Probably the biggest round of the season with seven games on the bill meant that most players had to play well twice to be in contention for the Dabster Award. Players like Chris Warren from Adelaide had a fantastic second game (34 ER) but was let down by their first performance (3 ER).
Bad news for the Tigers as they have lost eight of their last nine games, putting them out of finals contention. It is lucky that they had a good start to the season as they are only two games ahead of Adelaide for second last place and four games out from the wooden spoon. I’m not sure what they can do to break this current trend but they need to do something to save some face.
Dabster Award
Round Twenty One Dabster Award Winner
Gary Wilkinson, New Zealand Breakers – 18 points (7/13 FG, 2/5 3P, 2/2 FT), 10 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 turnover. ER – 22
In the first game of the round, Wilkinson top scored for their win over Townsville, shooting over 50% from the field and hauling in 10 rebounds. With Cedric Jackson handling the ball, all Wilkinson had to do was put it in the basket and grab whatever fell off. In a pretty lacklustre weekend for big scores, at least Wilkinson put up a respectable number to take out this round’s highest award.
Honourable mentions
Mark Worthington (Gold Coast) – 2 games, 21.5 points, 4.5 rebounds. ER – 20.5
There were only two players who averaged 20 or more efficiency rating points, with Wortho just scraping by. There were a few players who got to around 18-19 ER but with the two games in the round most players couldn’t muster two quality performances.
Previous Dabster Award Winners
Round One – Kevin Lisch (Perth)
Round Two – Will Hudson (Gold Coast) and Alex Pledger (New Zealand)
Round Three – Julian Khazzouh (Sydney)
Round Four – Stephen Weigh (Adelaide) and Daniel Johnson (Adelaide)
Round Five – Gary Wilkinson (New Zealand)
Round Six – Cameron Tragardh (Melbourne)
Round Seven – Diamon Simpson (Adelaide)
Round Eight – Cameron Tragardh (Melbourne)
Round Nine – Diamon Simpson (Adelaide)
Round Ten – Julian Khazzouh (Sydney)
Round Eleven – Diamon Simpson (Adelaide) and Adam Gibson (Gold Coast)
Round Twelve – Eddie Gill (Townsville)
Round Thirteen – Liam Rush (Melbourne)
Round Fourteen – Jerai Grant (Sydney)
Round Fifteen – Jesse Wagstaff (Perth)
Round Sixteen – Mark Worthington (Gold Coast)
Round Seventeen – Daniel Johnson (Adelaide)
Round Eighteen – Mark Worthington (Gold Coast)
Round Nineteen – Oscar Forman (Wollongong)
Round Twenty – Jesse Wagstaff (Perth)
Menga Award
Round Twenty One Menga Leader Board
1. (1) Julian Khazzouh, Sydney Kings – 19.8
2. (2) Diamon Simpson, Adelaide 36ers – 17.4
3. (4) Daniel Johnson, Adelaide 36ers – 17.2
4. (5) Mark Worthington, Gold Coast Blaze – 17.0
5. (3) Myron Allen, Melbourne Tigers – 16.6
6. (7) Cedric Jackson, New Zealand Breakers – 16.5
7. (8) Jacob Holmes, Townsville Crocodiles – 16.2
8. (6) Jerai Grant, Sydney Kings – 16.2
9. (9) Cameron Tragardh, Melbourne Tigers – 16.0
10. (10) Kevin Lisch, Perth Wildcats – 15.2
Myron Allen drops again after another poor performance while Julian Khazzouh has fallen below 20 ER since round four when he was averaging 19.8. It seems to me that he has checked out and is waiting for the off season.
Zike Award
Round Twenty One Zike Award Winner
Luke Cooper, Sydney Kings – 12:58 minutes, 0 points (0/1 FG), 1 assist, 1 turnover. ER: -1
On the flip side of most teams playing two games was that players couldn’t have two really bad games in one weekend so there were fewer extremes on both ends of the scale. This brought me to Cooper who didn’t have a horrendous game, more like a ‘nothing’ game. No points with a 1:1 assist to turnover ratio in the most literal sense; the one thing that did stand out to me was that he had four fouls in only 13 minutes. Maybe next time he will stay out on the court long enough to really deserve the Zike Award but for now the exhibition will be enough.
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