Copeland and Gaze to battle on the sidelines

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Andrew Gaze’s Melbourne Tigers will be taking on Lanard Copeland’s Hume City Broncos in their BigV clash this Saturday night (March 28) in a game the promises to be interesting for Tigers fans who get to see the two NBL legends (and good friends) try to outwit each other with their team’s on court.

The game will commence from 8pm at the Broadmeadows Basketball Stadium with the Tigers (0-2) hoping to win their first game of the season while Hume City (2-1) hope to continue their Top 5 form.

The Melbourne Tigers women’s team (0-2) is also taking on Hume City (2-0) at Broadmeadows Basketball Stadium on Saturday night with their game commencing from 6pm, Tigers fans are encouraged to if possible to attend this game as well as the Men’s game to give the side support and encouragement as they too seek to open their win account against a side that has won their two games by an average of 21 points.

Gaze returns fire on Worthington’s comments

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Andrew Gaze taken to 1116 SEN today to counter Mark Worthington’s claims that he had made the previous day on the station.

From the opening second Andrew Gaze counter attacked the claims with passion and most importantly factual points, Andrew Gaze explained what had happened at Basketball Australia board level in 2009 when Basketball Australia merged with the NBL to save the league and what happened when BA and the NBL largely parted company.

Andrew Gaze was passionate in his defense but also used logic to defend his stance and was not afraid to admit to admit any faults when he made his original comment several days ago.

Melbourne United is no doubt now stuck between a rock and a hard place, do they support and back their captain’s comments, do they stand back from what is going on or do they publicly and/or privately chastise their captain for his comments?.

This is not a battle between Melbourne Tigers and Melbourne United fans but instead a battle over a great sportsman’s honour and reputation, Mark Worthington for all the good he had done for the Tigers has no doubt lost plenty of respect with his attack on Andrew Gaze and fans of the sport and the Melbourne Tigers will be remembering his comments for a very long time to come.

Fans can politely give @SENNews on Twitter (click on the link) their thoughts on the comments made by Mark Worthington and Andrew Gaze’s reply to them, WANMU advises fans not to hurl abuse at Mark Worthington, SEN, the NBL or Melbourne United despite the temptation to do so in defense of their sporting hero.

Readers can listen to both Mark Worthington and Andrew Gaze’s comments at http://www.sen.com.au/audio and WANMU will continue to update readers on the latest developments as they happen.

NBL community largely disagrees with Gaze

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Andrew Gaze’s call for the NBL to shut down for a season to fix it’s problems has been widely dismissed by the NBL, teams and fans.

Some basketball figures and newspaper publications have even suggested that Gaze’s call is company motivated for he is on the Basketball Australia board and a shutdown of the NBL would revert the rights of the competition to Basketball Australia, Basketball Australia once controlled the NBL and holds many of it’s intellectual property rights before the NBL broke free to run it’s own operations and many suspect they would be happy to see a shutdown happen.

To many Australian basketball fans, Andrew Gaze is God of Australian Basketball and his opinions are always highly regarded but fans also know that Andrew Gaze loves the NBL very much, the NBL named a medal after him, he played more two decades with the Melbourne Tigers in the competition and he even commentates on NBL games and so the thought that Andrew Gaze made such a call based on company/board desires or politics is rubbish, the man wants to save the competition for the good of the sport and the viewing public.

The NBL still has the problem of the 2014/15 potentially being a six team competition instead of the anticipated nine team competition meaning that teams will be playing each other more often and leading to a situation where marketing matches may become difficult because fans will be seeing the same teams visit too often and if one is having a great season and one isn’t that will be extremely boring.

There’s been a lot of talk about a promising future for the NBL but at the moment there is nothing but the same old chatter and little to no action, perhaps the NBL should go ask what the WNBL are doing for they seem to have great players, more teams and even less of them dying and until very recently constant TV coverage.

Instead of writing #WeAreTheNBL on Twitter, NBL fans should be tweeting #WeWantBetterNBL and the sooner it’s better NBL is delivered the better for everyone who loves the game and is sick of the losses of teams, the loss of good coverage and more.

If the NBL falls, what happens to Melbourne?

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With news that Townsville and Wollongong are in financial receivership as well as the NBL being dragged over the coals for their sloppy Awards announcements and being fairly pummeled in the press by Andrew Gaze over the above, Where will United Ballers owners Kestleman and Slepoy take Melbourne United if the NBL falls?.

Would Melbourne United go to SEABL next year and set off a potentially tense situation with Tigers fans who are rebuilding their team hoping to go to SEABL in 2016? Would they step back further and go to BigV where the original Melbourne Tigers already exist causing more angst among already angry Tigers fans? Would they put Melbourne United on ice and wait for the NBL to return to strength or would they do the unthinkable and put a torpedo into Melbourne ending 31 years of any NBL team occupying Melbourne.

Melbourne Tigers fans are no doubt watching developments with interest for it would no doubt be awkward to have the Tigers and the United Ballers in the same competition then again it could give Australian basketball that well sought after bit of spice that’s been missing for some time.

If United Ballers owners took the drastic option of renaming the team and history from Melbourne Tigers to Melbourne United (Ballers) last year in order to survive, does it mean that a withdrawal from Basketball is not impossible? Could this mean a consortium could take the license back and restore the Tigers if United’s owners have to hand it in? These are interesting times sports fans.

Meanwhile at Tigers Land, Fans are reminded that Tigers memberships for the 2015 BigV season are available by clicking on, filling in and emailing out the membership form provided in the picture below, memberships are cheap and affordable but most if not all families across Australia.

Personally this writer wishes this chaotic day would never happen to the NBL but at the moment it is starting to resemble Titanic despite all the efforts to keep it floating, it was saved once in 2009 but the fear is it won’t survive 2016 and that is a big shame.

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Tigers fans snap up BigV memberships

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Melbourne Tigers fans have started to sign up for memberships in the BigV team as the 2015 BigV season nears it’s beginning.

The Melbourne Tigers are offering a range of memberships that are financially reachable for the majority of fans with Armchair Membership being the lowest at $25 with Membership Red and Family Membership being the highest at $110, each membership level guarantees a minimum of a membership card, newsletter and a Tigers cap with those who want the higher Tigers membership levels awarded more perks.

Every purchase of a membership will bring the Tigers that little bit closer to making it’s way to the SEABL competition or other high quality competitions in 2016 as the team and it’s fans seek to be once again the top major basketball team in Melbourne.

A membership form can be downloaded by clicking on the membership form below and send it to membership@melbournebasketball.com.au or email the same address to enquire or to start the membership buying process.

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Crocodiles inflict St Valentine’s Day Massacre on United

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United’s second half of the season went from bad to worse as it was hammered 105 to 68 in Townsville last night, this loss means that United come home from Queensland (aka Sunshine Swing) burnt in more ways than one as they went win less during their Queensland stay.

United were hoping the most romantic day of the year would give them some love but instead it was Townsville who was showing the love to their fans with a 28 to 17 opening quarter.

The love fest continued with Townsville scoring 25 points to 16 before really turning it on in the third quarter with a 31 points to 16 effort, United steadied in a high scoring 21 points apiece last quarter but at the final buzzer it was a 37 point win to Townsville.

McRae top scored with 24 points followed by Taipans players Norton and Conklin who both scored 23 points each, Townsville had 57.3% success shooting field goals, 37% with three pointers and 90% Free Throws whilst United had 38.5% FG, 35.5% 3PT and 66.7% FT, see FIBA LiveStats for all the details.

With all of Townsville’s reported troubles this season, it is hoped their late season form will inspire coaches, fans and most importantly sponsors to push on for next year.

Basketball fans around the country get the feeling that United’s last two games against Sydney are a godsend for players, coaches, owners and fans as they seek to leave their ‘Foundation’ season behind.

If a poem could be written about the game it will probably read as something like this;

Roses Are Red
Violets Are Blue
Too Bad United
The Crocs Ate You

The Day After

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It’s been a day since the Cairns Taipans gave United the fatal bite to ensure the team didn’t make the NBL Finals sparking off celebrations from different teams across the nation.

Melbourne Tigers fans as well as Adelaide and Perth fans are today likely to be found struggling to shake off the effects of a night of celebration that began long before the final whistle of last nights play, these celebrations may impact many people’s Valentine’s Day plans.

For Tigers fans it was a sweet result against United’s money over tradition and loyalty owners while for Adelaide and Perth fans they are celebrating knowing there is absolutely no chance United could overtake either side even if the odds of Melbourne making the finals were extremely large before tip-off last night.

South Dragons supporters today couldn’t help but noting that they made the finals in their first season while the Tigers and United couldn’t which will most likely not win them any fans in their attempt to re-enter the NBL and instead send fans to the South East Melbourne Magic camp instead.

Detractors to the South Dragons supporters comments could say that the NBL was a lot tougher in 1984 (Tigers) and this year (United Ballers) while the Dragons era was in the middle of an NBL collapse which ironically lead to the Dragons falling on their sword instead of choosing to stay and fight in the NBL or go to SEABL.

Meanwhile The Age has reported that D-Mac is still hoping to be coach next season, D-Mac has not had the opportunity to coach a side with a lineup of his choosing (stories are that he was unhappy with the 2014/15 lineup) and is hoping it is third time lucky, standing in the way of his appointment is his interim record and the fact that former Melbourne Tigers player and multiple NBL team coach Brian Goorjian is wanted by many in the United Ballers camp to be the man picked for the 2015/16 season.

Goorjian is known for being a successful coach with all but two seasons of his NBL coaching seasons spent in the NBL finals but he is also known for being in charge of NBL clubs when they merged or died, Teams in this list were the Eastside Spectres, South East Melbourne Magic, Victoria Titans, Sydney Kings and South Dragons with only the Kings so far rising from the dead.

Melbourne Tigers fans are reminded that the juniors seasons are now underway and we wish them the very best as we continue to countdown towards the beginning of the 2015 Big V season, there is no doubt that things are a lot sunnier for Tigers fans than they were just 48 hours ago.

Maury

United Baller’s 2014/15 Finals hopes officially over

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The United Baller’s finals hopes are now over with a massive loss to the Cairns Taipans tonight, the side was already under pressure with Adelaide defeating New Zealand earlier in the week forcing the equation that United must win all four of their games with Adelaide losing all three of theirs for United to make the finals.

United’s bosses, coaches and players are no doubt relieved that their torturous season is over, from the arrival of United on May 20 2014 they’ve seen the departure of many Tigers fans, the loss of Chris Anstey after one regular season game, slow buildup of crowds, a solid finals spot slip slide away, D-Mac becoming more furious with every loss, United Ballers losing to the bottom teams that all but crippled their season, players criticizing others in the newspapers and now knocked out of finals contention.

While there are still three regular season games for the United Ballers to play, there is no doubt that plans for the 2015/16 season are now underway, many suspect D-Mac will not be the 2015/16 coach and the future of the imports is questionable, this season has proven that the throwing around of millions of dollars doesn’t guarantee success particularly when loyalty and harmony are missing from the team both on the court and in the stands.

Many Tigers fans are celebrating tonight for the Tigers made the 2013/14 finals season without sacrificing so much for a boost in finances but it must be said there is a tinge of sadness for many of the players and staff who are great members of the Tigers family are at United and do not deserve to be front row witnesses to such an imploding end to United’s season.

The defiant Tigers fans will be cheering on the Tigers BigV team in their upcoming BigV season this year and hope the side makes the finals to prove that the Tigers and not United are Melbourne.

Who are Melbourne? Melbourne Tigers are Melbourne!.

Gone

Has the Dragons and Magic fan charge stopped?

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When talk of the South Dragons possible return to the NBL was running rampant in the media, Facebook group ‘Save Our South Dragons‘ experienced a massive surge in numbers of likes for their page but now the page has been stuck in the 800’s for some time,

The same has occurred over at ‘Bring Back The South East Melbourne Magic‘ for they have stopped in the 600’s after experiencing a boom of their own which is a shame considering when thriving they have a very passionate community.

With the United Ballers all but missing out on the 2014/15 NBL finals series, now is a good time for both the Magic and the Dragons fans and the teams consortium’s to start flexing their muscles while readying for the 2016/17 season for Victorians don’t like teams who fail to make the big time and will be looking for a team who state they can walk the walk and talk the talk.

On the other hand, the Melbourne Tigers are still busy rebuilding and planning their future with their fans hoping for some BigV success this year so don’t count out the Tigers from looming in the shadows of the United Ballers and raising the stakes in the ‘Battle for Melbourne’.

Stay tuned fans.

Hawks pop United Ballers with their talons

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Melbourne United Ballers traveled to WIN Entertainment Centre to take on the Wollongong Hawks, the game was expected to be a walk in the park for the Melbourne United Ballers as Wollongong lost their past seven games and have only won three games for the season before tonight.

Wollongong threw out the script with a 28 to 15 point opening quarter and from then on the game was theirs after extending their lead to 16 points at half time before hammering in 29 points to 18 in the third to establish a comfortable 27 point lead at three quarter time.

United Ballers got their act together in the last quarter to start charging down Wollongong but Wollongong steadied in the closing minutes allowing the team to win their fourth game of the season 93 to 82 to the delight of the home crowd and defiant Melbourne Tigers fans.

United Ballers are now hoping the Perth Wildcats late season collapse continues in order for the side to make the finals should Adelaide hold serve and stay that vital win ahead of United Ballers but with Melbourne United Ballers losing to the two bottom teams in the competition in a row getting past Perth or Adelaide is no sure bet.