GBL roundup 31/08/2008
In what was meant to be another festival of basketball at the LC de Villiers indoor stadium at the University of Pretoria; the day was marred by 2 forfeits, SHOCKING refereeing and an unsavoury incident that involved the national men’s team coach Flosh Ngwenya and his team VUT Alumni. But despite all these interesting events basketball still game out on top. Without a shadow of a doubt, the highlight of the day was the clash between the University of Johannesburg and the undefeated Raptors team in the girls division.
University of Johannesburg vs. Raptors – GBL ladies
In the end, UJ had a good day at the office and were very impressive on both ends of the floor. Their hot outside shooting helped them close out this game and made for an interesting end to the GBL season. Despite the injuries suffered by key players from both teams during the course of this contest, we can certainly look forward to the playoffs. On this performance UJ looked like a championship team and they seem to have rediscovered some sort of form while Raptors look like a strong unit with a mixture of experience and youth in every position.
Game note: The referees need to get with the program and do a better job because they are having an effect on outcomes of games with their bad officiating. Final score: UJ 71 – 47 Raptors
Central University of Technology vs. Vaal University of Technology Alumni – GBL men
This game was marred by inconsistencies from the start. It was delayed after a disagreement between Flosh Ngwenya who plays for the VUT Alumni and the officials about which court to use; Flosh wanted to make his feelings known and occupied one court stopping the other game from proceeding while his team agreed to move to the other court and started without him against CUT.
CUT (Panthers) came into this game as favourites because they had a smaller waist line than their opponents and age was in their favour. But VUT have beaten a lot of teams this year that had youth on their side so this was not a foregone conclusion. Panthers were in the lead from the 1st whistle but wasted numerous opportunities to close out the game and they almost regretted it towards the end. At half time they had a 7 point lead but despite long period of dominance, VUT Alumni were always in the game with some hot shooting from SA guard Nyakallo (VUT-15) and the inside game of Vusi Dlamini (VUT-5).
Panthers should have won this game by a mile had they converted all their easy scoring opportunities. At one point in the game, it was 4 of their players against one and they still managed to mess it up. But they were shooting 3 pointers like if it was free throws so they definitely have inside and outside threat and teams should start planning against that. And with 2 minutes left in the last quarter and a 10 point lead you would have put your money on Panthers winning this game but they contrived to let VUT back in it with bad decisions at crucial times.
Game note: This was the longest game of the season, it that started before the Wits-Blizzards game and ended a good 10 minutes after them. The referees looked scared make calls against the legends from VUT Alumni…Final score: CUT 87 –VUT Alumni 84
In other games…
University of Witwatersrand vs. University of Pretoria – GBL ladies
Wits had a spring in their step from the jump ball and built up a lead while Tuks were looking for their 1st basket. At the end of the 2nd quarter, you thought that Tuks were not going to make 5 baskets. Wits were rampant in the guards’ position and were capitalising on the turnovers from their opponents. In the 2nd half it was another story altogether as Tuks came out with better purpose and it all started on defense where Kobie van Jaarsveld was blocking shot after shot and diving for loose balls all over the place. Even though they stopped Wits from scoring freely, they couldn’t overhaul the 20 point lead they had built in the 1st half. Final score: Wits 31 – Tuks 23
University of Witwatersrand vs. TUT – GBL men
Wits really look like a team for the future, they are well organised and have some very impressive young players. They show great patience on offense which leads to some high percentage shots during the game. This was TUT second game of the day and they looked weary and tired. Wits lead the game from start to finish and their forward (Wits 14) was controlling the game with some good stops on defense and some great shooting on offense. Final score: Wits 51 – TUT 31
University of Witwatersrand 2nd vs. Blizzards – GBL men
Blizzard had a tough game against VUT before facing Wits 2nd team in the last game of the day. The game was overshadowed by the Flosh issue and didn’t start on time because of this. It was an entertaining warm-up with Wits doing lay-ups around Flosh who had refused to move to the other court. When the game finally got underway, Wits were always in control and with the help of Tshiamo Ngakane (Wits-13), they defeated Blizzards who ran out of steam. Blizzards had no ideas after Wits stopped their fast break opportunities. Final score: Wits 2nd 65 – Blizzards 53
Vaal University of Technology vs. Blizzards – GBL men
University of Pretoria 2nd vs. Tshwane University of Technology – GBL men
TUT won this game in the 3rd quarter after making 4 successive 3 pointers that Tuks had no answers for. Tuks made too many mistakes throughout the game while TUT made the right calls at the right time, with their post (TUT-14) featuring prominently. TUT look a different team without their 2 SA players but they held their own against Tuks 2nd team looking for their 1st victory. Final score: Tuks 2nd 57 – TUT 69
Only a referree by the stature of James can cause the mess in a game of CUT vs VUT Alumni. That guy is notorious for such actions.
By the way, who was the referree at this match?
The conduct of Flosh leaves much to be desired. He should give himself a good introspection. He should apologise to the organisers of the league. Basketball is just a game, nothing personal. Such childish actions from people we so respect undermine the goodwill of the sport.
That was very childish…
the question will be, what will GBA do about what he did?? they should take steps because if nothing is done, teams are gonna do that everytime they have complaints.