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Season 2 Episode 5: Starting Riots with Andre Wolford
113 Plays7 months ago
Lachy and Squin are back to review round 3, but one of them reviewed the wrong competition! So they take a deeper dive into the Sydney Comets vs. Inner West Bulls game in the men's competition.
News and Gossip is also covered as per usual.
Special guest this week their guest is a 6'2" shooting guard from Cleveland, Ohio who found his way to the Bankstown Bruins via Port Macquarie, it's Andre Wolford.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:11
Speaker
to another episode of East Got Game, an unofficial podcast about the MBL One East competition for 2024. My name's Jacinta and with me as always is Locky. Now you may not be able to recognize Locky from his regular voice as you know him as commentary, but I assure you it is him. Just a little bit, little bit croaky today, my friend. A little bit sick and four games of commentary will do that to you.
Challenges of Intense Commentary Work
00:00:38
Speaker
Four games is a lot to do in a weekend. I don't think people really realise how mentally taxing it can be and especially taxing on your vocal cords. Certainly, but I got to see four very good games of basketball. So... And what jersey have you got hanging up in the background? I can see that today. That is my Becky Hammond San Antonio Silver Stars jersey. How did you nab one of them? Went on the WNBA online store about 10 years ago and bought one.
00:01:08
Speaker
Yeah, wow. Very much ahead of the curve there. Like, is that a jersey that you can still get? Wouldn't know because I already got one.
00:01:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. It's not like you need to go shopping for a second one.
Jersey Talk and Listener Engagement
00:01:21
Speaker
Actually, if you were able to purchase an MBL 1 East jersey, what would you get? Sutherland have Lauren Nicholson ones on sale at games, so I should probably get one of those. You definitely get one of them. I mean, that may be a given, actually, given she's your favourite player and it's your club.
00:01:39
Speaker
If I had to get another one, I can't answer that. I would make so many people mad. Yeah, true, true. Actually, that's something I would like to avoid. So how about we just scrap that and sit on that question for a little while. But if any of our listeners are willing to offer up their answer of what jersey they would buy from MBR1E, let us know in our DMs.
00:02:00
Speaker
on our Instagram page at Eastcottgame. It'd be interesting to see what the people say. Certainly will. But anyway, enough jibber jabber from me. Let's get into round three.
Men's Competition Highlights
00:02:11
Speaker
And this week, Lockie, you are back covering the men's competition. So take us through the results.
00:02:16
Speaker
I certainly can do that and Centre of Excellence got this season off to a start down at the hideout, down on the border, but it was Aubrey Woodonga getting a 99-88 win courtesy of 31 points from Lockie Cummings, 23 from Kevin Blalock and another triple-double from Davo Hickey. Bankstown took on Penrith and got up 88-77.
00:02:40
Speaker
with Ben Kieran dropping 29-9-8 in a valiant effort for Penrith, but Bankstown just too good on the day. Comets took on Inner West in a highly athletic battle, but it was a low scoring affair as the athletes kind of cancelled each other out. 64-58 Inner West getting up in a game I called.
00:03:04
Speaker
Central Coast took on hills up at Terrigal and it was the hills hornets getting a 93-83 win. Central Coast with all five starters in double figures but Chris Bryant 39 points on 16 of 24 shooting massive effort for the hills import.
00:03:24
Speaker
Illawarra took on Penrith and this one was an absolute classic Penrith dropping 34-14 in the third quarter to sneak home 95-92.
Standout Performances and Game Reviews
00:03:33
Speaker
Ben Kieran's again solid with 26-7 and 5 plus 4 steals and young Brad Ballinger 25 for Illawarra.
00:03:42
Speaker
Sutherland took on Maitland in the grand final replay down at the Shark Tank and the margin was once again three points but this time it went in Maitland's favour 85-82. Will Cranston-Lown unstoppable in the first half had 19 of his 25 before halftime. Sutherland again with those five players over 12 points that they love to have but a big shout out to Billy Parsons he was great with 20 points and a clutch three down the stretch.
00:04:11
Speaker
Newcastle hosted Hornsby Keringai and that finished 81-61. Miles Cherry 25 and 19. The Wild Cherry is back. Aubrey then faced North after their win over COE and again Dave O'Hickey was doing a bit of everything with 26, 11 and 8 to lead the bandits to an 88-81 win despite 25 and 6 from Mandrel Worthy for Norths.
00:04:39
Speaker
Canberra took on Manly Warringa and it was the Gunners getting an 87-75 win courtesy of some big performances in the second and third quarter after trailing early. Four players in double figures including young Cameron Pender leading the way with 20-6 whilst Matt Eldridge had 22-10 for the Sea Eagles.
00:05:00
Speaker
Comets took on Newcastle and rebounded from their earlier loss to Inner West with a 77-69 win. Obie Che with his second double-double of the weekend, 23-12, as the Comets picked up an 8-point win, 77-69.
00:05:18
Speaker
COE bounced back from their defeat to Albury-Wodonga with an 89-82 win over Bankstown. Julius Halifinua picking up 23 and 6 in the win. Osnay Hightower had 27-5 and 3 and Hayden Blakley had 24 for Bankstown. The games kept coming and the final one of the week was Inner West. They had a slender victory in their first game but they put Illawarra to the sword
00:05:49
Speaker
with a 140 to 71 win over the young Hawks down at the snake pit. A 48 to 16 second quarter saw them lead 83-34 at halftime before
Current Standings and Game Densities
00:06:01
Speaker
cruising home. Jacob Omer, after coming off the bench,
00:06:06
Speaker
dropped 34 as a starter for Inner West whilst Ramon Cow after hitting that clutch shot in the win over Comets dropped 32 off the bench in a big, big win. 69 point victory for Inner West.
00:06:21
Speaker
So turning to the table, it wasn't a good weekend for me as a Sharks fan, but it was a good weekend to someone who's picked Maitland to go all the way because they're now sitting pretty 4-0 atop the MBL1 East table in a West just behind at 5-1 and Aubrey were donger at 4-1.
00:06:40
Speaker
and it's the Gunners, Comets and Bakeshout all sitting 3-1, Central Coast 2-2 and then Manly Waringa and Manly Waringa and Centre of Excellence each at 1-1 having to play just the two games to round out the top eight with a tie for eighth there and then North, Hills and Sutherland all sitting 1-2, Penderoth 1-3, Newcastle 1-4 and Hornsby and Illawarra both yet to open their account.
00:07:09
Speaker
So, lots of ties, Glynn. This is the curse that...
00:07:15
Speaker
we didn't want, but we kind of did want because we're basketball fans. And it looks like that it's possibly going to be the women's, uh, no, it's going to be the men's competition again for some tied position.
Women's Competition Highlights
00:07:27
Speaker
Certainly is, but, uh, I feel like some teams have played a lot harder schedules than others. So we'll see how this all pans out a few weeks from now, especially once center of excellence and merely Oringa having played just those two games, get a few more under their belt.
00:07:43
Speaker
We're only a week or two away from teams hitting the 25% mark. It really does fly when you're cramming 20 games into 14 weeks.
00:07:51
Speaker
definitely go for density. Gosh, that's a lot of game time. And it is kind of odd to think that some teams have only played two games and then comparing that to a whole five and how much you can learn and achieve on the ladder, on and off the court in five games can make a bit of a difference. So it'll be interesting to see if it's going to work in the team's favour for having that quicker.
00:08:14
Speaker
that start where they had a start of five games or if it's going to work in the favour of those teams that have had a start of only two. Yeah do you want the do you want front-ended double headers or or back-to-backs or do you want those at the back end of the season when you've hit your rhythm but between like inner west where they're sitting five and one so they're definitely happy to be playing those back-to-backs
00:08:35
Speaker
Yeah, I think the risk as well as having a lot more double headers at the end of the season is things like injuries. Double headers when you've already got plenty of miles in the legs, not always ideal. All right, so that is shaping up to be very interesting as expected. I was tasked with the women's competition this week.
00:08:53
Speaker
But we'll clarify that a little bit later. So in a similar fashion to the men's competition, it did start at the hideout with the Aubrey-Wadonga band that's taking on the COE for their opening game. So it was the goat, Lauren Jackson, versus potentially the baby goats of the COE. The original goat, LJ, she led the way with 27 points and 12 rebounds.
00:09:18
Speaker
And Bonnie Dees is someone who you predicted to have a great season, Lachie from the COE, and she had some great numbers with 18 and 13 shooting at 50% overall. And then we headed to Bankstown for, can we call this a Battle of the West, Bankstown and Penrith? Oh, I think it is one of the Battles of the West.
00:09:39
Speaker
one of the battles of the West. That's probably a better way to put it. Bankstown Bruins and Paneras Panthers, the Bruins' lair, with Bankstown getting a big win, 104 to 72. And some standout performances again from a friend of the podcast, Violet Morrow, who had 34 points in 25, I would say 26 minutes.
00:10:01
Speaker
34 points. Outrageous. And for Paneros Talia Topaya played the full 40 minutes with 26 points. Five rebounds, four assists and three steals. Then we headed into the city where the Sydney Comets hosted the Inner West Bulls and got the win 75 to 56.
00:10:21
Speaker
And from some of the highlight reels as well, it looks like Serika Shillingsworth is starting to hit a stride there, Lockie, just right on cue. I remember you did say in a previous episode, it's just going to happen one game. And it looks like she did because she was, she was starting to light it up a little bit on the outside. She only took, was two from two from the three point line. So probably could have taken a couple more if the chance,
00:10:48
Speaker
was there but hopefully that will just be the start of something big. For the Bulls that game, Piaf Gabriel top scored for the Bulls with 17 points and she also had eight rebounds. Then driving all the way up to the Central Coast we had the Crusaders hosting the Hills Hornets and they won at home 100 points to 66.
00:11:10
Speaker
with a lot of big numbers from the Crusaders and top scoring was Jasmine for Cadilla with 24 points, five rebounds and eight assists and for Hill's Hornets that was Meg Jefferson with 16 and six for the Hill's Hornets. Then all the way back down to the South Coast, Illawarra played against Penrith Panthers so the second game for the weekend for the Panthers and Illawarra winning this one 79 to 56.
00:11:37
Speaker
And then we saw Newcastle host the Hornsby Corringuy Spiders, winning that one 85 to 59. Nicole Munger again with a double-double with 22 and 13. And we saw the return of Jessie May Hall to the MBL1 East. Yes, cheering, cheering that she is back in the MBL1 East after having that break for under 18th Nationals. And she had 18 points and 10 rebounds.
00:12:04
Speaker
and the Sutherland Sharks and the Maitland Mustangs met in the Shark Tank and in similar fashion to the men's game this one was also a close one in the women's competition. Sutherland going down 74 to 84 which is a big 10-point win for the Stangers.
00:12:20
Speaker
And it looks like the Stangers had a lot of scorers across the board, with five players hitting double figures, led by a Sydney Hunter having 18 points and 15 rebounds. But the Sharks weren't going down without a fight with Vanessa Penoosa's leading the way, with 32 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Then Aubrey backed up and had another tough game for the weekend, playing against the Norse Bears, but they got to stay at home in the hideout.
00:12:47
Speaker
and Aubrey getting that win 75 to 60. And again it was the GOAT Lauren Jackson who really stepped it up a level again with 36 points and 19 rebounds shooting at 56% overall. And for the North Bears Madeline O'Hare top scored with 24 points and Karla Pittman added 10 rebounds. Then back in the nation's capital the Canberra Nationals hosted the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles
00:13:16
Speaker
Canberra National is going down 54 to 98 with Alex Delaney from Manly Warringa leading all scorers with 20 points and she added six rebounds, four assists and three steals and she shot at 60% overall. Also staying in the nation's capital this time was COE that was hosting the Bankstown Bruins at the AIS Basketball and Netball Centre
00:13:42
Speaker
Bonnie Dees led the way with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Illawarra saw their second home game for the round as well. And this time they took on the Inner West Bulls for what was their second round for, or second game for the round. And Ella Dent led all scorers for Illawarra with 18 points and 6 rebounds. And Piaf Gabriel backs it up with 21 points for the Inner West Bulls.
00:14:09
Speaker
And the final game of the round was Sydney Comets hosting the Newcastle Falcons. So a little bit tricky for the Falcons this round having one home game and one away. The Comets going down this time 58 to 79. We had Kate Kingdom from the Newcastle Falcons with 24 points, which includes 100% from the free point line with five from five. And the McCollmonger again with a double-double with 21 and 11.
00:14:39
Speaker
And so that was concluding round three in the women's competition. And as we have a look at the ladder, the Aubrey-Wadonga Bandits are five and zero and sitting pretty in the top spot at the moment. In second place is the Newcastle Falcons. They're also on five and zero. But because of the percentages, Aubrey taking the top spot. In third place, the Central Coast Crusaders are four and zero.
00:15:05
Speaker
and fourth place is Manly Waringa Sea Eagles with two and zero. Fifth place is the Illawarra Hawks with three and one. Sixth place is Maitland Mustangs with three and one. Again, just coming down to percentages determining the placings.
00:15:20
Speaker
In seventh position is the North Bears with two and one and next place is COE with one and one. And that was round three in the women's competition. The latter started to shape up and look pretty interesting. We've got a lot of teams in the top eight at the moment who didn't feature in the top eight last season or at least didn't finish in the top eight last season.
00:15:43
Speaker
Again, probably too early to call, but I think once everyone starts to balance out the number of games played, it might be a different story. Certainly, and there's still some teams to get players back, some teams just getting a couple of new imports in recent weeks that are still trying to bed in, so plenty to shake out in the next few weeks.
Anticipated Games and Previews
00:16:04
Speaker
So looking ahead to round four, Oki,
00:16:07
Speaker
Tell me some of the games that interest you the most probably in the women's competition that you'll be covering. Well, of course, there's the big Anzac Day slate of games. You've got Freeway Cup between Illawarra and Sutherland. You've got the Code Hanger Classic between Sydney Comets and North Bears there at Comet Stadium and Maitland Hornsby.
00:16:25
Speaker
So we're treated to some Thursday afternoon basketball. So you get an extra day to watch NBL One East. I think I've got my eye on the Central Coast Center of Excellence game. Central Coast team's looking pretty good and Center of Excellence. I always, always bring it because they're basically Australia's best young players. So be a good litmus test for both teams. I think it'll be a high quality game as well. Yeah, I agree. And another example of
00:16:55
Speaker
a former Opal in Leilani Mitchell going up against some of our future Opals in the COE. And they're the kind of matchups that you don't get to see very often in your basketball life as a fan or otherwise. So that will be definitely one of the best games to watch, I think. Mainly, Comets also interests me. I'd like to see what level Comets are at against the team that is likely to be amongst the top teams. So especially since our
00:17:25
Speaker
Comet's just recruited a new import as well, Janine Camp, so yet another team's gone out and got a 6.5 import center, which I think makes, well, it makes a few anyway. It's a few more than what we're used to, I have to say. Definitely. So, hence why we're probably a little bit, having a little bit of trouble keeping up with it. But how about in the men's comp, Squin?
00:17:51
Speaker
Very good question. I am tasked with the men's competition for round four. I would say, Lockie, the one game that probably stands out to me of interest is the Sydney Comets versus the North Bears. The Sydney Comets having just recently lost to the inner West Bulls, you know, in pretty much the last 12 seconds of the game, thanks to that big three pointer that you mentioned. And so they might be on a little bit of a wobble after that one.
00:18:19
Speaker
Whereas the Norse bears are a pretty brand new looking roster. They're still trying to piece a lot of their parts together and probably getting some cohesion. I think it's going to be a good litmus test for both
Coverage Mix-Up and Future Plans
00:18:31
Speaker
of them to help determine who's going to be falling in that top eight and bottom eight potentially.
00:18:36
Speaker
or at least where they're going to fall if they both make top eight, I think, in a similar way that you mentioned the Bankstown Illawarra women's game a couple of episodes ago of being a litmus test of where each are going to fall. I think this is the one for for the round. Also two coaches who came out of that Illawarra Hawks coaching program, Loughy Lornegan and Angus Burke. Yeah, that's right. Very good observation. Coach versus coach.
00:19:05
Speaker
Round one up here in the north, we had a similar situation where Greg van der Jack was coaching against Darryl D-Mac because they were both Brisbane Bullets assistant coaches and yeah, no love lost there. No love lost. Otherwise, I would say Bankstown Bruins and Inner West Bulls and the men's competition will be really easy because Bulls are now riding high. They've had a massive
00:19:31
Speaker
round three, being able to beat Comets and then a huge win over Illawarra. But Bankstown are just a brand new roster. They're loaded up with a lot more scoring talent than compared to last season. They look like they've started to gel as well quite early. I mean, they only lost to COE this round by seven. So I'm really, really excited for them. I reckon Bruins could get this one. Oh, big call from Squian. It's been wrong before. Happy to be wrong again.
00:19:58
Speaker
Never forget, Squint, when you're right 52% of the time, you're wrong 48% of the time. That's correct. Okay, so as we previously mentioned, I was tasked to cover the women's competition this week, but
00:20:12
Speaker
Despite the intelligent person that I am, I always get confused with what I'm supposed to do when and I actually covered a men's game by accident. And Loki being the very smart and disciplined individual that he is, he also covered a men's game like he was supposed to. So instead of having the potentially an episode where you're going to hear the review of two men's games, it just so happens that we have covered the same game. And what game was that, Loki?
00:20:41
Speaker
I originally thought about doing Sutherland Maitland, but I'd already covered Sutherland earlier in the season. So there was really only one game for it. And it was Sydney Comets versus Inner West Bulls. Correct. And I covered the exact same game because the my reasoning for it, which is completely, probably a more superficial reason as to why I chose to cover this game. There was just so much hype about it on social media. There was a lot of great, a couple of great photographers that were there that took some really nice photos.
00:21:09
Speaker
That sucked me into it. Then there's the photo of Matt McQuaid and his reaction to the game winning shot. That sucked me into it. And I thought, this has some hype around at this game. It must have been pretty good. It was a tight finish. So I'm going to review this one. And that's purely what I base my decision on. And I'll tell you what, Matt McQuaid was standing about six feet from me for most of the game because he was behind the inner west bench. That is not the only time he was that hyped during the game. It was one of many.
00:21:39
Speaker
He was up and about throughout. It didn't matter that he didn't have a chair to sit on there behind the bench because he wouldn't have used it anyway.
00:21:47
Speaker
it would have been wasted on him. So yeah, it just so happens that we both decided to review the same game. So what we're going to do for this week, Lockie and I are going to review this Sydney Comets Inner West Bulls men's game. And then to make up for it next week, we'll review the same women's game. But at least this allows us an opportunity to take a bit of a deeper dive and generate some bigger discussion while we're
00:22:10
Speaker
discussing the same game. So this week will be a men's game. Next week will be a women's game. And then we'll get back on track after that. Let's do this quarter by quarter. But before we start that locky, I just have a couple of random observations about the game, but that isn't directly associated with the game itself.
Comets vs Inner West Game Analysis
00:22:32
Speaker
So the first one I'm going to put to you is that have you noticed Ben White's photo that comes up in the graphics on the live stream?
00:22:41
Speaker
Oh, okay. Hashtag blue steel. Nice.
00:22:45
Speaker
That's an observation just purely based on watching the replay. That was, looks like a really healthy crowd for both teams. Yeah, it was. Yeah. People turned out. Yeah. It was really good. We mentioned Freddie Jensen and I mentioned at the start of the women's game that, you know, being a Friday night at all, people coming after work, you know, cause the crowd at the start of the women's game wasn't the best, but people started trickling in throughout the women's game and started looking a bit better. And yeah, by the time the men's game started, it was, yeah, it was pretty good actually.
00:23:16
Speaker
And now the final observation and purely watching the game. That's not about the game. I could see what looks like Anthony mundane in the crowd. And I assumed that it was given that he's done playing for the comment. And was he sitting next to a cowboy? It certainly looked like it. Yes. There was a man in a.
00:23:35
Speaker
in a cowboy hat of some description sitting there within. For an iconic athlete that is Anthony Mundine, he's always going to be able to be recognised in the crowd and sometimes maybe wouldn't want to draw attention to himself. But instead, sitting next to a guy in a cowboy hat, that is, you know, something that is probably going to draw even more attention.
00:23:56
Speaker
I'm actually funny enough in a break in play. It wasn't long enough to take her headphones off and actually chat, but Freddie pointed over to Brian Gorgen, who was also in the crowd. So was Bill Tomlinson because why not? And I initially thought he was pointing at the guy in the cowboy hat because that was the first thing I noticed. So was Brian Gorgen and Bill Tomlinson sitting right near Anthony Mundine and the guy, the cowboy? No, but
00:24:24
Speaker
Though Mundine and his mate were sitting directly across from us. So that was what I saw first. Gorgian and Tomlinson were actually standing in the in the archway, you know, when you enter commerce stadium, I was standing right there. So I was so taken by the cowboy and Anthony Mundine, I missed Brian Gorgian. So did you have any overarching facts or thoughts before we get into this quarter by quarter?
00:24:47
Speaker
Well, my first thought was, and we said as much in the call, that we thought this was going to be high-flying athletes dunking on each other all game and it just didn't happen. It was still a close game, but I feel like everyone sort of neutralized each other a bit. Yes, Comet's having Johnny Sinogorat protecting the rim certainly alters things at one end of the court, but yeah, I thought we were going to get some real high-flying basketball and it just never, never panned out that way.
00:25:17
Speaker
And correct me if I'm wrong, but that Comets court is smaller than a regulation court, right? Yes. I have a theory because what you just said, I completely agree with. I was also expecting a high octane, high athleticism game with, yeah, like I said, lots of dunks, lots of fast plays. Um, you know, just a highlight reel of the game. But I think that the fact that they played on a smaller court actually hindered their chances to do that.
00:25:47
Speaker
can't back up, get downhill, turns you back in D-trans more easily, and it's narrower as well. So everything's just a little bit more cramped. I guess it's the same if you think in soccer where the field dimensions are not set in stone, you can have anything between about 98 and 105 meters long and somewhere between
00:26:11
Speaker
65, 70 meters wide and teams will paint their fields differently based on how they play. So, I mean, it's not hugely smaller, hugely smaller than, it's not much smaller than a regulation court, but in a sport like basketball, those slightly smaller dimensions actually do make a difference because the court is not that big to start with.
00:26:34
Speaker
especially when it's a game with a lot of men who are very athletic, who have got a lot of long limbs and ground to cover. I think that the fact that this was a smaller court really influenced the style of play that both teams wanted to play. Because like you said, it meant that they couldn't get out and run. It meant that the spacing was compromised. And again, bigger bodies
00:26:56
Speaker
longer reach you need that extra spacing in your offense and being able to Set your offense a good step outside the three-point line for them to be able to a little bit more effective with trying to make plays So I think when these teams meet again at in a West on a bigger court might be a different story I think you're right. I mean
00:27:16
Speaker
You just watch players training at Comets and not in pregame, but like when they do individuals and every time someone shoots a quarter three, their heels are on the line because they're shooting based on, you know, a full-size court. Yeah. And it's interesting. I wonder if the Comets men's team actually train on that court too, or if they train on another court that's regulation size, because especially earlier in the game, there are a lot of turnovers where they were just thrown like way out of court.
00:27:43
Speaker
almost like you yeah like your body is conditioned to throw it that little bit further like by
00:27:50
Speaker
way of feeling an instinct rather than you know using your visual spatial abilities to go oh they're only just there and you need this much power that kind of made me feel like maybe they're training on a bigger court so when they come to a smaller court their body is in condition but then again who knows maybe i'm looking into it a little bit too too far um so you are there in the flesh take me through your thoughts for the first quarter
00:28:14
Speaker
Well, what I found very interesting was Billy Army for Kettie getting the start for Inner West over Jake Omer, the import, who then came back in. He came back in for the Illawarra game and dropped 30 odd. I feel like that was just a matchup-based thing. Billy's a big body, Betty's got great touch, can handle the ball, can pass. I remember correctly, you didn't actually score that many points, plenty of assists. But I thought that was a very smart
00:28:44
Speaker
smart decision from uh coach Ing Lao to to start Villy. My main takeaway from the first quarter was the stark difference in the game once Johnny Sinogorat's picked up those two early fouls. Ben White is like trying to move a lighthouse but he's still not seven foot one or whatever height Johnny is. Johnny can affect literally everything. I feel that that was when the ball started getting out to their lead when
00:29:10
Speaker
They were able to just get a little bit more of what they wanted because there was not as much fear of the ball getting swatted into the third row every time they came up court. Don't get me wrong, Ben White had a solid game but I do think those two early fouls and it cascaded throughout the end of the game. It manifested at the end of the game those early fouls.
00:29:32
Speaker
I thought Obi-Chai got into the game really well, even in the first quarter, he certainly came into it later. Yeah, it's just, in the West, they're just more polished. Yeah, more polished, able to get what they wanted more. Did a really good job of stopping Bawali Bails from getting past the first man on every occasion. Didn't matter how many people they had to throw at him, they were just determined, just do not let Bawali get in there. And they did a really good job of that. Bawali hit some tough shots, but for him, most of the night even, they were all tough shots.
00:30:02
Speaker
They were all tough shots. I don't think you got an easy basket. If you did, it was maybe one, one, maybe two easy baskets. They were all tough shots. And that is full credit to their defense. Their defense on Boali was really, really good. I have to say that that first quarter was a very typical start to a game. There was lots of pace, lots of up and back, lots of loose balls, lots of early threes that each team probably didn't need to take, but it's just that kind of getting that nervous energy out and being really desperate to score first.
00:30:32
Speaker
And I felt for Matty Waitcher because he could have had three or four assists in that first quarter, but so many bunnies were just being dropped, I think, in transition. And there was a lot of one pass shoot kind of offense and a lot of just come down the court, one pass one on one. There was a lot from both teams. This is both teams.
00:30:51
Speaker
And it was just the Bulls who settled first, really, out of that, kind of got it out of their system. As they got a couple of, I guess, more traditional plays, everyone successfully, they put the one-part shoot in the rack and played a bit more basketball.
00:31:07
Speaker
100%. That's what my note was, is that the B the ball's key to early success was their pace and that they just stuck to their fundamentals a lot better in that first quarter. You know, just running as a pack, running with pace, sticking to their transition game. That is obviously one of their strengths. And the balls ended up winning that quarter 22 points to nine, and they shot it at 53% in that quarter. That includes 18 points in the paint.
00:31:33
Speaker
getting downhill or doing really well with getting some better ball reversals and then finding people under the basket for easy points, which is something Comets didn't really do. What I found really interesting in the first quarter for the Comets was that despite the score slipping away from them and finishing that quarter 22-9, they didn't actually kind of take a breath and go, hey, this is getting away from us. Let's run a set for Buali. Let's run a set for Obie Che to get a quick score. They didn't do any of that.
00:32:03
Speaker
which I thought was really interesting, giving the scorers that they have on their team. I mean, we've seen already this season what kind of scoreline some of these players can produce. And yes, you know, Wes made it hard football while he when he was bringing the ball up. You know, you can always, you know, you've got Matty Wachter there who's
00:32:22
Speaker
Plenty good ball handler and plenty good facilitator who can set something up. I also noticed that there were a few times, a couple of times maybe, that Bewally was kind of calling for people to clear out. They didn't really get out of the way.
00:32:37
Speaker
I don't know if they, I don't know if they could get out of the way cause the court's small. Possibly. And that has probably affected the ISO game as well. And what I also found interesting is that neither team really, I mean, other than when they were in the half court, there wasn't a lot of backcourt ball pressure on defense. And a lot of times even in the half court, aside from when they were guarding for Lali and, and this is both teams that were just waiting for the offense to come to them rather than applying the ball pressure out on the three point line. And then there was just a lot of lack.
00:33:06
Speaker
you know, feeding of chests and stuff once they got to the basket. I mean, they're serviceable shooters, but it's not the strength of either lineup that was out there. So, dare them to shoot or make them come into the paint and knock them down like early 90s New York Knicks against the Pacers. Yeah, that's right.
00:33:27
Speaker
And then rolling into the second quarter though, the Comets came out with a lot more positive signs as they opened up their scoring at around the eight minute 55 mark with Bales penetrating and just having that nice little hook pass under the basket for Johnny C for a dunk. And I was like, this is what I want more of.
00:33:45
Speaker
That's when I felt like, yes, okay, comets, they could be on their way here. And it was more or less an even quarter. I ended up finished 20 to 18 in a West favor, but I mean, given the position comets were coming from, it was certainly a much better quarter. But just harking back to the three point, I mean, comets didn't hit a three point until the fourth quarter. In the second quarter, they are their two point percentage from 30%
00:34:10
Speaker
to 53% and had 16 points in the paint. 16 of the 18 points of the second quarter came in the paint and that was when they had Johnny C back in the game because you know after sitting with those two fouls he was able to come back in and provide that touch around the rim, throw down that dunk with absolutely nobody able to stop him. One thing I also noticed about Johnny C is when he tips a rebound he can tip it wherever he wants.
00:34:34
Speaker
know, most people go up and they'll tip a rebound and hope it touches their hand and falls, you know, it's mainly just disrupt. Johnny Sebel like almost played volleyball with it and put it right where he wants. And it's such a benefit. So the other good thing I noticed from the comments bringing, you know, starting the second quarter with that energy is that they started to press a little bit more. So when they just
00:34:54
Speaker
They just turned up that defensive pressure a little bit more, started pressing. That gave them so much more momentum. And then I was like, oh, they're just going to put on the accelerator and take it away now. And it worked really, really well. It worked so well that it forced the inner west bulls to call a timeout. But then out of that timeout, the pressure was gone. And I was like, why did you stop? This was working for you.
00:35:15
Speaker
I'm sure Inner West discuss the pressure in the timeout, force them to use what they've just been told to adjust to what is working for you. You know, they're going to come out and go, oh, we're going to do this on the press break. Oh, there's no press. Well, that's still making it easier for them than this. You know, they had an idea of how to break the press. Fair enough. You're not going to stick with the press because obviously they call the time out to break it. But just keep continue with that level of defensive pressure and intensity because then they just kind of fell back to that very
00:35:44
Speaker
street ball style of like, you know what, I'm going to stand just inside the three-point line and you can come to me offense and then I'll guard you. It was a lot of a lot of that going on. Buali Bals was, you know, pretty quiet in the first quarter. And so it looks like he was trying to make up for it in the second because he shot a lot of shots in this quarter, a lot, a lot that were under pressure, a lot that were just one-on-one opportunities in a in a half court.
00:36:12
Speaker
I don't even know if they were running a lot of sets, but a lot of the time they would try and run a set and it'll break down very easily and it'll just stop with Belalie at the wing. He'd call a pick and roll. He'd do the classic cross thing that he does. That defensive pressure on that momentum obviously works in your favour because it definitely closed the scoring gap.
00:36:32
Speaker
But the Bulls were really, really good because they just kept sticking to that fundamentals of trying to make transition baskets, chasing offensive rebounds, a lot more driving and dishing, and they weren't having a very good night from the three point line. They must have saved it all for their trip to Illawarra. But they were just kind of trying to stick to that consistent game plan as much as they could, it looks like.
00:36:55
Speaker
And why not? I mean, they've got players there who will keep, calmer heads will prevail when inner-west are playing most of the time. It's not to say that these guys, we know them, they've got some massively athletic players, but there's a lot of players out there with experience who'll keep everything moving. You've got Tony Tolivi out there.
00:37:14
Speaker
We already mentioned what kind of player he is. Why not? Why not stick with it? Fundamental basketball, it's got them five wins out of six games so far this season, so no reason to go away from anything that they do, except make slight in-game adjustments where they see fit, really.
00:37:32
Speaker
Yeah, and tell me how many teams have won games and won championships by that very one pass shoot, one pass, do an ISO play style of play, like very, very few teams, the ball is just so
00:37:45
Speaker
And the movement on offense, well, there isn't any, it's just stagnant. And that really limits your options. So the balls, you know, they had some good ball reversal times. Yeah. Like I said, just that basic driving and dishing, but having someone like Alex Higgins teacher is very handy on your team because everything, uh, especially on offense kind of gravitated towards him. Like if he wasn't getting a scoring option, then he was getting a tip to try and give them a second chance.
00:38:13
Speaker
He also had one of the few potential highlight plays but it was unfortunately ruled out for hanging on the basket as it spun around. As he went up for the dunk and the ball just refused to fall and he's standing there, he's just hanging on the rim waiting for it to drop. Referee really had no option but to call the basket interference call. It was fun to watch until the ball decided it didn't want to go in.
00:38:38
Speaker
Yeah, a stubborn bull, blame it on the bull. And then coming into halftime, did you get any line dancing from the cowboy in the crowd? No, no, sadly not. Ah, well that's disappointing.
00:38:51
Speaker
I came for a show that scored half time then with 42 to 27 in favour of the inner west bulls. 27 points and a half for someone like the Comets is very unexpected. I think at least though on the plus side their shooting percentage like you mentioned before improved a lot from the first quarter to the second quarter.
00:39:10
Speaker
So they were certainly showing positive signs of change going into, into halftime. It was just kind of unfortunate as well, though, that the inner west bull shot their best quarter in the second quarter shooting at 58%. But how the tides did change, quarter number three, Lockie. Geez, you want to talk about shooting percentages because in the west 11% from the field or from two point range in the third quarter, every shot, yeah, every shot refused to fall.
00:39:40
Speaker
the bull scoring just completely dried up. It was a combination of settling for a lot more outside shots and not getting on the rim as well as they did. And then they just didn't go in. No.
00:39:53
Speaker
That was when Obie and Johnny were really looking good playing together. They came out after half time. You know, long period of the game has passed, you know, foul troubles, not much of an issue. I think Obie, Obie Che and Johnny Sinegorac were their front court pairing for the entire third quarter. Don't think either of them sat throughout the quarter. Obie started getting the ball in positions where he could use it. One dribble, go to the rack, maybe take a couple of dribbles, go to the rack, finish off the glass. And whatever was discussed in the, uh,
00:40:22
Speaker
halftime break certainly came out looking like, honestly, completely different team. Yeah, totally. And on top of that very poor shooting quarter from the Bulls with 11% like you said, the Comets were able to hold the Bulls to six points that quarter, which is even better than being held themselves to nine in the first. And it was only two points in the first seven minutes or so. Yeah, it took a while.
00:40:49
Speaker
a while for Bulls to score. Yeah, just settling for those outside shots. So yeah, stopped getting to the rack. Again, in a similar way as the comment that I made about the comments earlier, then also didn't recognize, hey, we're in a scoring drought. We need to change something. We need to run something for Alex. We need to run something for Zach. We need to change something. I just kind of stayed in the same thing. And that's where they found themselves with six points and 11%.
00:41:18
Speaker
Yeah. And then this was the quarter where, uh, so comments again, brought out that really good defensive intensity, pressuring the bulls a lot more, managed to turn that around into a 21 point quarter for them. And then by the end of the third, the game was tied at 46 all.
00:41:33
Speaker
I think Comets even had the lead briefly. Boali tied it up in the last minute and then Obi had a pair of free throws to actually give Comets the lead briefly. Yeah, definitely a big turnaround, but they don't call the third quarter the championship quarter for nothing.
00:41:51
Speaker
Yeah, they went on a 12 point run in the third quarter and were leading at one stage. But this is actually the first game that I've watched. First full game I've watched to see Obi-Chai and what he can do. He has a really, really good skill set about him, like he's athletic, he's long.
00:42:07
Speaker
He's very good under the basket at both ends. He's someone though that I was hoping that they would run more scoring opportunities for and like he said in the third, it was the third quarter most of all where he was actually getting captures in good scoring positions. If I had some, if I had people like him and Johnny Seon at the same time, I'd be running so much stuff for them.
00:42:27
Speaker
not even just a score just to get those deep catches because if they're not scoring on those deep catches they are sucking in three defenders and then you've got all your options on the outside and look probably not the best game to give that as an example given that Comet shot 6.2% from the three-point line all game yeah one of 16 from deep but
00:42:49
Speaker
Yeah, they were also short a few players. But even then, you don't have to shoot it. You can, I mean, you suck your defenders in, you kick it back out to Bales, you run at Bales because you don't want him to shoot a three and then he's just going to dribble past you and get it back to the rack. So just a little bit more, just using them in a little bit more in their ball movement. I would have liked to see like, oh yeah, Obie Chase got a lot to offer. You could have potential to be an All-Star Five in our league.
00:43:14
Speaker
Oh, I mean, the man's got MBL experience, so should definitely be in the conversation. Any final thoughts on the third quarter? Oh yeah, I think it's pretty much been wrapped up. I mean, it really, it was an anomaly within the game more than anything. You know, the first quarter was mostly in a West, the other two quarters slightly in a West or pretty much even. And then the third quarter was just, yeah, a complete anomaly is, I mean, it's the reason the game was so close. Credit to Comets for, you know, bringing it back and tying it up and
00:43:42
Speaker
I mean, we mentioned in the season preview that we were hoping that Lockie Lonergan would stick with, you know, certain lineups more for longer stretches than he did last year. And credit to him, he did. When players were doing well, he certainly kept, you know, obviously in the third quarter, it's easy to say that, but at other times, just throughout the game, he did the same.
00:44:01
Speaker
Start us off with your thoughts on the fourth and final quarter. It was looking pretty tight most of the way and even though OBJ picked up two offensive fouls midway through the quarter to foul out and that could have looked like a situation in which Inner West could have run away with the game, but it didn't happen straight away. Common stock with them fouled out with about four and a half minutes to play and Ben White came back in.
00:44:27
Speaker
Comets were still able to stick around 56 or 58, 56. It was tired. It was 58, 56, but the problem was Comets didn't score for the last two minutes, 47 of the contest. But while he got to the rack to put them up 58, 56, that was where it ended. So.
00:44:46
Speaker
Perhaps Inner West just needing a little bit of time to adjust to having those two really big bodies in the front court, maybe. It's just the last few minutes, couldn't get the score. The scoring just dried up again for the Comets. It was pretty much, it was a bit like the first quarter. Maybe Bales trying to play a little bit of hero ball in the dying minutes, trying to keep them, keep them in it. Inner West stuck to their guns, didn't score massive amounts of points, but you know, put the ball in the hole often enough to, uh,
00:45:15
Speaker
to secure victory and Ramon Cowell. Man was absolutely clutch down the stretch. Had a three to tie it at 56 and then
00:45:25
Speaker
A ridiculous long two with 25 seconds to play, kind of one foot. From my position, he was, there must've been a very long two because from my position he was that deep that I could not actually see where his feet were to call it a two or a three to look at the signal from the ref. Ridiculously tough shot. I'm sure it's in the highlights. You know what else will be in the highlights? Zach Hudson's dunk off the backboard from Tony Tolivi. Yeah, that was awesome. That needs to be in the highlights. I am. I'm not happy though. Cause that
00:45:56
Speaker
is in the stats as a missed layup offensive rebound, not an assist. I love that as an assist. I didn't realize that. That's a really, really good pick up. I didn't notice that. But yeah, like he said, over Che, he found out I clocked it at four minutes 39 to play.
00:46:12
Speaker
That is a long time to play. It is, especially for someone who finished 17 and 16 and was looking their best. Just a pity it was on two offensive fouls as well. And not particularly egregious ones. Don't get me wrong, they were both probably fouls, but they weren't. He wasn't getting value for his foul.
00:46:32
Speaker
Yeah, you know what? And I was supposed to give baby Chola shout out as well because he tried to take a charge early in the game. I think it was first quarter when he first came on. He attempted to take a charge on Alexander Higgins' teacher going up for a dunk.
00:46:48
Speaker
And you know what, baby child props to you because if that were a lot of other people, they just would have been clearing out of the way and giving that one to Higgins teacher. And that's getting a bit more of a bang for your buck. You try and take a charge over a huge dunk and at least make it difficult for them. And you get called for, I think baby child actually got called for the block.
00:47:09
Speaker
But I mean, you're still worth it, right? It's still literally put your best foot forward. But yeah, like you said, Obi-Chae fouled out. Four minutes 39 to play. Ramon Cow hits that. Three, exactly like you said, to tie it up 56th all. That's three minutes and nine. And I saw the fourth quarter exactly how you described, Lockie. Lots of opportunities for comments to score.
00:47:32
Speaker
and it just halted. And for me, it's because it was so predictable. We knew who was going to have the ball in their hands, what, how they were going to look to score, where they were going to, we knew what was going to happen. And so I feel like that made it a lot easier for the Bulls to guard. Oh, definitely. If you know what's coming, send your preferred defender out there and play what you know is coming. And that's not to take away from
00:47:59
Speaker
the Bulls defense at all. Their defense was really good. There was times Higgins teacher was on Buali in those dying seconds where Buali was just trying to make something happen. And he was just getting suffocated a lot by the defense, but it was just really predictable. So here we are. That's what happens. I mean,
00:48:18
Speaker
props to Obi for a great game. But you know, when the man who's doing the scoring from the best opportunities in the third quarter is off the court, you know, you lose one real scoring opportunity or one scoring option, sorry. Like Obi-Chai is really good as well at creating his own scoring opportunities from second chance opportunities and loose balls and offensive rebounds. And that's the kind of stuff that you want at the end of a game like this. Things are going to go haywire and you've got someone
00:48:45
Speaker
on one end, Obi Che, the other end, Higgins teacher, going for that kind of gutsy kind of plays. That's what's going to make a difference, but yeah, unfortunately Che wasn't there to do that. It's important to remember, Comets led for four minutes and 30 seconds of the fourth quarter. Yeah. Um, and it just turned around with those two, three pointers from Ramon Cowell.
00:49:12
Speaker
that drought that comets had there where they couldn't score and then they were forced, the game was forced for them to have to foul to get the balls on the free point at the free throw line. And by that stage when they needed to do that, they were only on two team fouls.
00:49:26
Speaker
Also, can't forget Kailin Bayer with a minute to go. His steal to blow the ball away from Matty Wachar and get to the basket that actually put in a West three points up, put them up 61-58 or with a minute to play when comments would have had a chance to take the lead. So you've got Ramon Cowell and Kailin Bayer both coming off the bench, being trusted in the vital minutes when I think Tullivar had four fouls, but there was no one fouled out. They had their pick of wide ups.
00:49:56
Speaker
And they went with Bayer and Kao and the guys off the bench came up Trumps and then remote Kao went and dropped 32 two days later. If you players recognize who's, who's doing well off the bench or who's great for the situation, get rewarded. Definitely. That's why, you know, they say that the bench makes the team right. But having said that, that was only the Comet's first loss. So they're still three in one.
00:50:19
Speaker
That's, that's true. And you know, to sit three and one and you're only lost to be 64 58 to a team that's five and one is not too bad. I think for me in the end, it was whoever was able to execute the fundamentals the best on both ends of the court. So who had the better ball pressure? Who had the smarter IQ of knowing the scout?
00:50:40
Speaker
who was able to stick to drive and dish ball movement transition buckets. Absolute basic fundamentals and the Bulls were able to do that a little bit more than the Comets and I think that's what got them over the line in the end. Also obviously not an excuse. I'm sure the Comets won't treat as an excuse but their team had been tough tough suffering with a bit of illness over the week and they were down a couple of players still out with illness so
00:51:08
Speaker
That gets tough in the fourth quarter if you haven't had a proper week of training, you're just coming off illness, but hopefully the next time these teams face off up at Inner West, we'll be back and healthy and at full strength and we can see, hopefully see the high-flying action we are, we all so desperately crave. Selfishly too, maybe a little bit. And co-hosts have a great opportunity to get the split now on Bulls and given that they only lost by six,
00:51:34
Speaker
they could potentially blow it out and win by a lot more and try and get that piece of the percentage back. I would love to see a situation in which they take a timeout to win by more than six at the end of the game. I love those games where everybody's like, why are they taking a timeout? They're up by eight with 30 seconds to play. It's like, well, they did the split. You know what? We've put it out to the universe and now it's going to happen.
00:51:57
Speaker
I put a lot of things out to the universe that happened. You sure do, you sure do. You might hear about one of them later. We definitely will hear about one of them later. So listen, this game had it all. It had cowboys, it had some dunks, it had huge step back clutch winning threes, but we still wanted more. Any final thoughts on that one?
00:52:16
Speaker
Yeah, like you said, it wasn't what we expected. Um, it was entertaining at times for a completely different reason. It was, you know, still good to watch from a defensive point of view at times. We did get that massive dunk from Zach Hudson. So we were treated a little bit and two teams that are going to be ones to watch down the stretch. It should be fun. Should be very fun. Should be very fun.
00:52:41
Speaker
All right, so that wraps up our game review for round three. As mentioned, we will deep dive into a game from the women's competition next week and then get back on track with taking turns on covering each of the competition. Okay, so with the game review wrapped up, it is now time for news and gossip from around MBL1 East. Locky, have you got anything to tell us?
New Imports and All-Star Selection
00:53:07
Speaker
Get off your chest this week.
00:53:09
Speaker
get off my chest. I don't like being having it said that I said vocal point when I actually said focal point. Does that count as something to get off my chest? Yes, it does. You know what I think happened there? I can't remember if I told you, but
00:53:24
Speaker
A couple weeks earlier, Paige Becker, she's like, I hope I'm not the vocal point. I would like, or something like, I would like my teammates to be more of a vocal point and not just me next season, essentially. And that sparked the debate between me and one of my friends of focal point versus vocal point. And yeah, here we are. We find ourselves in the same situations. Focal with an F. I think Kai Savage can be the focal point. It's good to, it's good to be compared to Paige Becker's.
00:53:54
Speaker
It is good to be compared to Paige Beckett. Oh, tell me about the two new imports into the League of Locky, because I only know of one. Well, I'll let you talk about one, because you can talk, you take us through the one you know of so far. Okay, fair enough. So it was officially now announced on Instagram just before we started recording. The North Bears women have signed Ariana Harris.
00:54:21
Speaker
Ariana Harris is 6-1. She is a forward and she recently went to college in Purdue, which is a pretty decent school for women's basketball in the last couple of years. They even had an Aussie in their roster named Abby Ellis from Victoria, and she is a gun. So in the 2019-2020 season, Harris was two-time Big Ten defensive player of the year, only the second player in the league to accomplish that feat.
00:54:48
Speaker
She finished more than could you career record holder for blocks defensive rebounds and double doubles blocks record is also more than any player in the men's program so not only does she hold the record for blocks in the women's Purdue program it's just the whole school.
00:55:07
Speaker
And you know what? That makes a lot of sense because her Instagram handle is block.party. So the block party has well and truly arrived at North with the signing of Ariana Harris. She has just come over as well. She played in Spain. So she went from Purdue, she played in Spain, and then she had the really tough task of just landing in Australia and then having to take the road trip to Albury.
00:55:30
Speaker
It's not like you had a home game in Sydney or even an away game in Sydney first up. Not only do you have to get to Australia, then you've got to get all the way down to Albury for your first game. And all the way down to Albury for your first game to play Lauren Jackson. That's probably actually a pretty good incentive. That's a really tall order. Getting a late call up for a league and then like, oh, hey, by the way, you're going to have to drive nine hours and play the greatest player ever.
00:55:57
Speaker
Hope you hope you're okay with that. So who was the new import that you learnt about this week? She wasn't there on Friday night, but she played her first game on the weekend for comments. It's Janine Camp.
00:56:09
Speaker
Yet another 6-5 import alongside Brooke Flowers and PR Gabriel, who are also both listed at that height. Getting some real height. She played for college at Towson and then Coastal Carolina before spending her final season at Troy. She's also played in Italy. Comets, the one thing we were mentioning
00:56:28
Speaker
during our call of their women's game is that lacking a bit of height are the comets. Although I have to say, Kudemundra's greatest athlete, Alex Oliver, did an outstanding job against PR Gabriel during the comets in a West game. Now she'll have a bit of a running mate in the front court in the form of Janine Camp. Looking forward to seeing how she goes as well for comets.
00:56:51
Speaker
Very exciting. It sounds like the East is now hosting its own block party with some of the new bigs that we're not used to, especially in the women's competition. If you want to be LJ and Aubrey, you're going to have someone who can match with her physically. The next team looks over and says, oh now two teams have got six bioplays, we've got to go out and get someone. Rolls on and on and on and we've got four or five teams with some real hype.
00:57:14
Speaker
Yeah. And with all, always really great playing experience already, like all playing at very good colleges as well. Yeah. Very exciting. Very exciting stuff. Okay. So now that we have also both covered the men's league, this is going to be interesting because now we've got the all-star five for the men's where this is going to be super interesting. Now, lucky to see if we've perhaps come up with the same five.
00:57:39
Speaker
So I'm going to let you go first. As always, there were so many players that were close to getting a spot. It was tough to miss out Ramon Cowell with his 32 and seven and having those tough shots as part of his 10 points against Comets earlier in the week. Jacob Omar had also had a slightly quieter game, but then dropped 34 against Dilma Wora.
00:58:04
Speaker
How do you choose between Dave O'Hickey and Lockie Cummings? Lockie Cummings, I'm lucky to miss out. Mandrel Worthy, 25-6. Brad Ballinger, 25-6. Still a child, really. Driving 25-6 and a narrow 95-92 loss. But first cab off the rank.
00:58:23
Speaker
It's a Friend of the Pod, CB, Chris Bryant from Hills. 39 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks, helping Hills on their way to a 93-83 win over Central Coast. And then I had the Wild Cherry, Miles Cherry. 25 points, 19 rebounds and assists and three steals. And an 81-61 win over Hornsby Keringa. Then I had three players,
00:58:51
Speaker
who played back-to-backs this week. The first one couldn't go past his performance against Inner West in a valiant, valiant effort, but a loss. Obie Chay, 17 points, 16 rebounds, and assists three steals at a block in a low scoring affair, 64-58 loss. But we've waxed lyrical about him already tonight. But he then followed that up with 23 points, 12 rebounds, two assists, and five steals in a 77-69 win over Newcastle.
00:59:19
Speaker
And then, well, I just mentioned his teammate and of course, Dave O'Hickey coming out with a triple double against COE, 18 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists and three steals. So it's not one of those 18, 10 and 10s. He went over the top in all three categories.
00:59:35
Speaker
and then dropped 26 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists, and had three blocks in an 88-81 win over Norse. And finally, I've got Benny Kieran's back to his home club of Penrith. 29 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, and 2 steals in that narrow defeat to Bankstown, and they're following it up with 26 points, sorry, that was the second game, first game, 26 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 5 steals, helping Penrith to that clutch 95-92 win over Illawarra.
01:00:05
Speaker
Wow, that was a lot different to what I was expecting. I had a lot of similar people on my honourable mentions list like Miles Cherry. Adding to the stats that you rattled off before, he actually shot at 69% overall against the spiders, which I thought was worth a shout out.
01:00:24
Speaker
Lockie Hutchinson was also on my list, Will Cranston-Lown was also on my honourable mentions list, Mantra Worthy, and however I had Obie Che on my honourable mentions list.
01:00:40
Speaker
And this came, this was a really, really hard decision in the end, because I'd picked my five and I'd forgotten that the inner west bulls played that huge game against Illawarra Hawks, where they scored a 48 point quarter, which has to be some kind of NBA One East record. So yeah, like you said, Zach Hudson, 22, Roman Kao, 32, Jacob Omar, 34 in that one game. But I tried to add a little bit more context to my decision making when it came to the final five.
01:01:10
Speaker
So I actually had May Hightower in my 5. He had 27 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists at 63% shooting overall against the COE. Putting up those numbers with that high level of higher field goal percentage against the COE I thought in that context.
01:01:29
Speaker
pretty good. I'm going to put you in there. I also had CB though. CB of course versus the Crusaders with his 39 point game shooting at 67%. The only person I will allow to crush my beloved Central Coast Crusaders is probably CB. And I also had Ben Kieran's as well from Penrith Panthers for exactly the same reason. For someone to back up
01:01:53
Speaker
and average what 27.5 points from one day to the next and still contribute rebound assists and steals.
01:02:03
Speaker
definitely worth a mention in the All-Star Five. But then I went with both Davo and Loki Cummings, because Loki Cummings having that 31.5 rebound to assist game, shooting at 63% overall, which included seven from 12 stories. And that was against the COE as well. So against another very high caliber team.
01:02:25
Speaker
And I mean, if someone like Davo Hickey is just going to keep putting up triple doubles, the thing that impressed me the most of the triple double was the 13 assists.
01:02:35
Speaker
And I remember saying last year when he was playing for Illawarra, there were lots of times where I felt like he could be given the ball up more. And now he has. And it's almost like he's making up for it with 13 assists. He's getting assists for this year and making up for assisting his last year. So that was, that was my five for round three. Uh, it was really tricky though, because there were a lot of, um, very similar stats, but I just wanted to add a bit more context, I think.
01:03:03
Speaker
I mean, with what, 12 games this week? So many good games. You need to do a whole pod on the great performances of the week. Three quarters of my page is just writing down all the ones as a shortlist. That's not a shortlist. Well, that's what I had to start, like, not putting players on my shortlist just because I already had five. And I was like, well, five players are ahead of these guys, so I really need to write them down.
01:03:24
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good point, actually, to do it like that. But that is the end of the regular episode. Now that we've finished off with our All-Star Five, please stick around. We do have a really great interview coming up with a new star in MBL One East. His name is familiar to NSW senior competition basketball, but not necessarily MBL One East.
01:03:47
Speaker
Our guest this week is making his MBL1 East debut this season with the Bankstown Bruins. He's a 6'2 shooting guard. He's played from anywhere from St Francis University to Kosovo to Ireland and now he is here, like I said, in MBL1 East. It's Andre Walford. Hi Andre, how are you going? I'm good, how are you guys doing? Very good, thank you. Now, do you prefer Andre or Dre or do you have any other nicknames you'd like to be referred to?
01:04:18
Speaker
I say Dre is better, but either or. So thanks for being our guest on Eastcott Game this week. I know that Lockie in particular was really excited to see your name pop up on an NBA One East roster this season after seeing you perform so well in the Waratah League for Port Macquarie. But we'll get into that kind of midi-gritty a little bit later. But a question that we always like to start with our guest on Eastcott Game is, where did your basketball journey begin?
01:04:49
Speaker
Yeah, where it began at two years old. My brother put a little basketball hoop in my crib and gave me a little basketball. And from there, the rest is history. I just started shooting a lot and me and him would go on in the backyard and shoot baskets together. And that was it. So I was hooked from there. And is it safe to assume then that your brother played as well?
01:05:17
Speaker
Yeah, he played a little bit. He was more of a football player. My brother was in the Hall of Fame for like American football in Ohio. But he taught me everything I know now. And when he got to a point where he couldn't teach me anything anymore, he helped me get in with some trainers and coaches that really helped me to be who I am today. So if it wasn't for that guy, my brother Sean, I wouldn't be here at all.
01:05:43
Speaker
Wow, lovely influence of the older siblings there. And so knowing that basketball and football are very popular sports in America, are you a basketball family or a football family? No, that's a good question. I mean, everybody in my family, pretty much they play both. But I'm the first one to really take it to this level.
01:06:09
Speaker
So yeah, I'd probably say we're more of a football family, but we love basketball. We love basketball for sure. All that training and then everything got you to St. Francis University. It's the one in Pennsylvania, right? Not the one in New York. Four years there, got to take on some big teams, UNC, Virginia Tech, UCLA, plenty of awards, played over a hundred games, playing in college.
01:06:39
Speaker
How does it prepare you getting to play D1 college? How does that prepare you for the next level?
01:06:46
Speaker
It's just the amount of expectation put on you, the amount of expectation and pressure that's put on you on a day-to-day basis, the preparation that it takes that they really show you how to prepare your body, prepare your mind for games, the crowds, the crazy environments, the energy, the scouting, just everything about college basketball, especially on the divisional level.
01:07:12
Speaker
helps you get ready for when you want to transition yourself into being a professional. It shows you how to be professional. Without St Francis, I definitely wouldn't be who I am today. Was turning pro always something you had in mind or was it something that came up at the end of your college career?
01:07:32
Speaker
It was always something I had in my mind for sure. I never in my life thought I'd be in Australia. I never thought that because I would always hear about the weird bugs and creatures over here. So I'm like, no, I don't think I'll go over there. But then I know we'll get to it later. But then I found myself in Australia and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
01:07:53
Speaker
Growing up, you know, obviously playing high school, so the basketball pathways between America and Australia are a little bit different. So in America, everything's through, you know, high school and you go to college and that's your pathway to making pros, whereas here it's through clubs like you're playing, you know, like for Bankstown Bruins now.
01:08:11
Speaker
And when you were in high school, were you someone who went to a particular high school with the purpose of aiming to get a college scholarship? Like, did you strategically pick a high school, a basketball high school to set you up to go to college?
01:08:25
Speaker
Absolutely. So I went to St. Ignatius High School. Shout out to my guys over there because we just won a state championship over there. But I knew going to that school, it was going to give me a lot more looks and notoriety because we're a big time school over there, big time sports school, always top in the state in football, basketball, soccer, all these different sports. So you're going to get noticed by someone. So I knew by going there, I was going to get noticed, but also just
01:08:54
Speaker
The preparation, the time they take to really develop you as a player, I knew it was gonna help me get ready for that next level. And I always wanted to play Division I, so I knew I wouldn't rather go to any other school. So yeah, I chose that school for that specific reason. We also have AAU as well, which we all do AAU over there in America. It's a little different than when I played back in the day, but we all use AAU as a way to get ourselves noticed from colleges and stuff too.
01:09:23
Speaker
And just for those that might not know, tell us a bit more about AAU.
01:09:27
Speaker
So AAU is just like summer basketball. You do summer basketball where you travel to different states, travel to different cities. The really good teams, they travel all across the country. Some teams, they're more local in their state and things like that. But I was blessed to be able to play on some teams and we travel a little bit. And you just basically just play a whole bunch of games. And college coaches attend those games so they can watch.
01:09:54
Speaker
a whole bunch of scouts and different things, they come and watch you. So it's just basically an exposure, a whole bunch of exposure games, exposure events for kids to get noticed. That's all it is. And with St Francis University, so you spent four years there from 2015 to 2019. Did you have any other D1 offers?
01:10:16
Speaker
No, I didn't have a single Division I offer at all. I actually walked on to St. Francis University for two years, and I earned my full scholarship after my sophomore year. But I didn't have any scholarship offers. I had a few schools I could have gone to, like Division III and Division II. But my dream and my goal is to go to Division I. So I'm a little stubborn. My mom will tell you that more than anybody. So I was going to make it a point to go to Division I no matter what.
01:10:45
Speaker
So you walked on for two years. We see so many viral videos nowadays of when they give the walk, when they announce the walk on gets a scholarship. It's always like a surprise thing. Did they do something special for you when you got your scholarship? They did. So it was just after we played in the CIT tournament. We just played our last game. We lost the game and long road trip back home.
01:11:08
Speaker
And we're in the locker room. I'm thinking about transferring because I'm like, I can't afford to stay here. I got to think about my next moves. The coach, they recorded actually, it's on YouTube somewhere. He just sprung me like, hey, Andre Wilford, you're on scholarship. And all my teammates got, they went crazy slapping me on the head and give me hugs and high fives and stuff. And I was a little emotional because I just, I just didn't expect it. And yeah, so it was a, it was a crazy, crazy moment that I'll never forget.
01:11:35
Speaker
Must have made your family really, really proud because I mean, being a walk onto a team and getting a scholarship doesn't happen very often. And for your family to see that your dream was realized would have made them so proud.
01:11:50
Speaker
Yeah, it made my mom and my brother real excited, real happy. Just because they know how hard I worked to get there and all the blood, sweat, and tears it took to go from being a walk-on to being a scholarship player. That's a pretty big deal. So they noticed that. And they were able to come to a lot more games and see me playing a lot more big venues and environments and play a lot more minutes as a scholarship player.
01:12:18
Speaker
I think I made him proud a little bit, to say the least. I think that might be an understatement. It might be.
01:12:24
Speaker
In your college career, you were named the Northeast Conference Most Improved Player from 2017 to 2018 in that season, appeared in 101 games. You were ranked second in the NCAA Div 1 in three-point field goal percentage with 49.1%. And that meant that, and I'm quoting this from the St Francis website, that you drained 79 trays. So they've actually spelt it.
01:12:53
Speaker
T-R-E-Y-S, which I thought was cool. But yeah, so that which was the second most in single program history. So not only did you make your mark going from a walk on to getting a scholarship, but you have left your name in the history books as well at St Francis. I sure did. It was
01:13:12
Speaker
It was crazy. It was all about the work. Honestly, all about the work and having faith in yourself and having a good support system around me. My teammates were the ones that really helped me get to that point. But St. Francis was just, the coaching staff there was amazing. We still keep in touch today. They're like my family for sure.
01:13:31
Speaker
And they just boosted me up every level. My first year I was a walk on, I wasn't really noticed and they saw how hard I worked. So then my second year they started supporting me some more and giving me feedback on things I could get better at. And then I just had to find my niche and where I fit in with all these talented players. And one of the things I could do pretty well is shoot the ball. So they encouraged me to shoot the ball and the rest is history.
01:13:55
Speaker
Well, you've been practicing shooting since you were two years old, so... Right, I better be good at it if it's been that long now. Are you calling me old? No, no, I'm just saying, you had that breadth of experience. You were training to be a shooter since you were learning to stand and walk and run. So shooting was always going to be in your skill set.
01:14:16
Speaker
Following your college career, you ended up in Kosovo of all places to play professionally. I played with KB Ponte Prison in a year that was affected by COVID. So how did that all shake out being over in Kosovo when COVID happened?
01:14:42
Speaker
First of all, I didn't even think that I was going to land that job. And my agent just called me and said, hey, it's going to happen. You're going to be able to go and play in Kosovo. And I had never heard of the place before. They don't speak any English or anything like that. And I was only making 250 euros a month. So it was a struggle. But it was so much fun. And that's the story for later. I think my first game, I don't think that I was directly
01:15:11
Speaker
a cause of a riot but I think the story sounds funner or more fun sorry not funner more fun when I say that I was a cause of a riot my first professional game so it was crazy and after COVID hit I was forced to get out of the country just because of things happening there they were closing their borders and obviously with my family being home I wanted to make sure everybody was safe and healthy and
01:15:33
Speaker
and everybody was cool, so left there. I didn't have a professional opportunity after that for about a year and a half, so I had to find some work and some employment, and after a year and a half, or maybe a year and a little bit more than a half, I found myself in Ireland, so it's a crazy time though, crazy time. How did you spend your time between your seasons of Kosovo and Ireland? Did you go from one to the other straight away, or did you have some downtime in between?
01:16:00
Speaker
I had to wait a year and a half, probably a little more than a year and a half, and I ended up doing a sales job at a basketball company. So I was working sales, trying to work out, trying to find any type of way to just keep in shape and keep hope alive. And a lot of us professional athletes can tell you those times can be real discouraging when you don't have an opportunity. But just stuck with it, and I found myself getting an opportunity to play in Ireland, and that was it.
01:16:30
Speaker
That grind though for the 18 months would have been hard because you just had four very successful years at St Francis and the momentum kept going where you got this unexpected contract in Kosovo for it all just to be stopped. Was it hard to stay motivated in that 18 months to stay in shape without having a lot of game time? I'm on lines and seeing that it wasn't, it was hard.
01:16:54
Speaker
especially just because you don't know the state of the world at that time. You don't know if you're going to be able to go back anywhere. And, um, the, the, the COVID testing and the COVID regulations with each country changed and it was just a whole bunch of chaos. So this is a whole bunch of unknowns just kept my faith alive, kept faith. I just kept working every day, uh, something.
Basketball Experience in Ireland
01:17:17
Speaker
was going to happen, something was going to give, and someone could use my talents out there somewhere in the world. It's a big world. So somebody out there got to appreciate it somewhere. And they did. And Ireland was one of my favorite years.
01:17:31
Speaker
Yeah, basketball is not a sport we really associate with Ireland, considering how many other sports they are very good at. What is the competition like over there? It's pretty good. They're not the most talented, but they're obviously with all the other sports they play, they are tough.
01:17:49
Speaker
They're tough on Americans. A guy will get fouled and pushed and mugged out the air and he thinks it's like rugby and he'll just get up and be like, okay, that was nothing. That's not even a foul on his eyes. So it forced me to really be a lot tougher, a lot tougher mentally, a lot tougher physically and just being able to
01:18:10
Speaker
fight through things. Hey, you don't get a call. You can't, I've never been one to complain to refs or talk to refs or anything like that anyways, but it really showed me like, Hey, you know, play the game for what it is. And if that means you gotta be a little tougher, it means you gotta be a little tougher. So I definitely toughen up a lot playing Ireland. Did it make you a little bit smarter as well in your game, knowing that they're going to come at you with physicality. Uh, did that kind of change your game a little bit?
01:18:36
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. Um, and they actually had some guys that were literally, uh, they were positioned to like right in the middle of the paint to stop you. If you, if you came in there and then they were, they were told to put you on the ground. So you got to be smarter with your tactics. You can't just go in there and try to, you know, duck on anybody. You got to know who that is. Um, also to, uh, playing at that level, you get triple teamed a lot, double teamed because they expect Americans to come over there and.
01:19:02
Speaker
do the thing. So yeah, it was definitely a time where I had to be really, really, really smart with all my tactics, how I approached every game, and then getting all my teammates to follow that same kind of blueprint. So yeah, I definitely smartened up a lot.
01:19:17
Speaker
it certainly paid off because uh it says here you you dropped 55 in one year in a 111 104 win going 8 of 14 from beyond the arc so you must have been getting to the rack through those guys who were trying to put you down a fair bit in that one yeah i was i was trying to maneuver around him a little bit it wasn't easy but uh those are some tough tough guys over there man i was just blessed to see the ball go in a couple of times so
01:19:45
Speaker
Team that you played for was called the Limerick Celtics. Now I went to Limerick, I think I did anyway, a very long time ago when I did a family trip to the UK. Tell us a little bit about your experience off the court living in Limerick and what your lifestyle was like. Limerick was a blast. The people there are so friendly. They're so welcoming. I never felt like out of place or anything like that. The people there were just so bright.
01:20:13
Speaker
I went to a lot of sporting events. I watched a couple football events out there, rugby events out there, some hurling matches, which are absolutely insane and brutal. And then just being a part of the culture, I pride myself in every country I go to just trying to be a part of the culture, immerse myself in it and learn as much as I possibly can. Not only just to show respect to where I'm at, but also to help myself grow as well as a human being.
01:20:42
Speaker
And one part of the culture was Guinness. It was a lot of Guinness. So it was a lot of Guinness being drank out there. I ain't gonna lie to you. And Guinness is a stark difference from, I mean, pretty much every other beer, but especially American beer. What was your first pint of Guinness like? Oh, it was like a meal. I didn't get to be so thick.
01:21:12
Speaker
But it's not even that it's not, it's that bad. It's just, you can't have a lot of it. I don't see a lot of people, how some people have pint after pint after pint, and that's what they'll do. If you go over there, like what they did for me, found out I was American and everything, I drink a pint and they put another pint on my table without me even having to say anything. And I'm like, dude, I can't drink this one either. It's too much. It's way too much. So yeah, my first time was a little,
01:21:39
Speaker
Overwhelming because they they kept putting those pints out there and to fit in you know to be a part of the culture You got to do what you got to do. So I probably have about four pints my first my first time drinking Wow, you're a real trooper for hanging in there with four pints for your first experience with Guinness Yeah, I was with the Irish, you know, so I had to do that too
01:22:05
Speaker
And what is the reception to basketball like in Ireland? Like Locky said earlier, it's not really a country that you associate with basketball, but were there big crowds? Were the fans really into it? Or was it kind of new to the scene? I'll tell you what, there's a lot of hidden talent out there in Ireland. There's a lot of guys that first of all, they're tough, like I was saying before, but
01:22:30
Speaker
They're on the come up with some of their talent. Is it their main sport? No, it's probably their fourth favorite more played sport, maybe even fifth. So the crowds aren't super huge, but the support that they do have, those people will die by their teams and their clubs. So it gets real competitive, it gets real heated. I remember one of my favorite games was when we played against the Limerick Sport Eagles, which was our rival.
01:22:59
Speaker
because of the same town and everything like that. And the crowd that we had there was spectacular. And it was amazing. It was gritty. It was a physical game. It went down to the wire. So it's definitely on the come up, for sure. Oh, no. No, no, no. On the come up, they still got to get some of those gyms figured out.
01:23:29
Speaker
They're not terrible. But Australia is in a whole different league in its own with the courts and everything like that. I had to play my home games. We had to play on double rims. And they were so bouncy. And if you messed up anything with your shot, you were missing.
01:23:49
Speaker
there was no room for forgiveness. So it was a lot of, a lot of those courts were like that and they were kind of older. It was a little colder outside too. So inside it was a little colder. So yeah, it was, they're not like they are in a NBA one for sure. So despite being a really cold place in the winter, they didn't have any kind of indoor hating. Yeah, no, they, they had some in some venues, but in others you just, you know, you had to tough it out. They, they had tough culture. So like they literally,
01:24:17
Speaker
will play their outdoor sports and all of them are like part of their culture is to go take cold showers together. And they'll like make fun of you if you don't take a cold shower. And it's like, dude, it's already freezing. How could you take a cold shower? You already can't feel your limbs. But that's just how they do it over there as a part of it. I guess if you already cold and you can't feel your limbs, then you're not going to feel the cold shower either, are you? I guess so.
01:24:46
Speaker
I guess so.
Transition to Playing in Australia
01:24:48
Speaker
You said you never thought you'd make it to Australia. And you ended up in Port Macquarie in Warrata League last year. How did you find yourself there? Because I think that was Port Macquarie's first season with the Warrata League team.
01:25:03
Speaker
Right. That is a great question. I literally just finished the work. So outside of basketball, I do a lot of coaching and training. And I work for the National Basketball Academy in Ohio. And it's an AAU company. And I just finished a work shift. And my agent called me and he said, hey, you know, there's an opportunity for you to go play in Australia. And I'm like, oh, you can't be serious. That's all the way over there in Australia. There's nobody that, you know,
01:25:33
Speaker
is looking at me over there in Australia. And sure enough, my boy, Robert Linton, I don't know if you guys know who that is, but my boy Robert, he called me.
01:25:42
Speaker
And we had to talk about everything. And I said yes, because it was like, man, I get to go to Australia. I never thought that I would ever be able to go to Australia, but I get to go to Australia. So I did. And I got there. And honestly, I wasn't aware of the leagues here. I wasn't aware of what league was what until I got there. And I realized it wasn't the league that I actually wanted to be in.
01:26:06
Speaker
But at the same time, when I got there and I start playing with my teammates and start playing against these other teams, you start to see, I guess, it's a lot harder than what people would give you credit for, because you got a lot of people that are gritty, that are willing to go out there and battle and fight, play with a lot of pride. We had a lot of tough games that year, so. It's a blessing to be a part of it. It was a lot of fun. My teammates and I are, to this day, we're like brothers. Anytime I could go back to former Cory and show love to those people, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
01:26:35
Speaker
I imagine going to places like Tamworth, Goulburn. They don't let you forget about it. Oh no. Those are stories for another day, but yeah. The drives to Tamworth. Oh my gosh. Or the drive all the way to Canberra from Port Macquarie. Oof. Must have been even longer than the bus trips in college.
01:26:58
Speaker
Right, literally. I think the longest bus trip I took into college was nine hours. And to Canberra, I think it took about eight and a half or nine hours too. And we were all packed on this little bus. All of us on the team on this little bus making fun of and doing whatever we do on the bus. So it was fun. It was moments I'll never forget.
01:27:21
Speaker
And because, you know, in a short period of time, you've gone from your native America, you had some time, little time in Kosovo, you went to Limerickon Island and then in Australia. So you're getting a really great breadth of the world already through basketball. What was it like landing in Port Macquarie? And was it kind of what you had expected? No, it wasn't what I expected. I knew it was going to be like a peaceful town and smaller and in size and everything.
01:27:51
Speaker
I didn't expect it to be so beautiful. It's very beautiful over there. I come from Cleveland, Ohio. We don't have things like big beaches and beautiful scenery and stuff like that everywhere. We just don't. And it snows where I come from and everything. So to go from that to going to Australia, especially Port Macquarie, where I'm just around beaches all the time, people that want to go to the beach, the people that want to get in the water, it was a culture shock to me.
01:28:16
Speaker
And then in terms of, like I said, the level, I didn't know what to expect when I got there. I thought it was going to be something different, but it wasn't and that's fine because we worked through it. And like I said, it was the best, one of the best times of my life for sure. Did you learn to surf while you were in Port Macquarie?
01:28:36
Speaker
Almost, almost. And I got really close until at Lighthouse Beach, I found out there was a guy that got his leg bitten off by a shark. And after I found out about that, I said, nope, I will not be getting in that water anytime soon. So that was how close I got talking about it and actually do it. But I got close.
01:28:59
Speaker
Only takes that one story to kind of spook people from getting back in the water. Did you go into the water at least like for recovery after a game, waist deep, anything like that? Or were you just completely no more ocean? No, I got in there maybe ankle deep and I got up out of there.
01:29:19
Speaker
But I did, but I did, I did learn how to swim. I didn't learn how to swim last year. Um, I know that's a surprise everybody because all these are born knowing how to swim basically. But yeah, I learned how to swim in, uh, in poor Macquarie last year. Um, so that was a lot of fun that helped me with my recovery and stuff too. So if that, that counts, it's not really me getting in, I wasn't swimming in the ocean, but I was swimming in like swimming pool and stuff. So I learned a little bit.
01:29:45
Speaker
I think that's a fair point because it's so it is part of our culture, I suppose, that everyone, every kid learns how to swim in primary school. It's almost like a requirement. I don't know if it's still a requirement now, but it was when we were growing up that you spend however many weeks during primary school, like one day a week or something going off campus on a bus.
01:30:08
Speaker
to go to swimming lessons and you get graded and you have to do it and get a certificate of water safety and everything so we all are kind of forced to learn how to swim and so if you don't have that growing up in America I think it's pretty unfair to be like to have people expect to know how to swim if it's not something that's just ingrained in school.
01:30:29
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, in, in certain places in America, like where I come from in Ohio, like I said, we don't really have like a lot of, uh, bodies of water that you can get into safely. Pretty dirty over there. Uh, I love my home for anybody else watching. Uh, but, uh, but like people in California, they will surely grow up knowing how to swim or people along the coast or in Florida, they'll surely grow up knowing how to swim. I just come from a state where it's not really too, too, too big.
01:30:56
Speaker
when you were there, you really liked to try and learn a lot more about the local culture. What were some of the other things apart from surfing and the beach lifestyle that you kind of learn about Australian culture while you're in Port Macquarie?
01:31:15
Speaker
Oh, so I learned a lot about the slang that y'all use here. I won't go into all the slang that I learned, but I learned a lot. I learned about, so people try to trick me a lot when they're like different creatures that were out here. I'm still not convinced that drop bears aren't real. Still not convinced 100% because I just don't know. You just never know out here. Like the other day I saw this bug, I never, it looked like an alien. I never seen another alien.
01:31:41
Speaker
ever in my life. And it creeped me out. So ever since then, I'm like, I don't know what's real, what's not. But in terms of that, I think Aussies and Americans are very similar to each other.
01:31:57
Speaker
I think Aussies are more chill and appreciate life more and more happy and more friendly, easier to talk to. So yeah, I don't think there's too much more outside in it that I've learned so far. I could be wrong. Oh, and then learning how to drive on the left side of the road was tough, but I got there eventually.
01:32:18
Speaker
And thank God I didn't learn how to, I learned how to drive in Port Macquarie versus learn how to drive in Sydney. Cause all that, they're two toned different beasts, two toned different.
Role and Style in the Bankstown Team
01:32:30
Speaker
You had an outstanding season in Port Macquarie. Who was it that contacted you about coming to play for Bankstown? So that was really, so my coach that coached me at Port Macquarie got in contact with the coach here because they know each other.
01:32:48
Speaker
And, you know, in Australia, the market is more so about your personality and what you bring. And I love that because that's what I pride myself on being, is trying to just be authentic and be a part of culture and help people come together. So when my coach Curtis found out about me, he let me do some trials. And thank God I was able to perform well in those trials enough for him to want me to come here.
01:33:16
Speaker
That's how it all kind of happened. It was pretty straight forward, but it was a blessing for sure. I'm glad to be here. Just being here in Bankstown is such a well-knit-together culture, like a community. There's always something going on at the stadium, whether it's camps, clinics, games, training sessions.
01:33:39
Speaker
It's just a different vibe from when I was in Port Macquarie because all the busyness is going on. But so many people are so welcome in here, so receptive to me. And they're really taking me in and offer me help and guidance when I needed it.
01:33:57
Speaker
It's really cool to be a part of. Sydney, Sydney is a little hectic. It's just because of all the busyness and I don't know how to peace and quiet, no more of a pogo quarry, but it's beautiful. I love all the different things you can go see. The trains and everything, it's really easy to take to go somewhere that's a little further away so you can venture out a little bit more instead of driving everywhere. So I like it. I like it a lot so far.
01:34:25
Speaker
And getting into a little bit more about Bankstown Bruins so far, it is a little bit of a different looking Bankstown Bruins, including, you know, yourself joining the squad, like compared to the last year's team. How is the season shaping up so far? Do you and the team and your coaching staff feel like you're
01:34:46
Speaker
meeting your own expectations so far. I mean, you've just come off a seven point loss from the COE, which a loss is a loss, but that's still a pretty good achievement to only lose by seven to COE. So how's the team feeling with them? Do they feel like you're measuring up so far? I think right now we're not where we want to be, but we're making strides every day, every training session to
01:35:13
Speaker
to level up every single time we hop on the court together and build our chemistry up. We're still trying to figure each other out because with Hayden coming back, that's a big piece to have. So everyone's trying to figure out where they can come together at. And I think that's the beauty of this team. Everyone wants to win. Everyone has, we all have our expectations high for ourselves, even though we lost.
01:35:37
Speaker
by 7 to COE, which they're a phenomenal program, a great team as everyone knows that. But we set the ball high for ourselves. We believe we should have won that game, and we could have won that game. But every day we just focus on those little things to get better. And I think that's the difference from previous years to this year is we're coming out and trying to make it a point that banks and bros are here to win and be serious about what we're doing.
01:36:02
Speaker
My role is just to be myself. I'm really good at shooting the ball, so I want to be able to provide some leaways for my teammates to be able to create and everything like that. But I also want to be able to create for others as well. But most importantly, just more so keeping everybody together. That's one of my main strengths, is keeping everybody together, building up communities, and just helping us all.
01:36:32
Speaker
runs in the games where teams make a run against us. In the midst of a season, you have some wins, you have some losses, but just trying to help us not be too high or too low and just being myself at the end of the day.
01:36:46
Speaker
That's all I can say. And that's the beauty, like I was saying about this team crew, is that usually with those teams, you would have one person trying to get there, there's another person trying to, and it's not even like that at all. Everyone came together, we all talked as a team, and we say, hey, this is what we're gonna do, this is what we're trying to build. So we may all have to sacrifice, we all may have to sacrifice just to win the games. And that's where we all,
01:37:14
Speaker
driving on is that's the most important thing is winning the games. So it's a beautiful thing to be a part of for sure. Curtis is a huge part of that because he's he really holds all of us extremely accountable, extremely accountable and having leaders like Alex that's been here for years and Jack Lopez who's been here and been a great player for the Bruins really helped keep us on the right track. You played against a lot of tough people in Ireland. You played against a lot of tough people in Morata League.
01:37:44
Speaker
You caused a riot in Kosovo. Is MBL1 just as tough, got as much toughness about it as all those other places you played?
01:37:54
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. First of all, I mean, Aussies are known to be tough anyways. Not even just skill-wise, but just physically. You guys got sports like AFL, NRL out here. I mean, of course, it's going to be really physical. But yeah, it's a real physical game. It's not surprising how physical it is. I expected it to be that way.
01:38:21
Speaker
But it can be tough if you're not locked in and each and every night you have to be locked in on what your game plan is and what your team has to do to win or else teams will get you. So it's tough for sure. And what about the playing styles across all the different countries that you've played? Because I imagine the style of play in America versus Australia versus Ireland versus Kosovo are all very different. Do you have a preferred kind of playing style or league?
01:38:51
Speaker
that suits your game a little bit better? Honestly, I prefer the Australian way of playing. You've got so much of like a mixture of like American but also like a European type of play.
01:39:05
Speaker
where that ball, I mean, it's moving. Like a European, the European team, that ball's moving, moving, moving, moving. But at the same time, like an American style, you got people that are really talented, that can come off a pick and roll and create for others. You got people that can, you can put them in little isolation situations every now and then to be able to create for themselves and then make plays for the rest of the team.
01:39:27
Speaker
It's like a perfect mixture of both. And that's why I love playing here in Australia. America is more iso now, more come off the ball screens. If you're not really coming off the ball screen, you're sitting in the corner or you're that big man waiting for the roller in the dunker spot. So yeah, I appreciate playing here in Australia a lot more. I love it. Well, you heard it on A Scott game first, so
01:39:53
Speaker
All the other MBL1 clubs and alike, just take note that Dre would like to stay. I would love to. I would love to for sure. Is there anywhere else though in the world that you would like to play? I mean, obviously we've just established that we would like, we would like you to stay in Australia
Personal Interests and Lifestyle
01:40:11
Speaker
as well. But if that were in a choice, is there anything else you would perhaps like to play, even if it's just in the MBL1 off season, then you can come back again.
01:40:20
Speaker
I think I would like to play somewhere like that in the UK, not even just for maybe the basketball per se, but there could be in another part of the world where I could experience a different type of culture, a different type of vibe. But also, Japan for sure, always wanted to go to Tokyo, so I would love to play somewhere like Japan or Germany or something like that.
01:40:44
Speaker
I mean, basketball, it can be a ticket to the world, really, as you think of the other American sports, especially football. And last week, Sean Montague said baseball, if he stuck with that, would never have given him the same opportunities that you could have playing basketball.
01:41:00
Speaker
Right. Right. I'm really surprised. I mean, I've gone a lot of cool places. I even got to Italy when I was in college. They took us on a college basketball tour in Italy where we stayed there for two weeks and played against some pro teams out there. And that opened my eyes to how big the world actually is and what their experience. So just seeing all the things I've been able to experience because of basketball, it's ridiculous, honestly. I still can't believe it someday.
01:41:30
Speaker
And New Zealand's not too far away either, Dre, so that can also be an option because New Zealand has a really lovely culture, like the Maori culture, in a similar way that we have our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture in Australia. So if you get a chance, basketball or otherwise, pop over to New Zealand for a little bit. For sure. I would love that. Absolutely. I would love that. End of season trip.
01:41:58
Speaker
So this is a question we end just about every interview with, and it is, who is Andre Walford off the court? When he's not playing basketball, when he's not in the gym, who are you? Oh gosh, that's a complex question to ask. I'm a pretty simple guy.
01:42:17
Speaker
I like to watch a lot of YouTube. I'm a big, huge wrestling fan. If anybody knows me, I love WWE, anything they gotta do with WWE and wrestling companies all around the world. Big into music, big into different types of music, like I would see my hip hop and rap and R&B, but alternative music. I love rock music.
01:42:40
Speaker
I have a guitar that I'm learning how to play a little bit. I just broke my A string, so I gotta figure out how to get that fixed. But that, I like to write a lot. I like to do things like meditation and going for those scenic walks. Especially out here in Australia, you have to do that while you're here. So yeah, I'm a pretty simple guy. I don't do too much like anything spectacular, but that's what I like to do. You laid the spectacular stuff for on the court. I tried to.
01:43:08
Speaker
If you're a wrestling fan, our friend over in NBL won West, Eric McFarland. He'll be very happy because he's a huge wrestling fan as well. Man, I love it. Man, I'm such a big fan, man. I can't even, I wouldn't have loved to go to the event they had, the Elimination Chamber, when they were in Perth, but I wasn't even here. I was back in America for a brief stint, so I just, I was mad. I was super mad when I thought I couldn't go.
01:43:35
Speaker
There is a surprisingly a lot of basketball fans and especially peers in alternative media who, you know, do podcasts and commentating and stuff with Lockie and I, who love WWE. It's hard not to like, honestly. I mean, in the past few years hasn't been the most popular, but especially after this WrestleMania and just a couple of the events they've been happening, having in the storylines they've been telling,
01:44:03
Speaker
It's phenomenal. It's back to where you. And because in our last guest as well, Sean want to get also cited music as one of his main interests as well when he's not playing basketball. And he was a little bit.
01:44:20
Speaker
He didn't really commit to having the aux cord. I would say the aux cord. We didn't really commit to having, you know, the playlist going in the locker room for pregame. But who's in charge of the music for pregame, for pregame for the Bankstown Bruins? Oh, that's Alex. That's Alex. That's my boy Alex for sure. His playlists always get me hyped. He knows like he'll play a certain song about like Lil Wayne or something. He knows like, all right, it's time to go.
01:44:48
Speaker
So me and him would just be in there, just turn, listen to music. All the teammates would start coming in, funneling in, getting dressed and ready. Just a lot of energy. So yeah, that's Alex for sure. Good shout out. You better let him know that you're gaming such a good shout out because having a teammate shout you out for having the best pre-game mix tape is a, that's bragging rights. It is. I mean, but also
01:45:13
Speaker
I gotta give him a little bit of credit too, because I never liked country music, but now he's starting to introduce me to some country music and nobody's ever been able to do that before. So I'm not saying I love country music or anything, but he'd be happy to be listening to it. Alex, are you listening to it? Yeah, I'd be listening to some country music too now. Does Beyonce's new country album count? Ooh, I don't know. I don't think it do.
01:45:39
Speaker
Run it by him. Run it by him. We'll see. Alex, he might tell you different, but I don't think so. Drey, is there anything that you'd like us to cover or mention before we finish up? No, I'm all good. I appreciate y'all for your time. And being able to do this is really, really fun and really awesome. So I appreciate y'all for even choosing me to do this interview and ask me your questions and get to know me a little bit. I really appreciate it.
01:46:04
Speaker
It was a no-brainer because as soon as your name popped up on Bankstown's roster, I'm pretty sure Locky sent me a text message in capital letters about you playing MBL1E.
Gratitude and Acknowledgments
01:46:14
Speaker
Since that Warrata League semi-final that I got to commentate, we've got to get this guy an MBL1. Someone's got to sign him. I remember you saying that on the commentary and I was like, man, that would be so awesome if I could play an MBL1.
01:46:31
Speaker
I don't know if it'll be a stretch because of me playing in the war until league. And I know I had to put a lot of work in, but I'm like, I would love it. And it happened. And I was like, man, shout out to my guy because he's the one that's spoken into existence. Yeah. Uh, obviously lock. He's one of our best commentators in NBA one. Eastern definitely knows his stuff. So when he knows talent, he's going to let the crowd and the audience know that people need to keep an eye on them.
01:46:59
Speaker
Well thank you so much again Dre for your time today. It's been really really great talking to you especially given your already very colourful history of basketball and learning more about the places that basketball has taken you so far. We're so glad to hear that you're enjoying Australian MBL One East and
01:47:18
Speaker
I'm sure that there will be a lot of places and clubs that would love to see you stay for as long as you would like to. Best of luck for the NBA 1E season. Bankstown Bruins are looking really, really good and we're hoping that you guys can clinch the top spot this season.
01:47:35
Speaker
For sure. I appreciate you again for having me on and appreciate your support. And I appreciate you for what you say because I would love to be staying in Australia. And yeah, shout out to my guys from the Bankstown Brewers and hopefully you can keep the ball rolling. Thank you for listening to another episode of East Got Game, an unofficial podcast about the NBA One East competition.
01:47:59
Speaker
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