Hoops stats aren't complicated, and database-driven web design isn't exactly particle physics. Plenty of American basketball folks have built incredibly user-friendly, information-rich portals to greater roundball insight. Ken Pomeroy comes to mind, as do the folks at Basketball State, among a very many others. Individual leagues and teams, too, do a nice job collating and displaying information. Of note, the CAA, GTB's league of choice, has a particularly nice stats package, as does the Tribe.
Down Under, though, some combination of copious sunshine and Coriolis Effect seems to have conspired to render easily-accessible statistical analysis more rare than the black kookaburra.
Case in point, the Sydney Kings. The last place team in the NBL certainly has a colorful website, but I'll be damned if I can easily find anything worth a damn on it. And I'll be dipped in Vegemite if I can find a simple table of Kings season statistics. There's a 'Stats and Ladders' link, but that takes one to the NBL's website, where it requires several more clicks to finally get to a comprehensive table.
Where the league can't even agree on how many decimal places to use. Jerome Randle of the Adelaide 36ers led the league with 23 points per game. Not 23.0, like a right-thinking American league would say. No, just plain old 23. Meanwhile, Corey Webster of the New Zealand Breakers averaged 20.48. He's obviously a more precise player.
In January, the Sydney Daily Telegraph published a generally critical story on Thornton, which featured Kings' coach Joe Connelly's criticism of his young guard and his need to improve his distribution and defense in order to have a chance at the next level. “I think he needs to work on doing other things beside scoring. If you look at the stat sheet, he played 22 minutes (against Illawarra) and had one rebound and (one) assist, and you’ve got to do more things than just try to put the ball in the hole. To his credit he was trying to be aggressive, he got to the hole and missed some easy shots, but the game is more than scoring."
The erstwhile Wren seemed to wear down as his first professional season wore on, his scoring dropping from the 15+ points/game he scored in his first ten games. In all, it appears that the game taught young Thornton some lessons the hard way in his first campaign.
But all we know about Thornton suggests that he's a willing and hard worker, and while year one might not have gone as planned, that's about exactly how his freshman year in Williamsburg went. And that situation turned out pretty well.
Maybe there's hope for the Aussie hoops web after all.
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My hotel room this week overlooked a somewhat large common area where a stage was being set up. On Tuesday morning they began soundchecks...I never checked to see who was coming figuring it to be a local production of some kinds. Packing up this morning I hear a familiar song thinking they were testing the acoustics with studio stuff. Nope. It was sting. Dubai Jazzfest. Santana also here. Oh, and TOTO played last night.
Dan, here is what you missed.
big day at gtb hq, eh?
The FIFA election is almost as interesting as our presidential election, with candidates like Tokyo Sexwale and Jerome Champagne. I expect Ron Mexico and Otto Wolfcastle to throw their hats in the ring too.
tribe at elon tonight. i don't think it really matters. we can't finish better than third or worse than fifth in the league, and we're guaranteed a first-round bye, so it's all just hoping nobody gets hurt at this point, and praying for a good first-round matchup. i think we'd much rather have jmu or charleston than towson, which are the only options.
hello gheorghies!
elected to skip pub night and start drinking early.
and i'd also like to mention that my husband is very sexy
did it all of sudden get creepy in here for anyone else?
Golden State is playing Orlando tonight. Steph just hit a half court shot to end the 3rd quarter. That gives him 24 in the 3rd and 46 for the game.
tribe wins! on the road, after being down 7 at the half. my undersell plan worked to perfection.
16 hour flight completed.
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