November 20 2018

The NBL this week announced that the SE Melbourne Phoenix are entering the NBL in the 2019/20 season.

This means basketball fans in Victoria have a local choice of two teams again since they got to choose between the Tigers and the Dragons back in the late 00’s.

There are a number of Tigers fans who did not stick with Melbourne United when they dropped the Tigers name and some may choose to follow the Phoenix though at the moment some are quite happy to stick with the Sydney Kings.

Meanwhile the Sydney Kings with former NBL Tigers Andrew Gaze and Lanard Copeland coaching and SEABL 2018 season Tigers Tom Wilson and Deng Acouth getting some court time have improved to have a 5-3 record.

Bec Cole who helped get the Tigers Women get into the second week of SEABL Finals this year was named on the Round 6 Team of the Week in the WNBL and is doing well with the Dandenong Rangers.

Meanwhile the countdown continues down for the next Tigers season in the Senior Elite League that replaces SEABL, there is ??? days to go.

That’s it for now.

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!

For every good weekend or two there is a bad weekend or two and last weekend was a bad one.

The Tigers were taught a lesson by both the Tornadoes and the Thunder and while it was disappointing to watch the live stats become lopsided in the oppositions favour, the results must be consigned to the history books and forgotten so everyone promptly looks forward to the next challenge.

That challenge comes this Saturday from 5:30pm at MSAC as the Women’s team take on the Ballarat Rush, it is 6th vs. 7th and the Tigers previously beat the Rush at the Minerdome and want to deliver the same result at home.

The Men take on the Miners at 7:30pm, The Miners are 5-3 this year and would no doubt be favourites in the eyes of many pundits but the Tigers do have the players to win, all they need is smart play and accuracy to get there.

Tigers fans should get on down to MSAC and give the sides some cheer, meet fellow Tigers fans and have an enjoyable evening at a very low price, the club is on the way up and it will get there much faster once more people attend and snap up all the Tigers goodies and more.

The next day the Men’s side got Frankston in Frankston, this match is very important because a win will give the side a cushion from the bottom of the pack where Frankston currently sits two wins behind the Tigers.

Frankston will have a two day gap between games whilst the Tigers will have about 20 hours so hopefully the Tigers will have good sleep and full of energy and motivation.

So if anyone can get on down to Frankston, they should do so and cheer the team on in Frankston’s not too bad looking facilities or watch the live stream that the Blues offer.

All in all, we hope the Tigers get out of their valley this weekend.