Happy New Year to Everyone!
I hope 2009 is a good one for you all!

For those of you who followed the Slingers last season will know Rod Grizzard, one of the talented imports who played here last year. The latest news from the Australian NBL is that he has been cut from the Melbourne Tigers and has been replaced by Dave Thomas. Considering Grizzard had top scored in their last game (a loss to my ex-team the Adelaide 36ers), it might have been a little harsh. He also had signed a three-year deal with the Tigers, so interesting to see him leave so early into that. You can read more about it here.

Our next game is on Sunday 4th Jan at the Indoor Stadium against Phillipine’s team Harbour Centre. This is Al Vergara’s old team and also Jason Castro’s old team for those who saw him in Singapore. Last year, Harbour beat the Slingers here in Singapore at Jurong, so we know that this team can play. We also have the ledger to square with them.

At the moment, we have gotten back to training and our normal daily routine. For me, I have been doing a little bit of medical study, as I will be starting work as a doctor soon – fun times ahead…

Sat Dec. 27th

I hope everyone had a good Christmas.

Back in Singapore now. Most of the guys are getting back today to start training tomorrow. It was a great break and I feel refreshed and ready to go.

While I was back in Adelaide, Boti Nagy from The Advertiser (Adelaide’s local newspaper) rang me up and did an interview to find out what I’d been up to in the last six or so months. You can check it out at http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24840832-5006371,00.html

It featured on Xmas day and of course we had a Xmas themed photo to suit!

Game vs Darwin Result

Match was played on Friday night and we won by 29 points, we scored over 100 points, but I’m not sure of the exact scoreline. The game was pretty much in our hands after the first quarter, although they did skip out to an early lead right at the start of the game. We lead by 17 at the half and didn’t really look back after that. I haven’t seen any boxscores, but I think the scoring was spread pretty evenly amongst everyone, possibly everybody getting on the score sheet.

This Darwin team was a little underprepared compared to that one that went to the Brunei tournament, with a few different players in their line-up. But it was always going to be tough for them I feel, because our team has been together for a while now and they have only just come together.

There was one pretty good highlight for their team and it was in the form of a guy called Travis Ellis. He’s about 23 years-old, 6′6 indigenous kid and real skinny, but athletic. He had one amazing play on the fast break where he was thrown an alley-oop and he went off one foot, grabbed it with two hands and threw it down on John Fitzgerald. I reckon his head was near the rim. He has some talent there.

So, we all flew off from Darwin for the xmas break – I’m back in Adelaide now – and it’s nice to be back. I just went to the Adelaide 36ers vs Gold Coast Blaze NBL game last night. The sixers just escaped with a 3 point win in front of about 4900 people at the Dome. It was good to see all my old team mates running around last night and it’s a pretty talented team (I think they should have won by more, but win is a win).

Will be back in Singapore after Xmas. Merry Christmas to everyone and enjoy the festivities.

Game 2 vs Darwin (in Darwin)

Tonight we play the return leg of the series against Darwin All-Stars here in Darwin. The game has been publicised with a couple of articles in the local paper here over the last few days.

We just had a shoot around in the stadium this morning and it can probably hold about 2000 people. One side of the court has a seating stand, while the other is just a wall. Floor is pretty hard and the rims are slightly different to the ones at SIS.

We will be playing four 12 minute quarters instead of the 10 minute quarters that we play in Singapore and we should also be allowed 6 fouls instead of 5 (all NBL rules). Everyone seems to be fit and ready to go tonight, with tip-off at 8pm local time.

It has been raining quite heavily here as it is wet season, so not too much to do around town.

Tomorrow we get to go off for our break, with some players having incredible traveling days in terms of connecting flights. Those guys heading back to Singapore will fly off at 7.30am to Perth, have 5 hours wait there before flying back to S’pore and arriving at 9.00pm. I am thankful for my direct flight through to Adelaide.

Ok Stats are here and Slingers site has a game report.

Game vs Darwin All-Stars

We won last night by about 20 points. Sorry I cannot remember the score and I haven’t seen any box scores. All I remember is that I had 33pts and Eric Sandrin had 18pts.

It was a pretty entertaining game in the end, with some great highlights including Sam’s dunk all over me (video below) along with his other dunks. Eric’s dunk was also pretty nice (vid below) and Al Vergara’s steals in the last quarter were pretty impressive.

The second half was a better one for us, myself included – I was able to catch onto a shooting streak there for a while.

We are off to Darwin tonight to play the return match against them on Friday night and after that we have a week off for Xmas. Most of us will be heading back to Australia for that time.

See you all on 4th Jan for the next home game.

My one dribble jumper:

Sam’s tip dunk (check me out underneath him running for cover):

My step back three:

Eric’s jam on the break:

JJ missing the dunk attempt and then the aftermath adding injury to the insult:

Game vs Darwin All-Stars tomorrow

Tip-off is at 7.40pm at Indoor Stadium and it should be a good one.
With a few fairly easy victories lately, Darwin should be a team that will challenge us. With Australian players, along with two imports, I expect a tougher opposition tomorrow night.
Hope to see you there.

Slinger update

With no game until Tuesday, this week we have trained Monday to Friday with two very tough weights sessions. Usually, we go two days on, one day off, but in training five days straight we get the weekend off. This will be the first weekend totally off from training in a while and the players will enjoy the rest surely. Some guys are getting away for the weekend, some heading to Zoukout and the local Singaporeans (Pathman, Des, Hong) are going to Hong Kong to play in a tournament. Good luck to the national team.

I am going to Zoukout tonight to experience the festivities that make this event so popular. It sounds like there will be A LOT of people on Sentosa, so I’m not really sure what to expect. It should be fun though. If you have any tips on getting/leaving Sentosa, what’s best to do at Zoukout, then make sure to leave a comment.