The season in review
Well, we've just missed out on a world cup berth, but I think we can be reasonably happy with our performance. We just don't have the depth or quality of players that Hong Kong and China do, but we ran both teams pretty close, and perhaps were slightly unlucky not to beat China. Thems the breaks, we'll give the repacharge a redhot go, and I think we do have a chance there.
Playerwise, we debuted a number of players, many of whom have a bright future. Barth, Makurkar, Pradip, Reimers, Faletoese, Catic and Querido all played their first games this season, and all aside from Faletoese are relatively young. I look forward to seeing them in the NT for many years to come.
At the other end of the scale, gameshape issues limited Bogan to a few games this season, and he may well have played his last game for the NT. He's been a great player for us, so he will be missed.
I'm really happy with where our bigs are at. We've got a solid core of young bigs, and I think we are set there for a few seasons. We've got some decent SFs, and some good ones coming through. I'm a bit concerned about our guards, especially with Walker getting on in years, but hopefully some players stick their hands up there.
Player awards
Before I get onto the vote-based awards, I'll do a few statistical ones.
Leading scorer: Our leading scorer, both in total and per game terms, was Dylan Scoggins. He scored 149 points over 10 games, averaging 14.9 per game. (Second in per game terms was Walker, with 14.3.)
Scoggins was also probably our most efficient scorer - shooting 63% from the field, 50% from three point land, and 79% from the FT line.
Leading rebounder: In per game terms, it's Scoggins again, averaging 7.8 rebounds per game. However, courtesy of playing two extra games, Scott Schnieder pulled down 1 more total rebound than Scoggins, with 79.
Leading assister: Per game, this one was Leigh Rieffel, averaging 4.2 assists per game, which is a great effort for a SF. Rieffel was injured for a fair chunk of the season though, so Vladimir Shishaev's 48 assists in 12 games leads the team.
Beyond the arc: Brent Degas hit 11 threes this season, leading the team - he only shot 31% from beyond the arc though. Steve Riemers was probably the more deadly three point shooter, averaging the most per game with 1.1, while shooting almost 40 per cent.
Stealing away: Two players got 10 steals this season: Lionel Walker and Emori Faletoese. Walker's steals came in one less game, however (though he did play substantially more total minutes).
Block dat ball: We weren't a huge shot blocking team this season. Keith Anderson's 8 blocks at 0.89 per game led the team.
Iron men: Two players played all 12 games this season: Shishaev and Schnieder. Shishaev played the most minutes all up - 318 at 26.5 per game.
At the other end of the scale, Querido played in 9 games (and dressed for two others where he didn't play). But he averaged just 8 minutes per game.
Our lucky charm: Given his scoring exploits, it is perhaps not a surprise that the team played best when Scoggins was on the court. He averaged a =/- of just over +10 per game.
At the other end of the scale, both Querido and Catic recorded negative +/- over the season - though this is more likely to be a reflection of when they played rather than a reflection of their abilities!