkte and Warrick Giddey were just some of the people honoured last night, a treat for those who were lucky to be in attendance.

For those wondering how so many NBL and WNBL era people are honoured, the Tigers had a life before the NBL and kept having one outside the NBL whilst the spin off team was doing its thing on the national stage and that has allowed the Tigers to honour such a large number of a players and administrators as they all played a part.

The dinner brought to a close season 2017, a season that ended solidly for both the Men’s and Women’s SEABL teams as they racked up wins to secure 7 wins apiece.

Both sides had to deal with adversity, the Women’s team was rocked by two high profile departures on the eve of the season opener which was not very nice and in the end the Tigers picked up Hanna Zavecz and Louella Tomlinson  who became a formidable team once Louella was able to return from Europe.

The ladies also had to spread their players between YCW, Gems and Opals camp duties which meant some players were unavailable at times.

The Men saw Bo Liu come and go and come and go, Tom Wilson was a star pickup and then Serbia came calling, Daryl Corletto had to wait for injury to clear and the Tigers had an injury list that at one stage almost numbered the same as the Tigers on the court and the team at one stage only had two on the bench.

So you can see that 7 wins was a fantastic result when things threatened to give returns of much less.

Tom Wilson was made Australian Youth Player of the Year at the SEABL Awards and Monique Conti made the All-SEABL Second Team whilst Hanna Zavecz, Louella Tomlinson, Ari Stewart, Dane Pinaeu, Daryl Corletto and Tom Wilson all made SEABL’s Team of the Week.

It will be interesting to see how many of the 2017 lineup will stay in 2018, confidence is growing by the month and there is no reason why the Tigers cannot grab 10+ wins next year based on the current upwards trend.

It is always sad when it is the off season, not much to do except think of what to write next year, watch some Sydney Kings games on TV and save money for 2018 Tigers membership.

Can’t wait until we get news like the 2018 fixture, the first signings or re-signings, the first practice matches and then Round 1.

Go Tigers!