Wow.  We all knew it would happen one day but fresh from a brilliant Team Manager performance at the 2013 Jultopia Boondall Brisbane Bullets Kenny Loggins 24-Hour Drive Masterchef Joel Wet n Wild Livin' La Vida Loca Anzac Pocket Hercules Elle Nino Annual Costume Sweat Party Ow Now How Foul the Brown Cow Cal Honky Tonk Badonkadonk Habadashery and Homewaresless Carnival, Joshua Smith - aka Number Four - backed it up with an amazing first ever basket in competition basketball, scoring a sweet jumpshot against the Seaton Ramblers on Court Dark this week.  Having missed an earlier shot, the tyro finished 1/2 from the floor @ 50% (hey, we're good at maths) but was nonplussed after the game.

Leaguelineup.com:  So Josh, how exciting was that?  Your first ever basket?

Josh:  Nah mate, I've dunked out here heaps of times.

Who are we to argue with him?  Technically he's right and from where we sit, that's good enough for us.  From everyone at leaguelineup.com and the Thunder, congratulations to The Birdman on his first ever basket and here's to many, many more.  Oh, and a few more dunks too.

PS.  In late breaking news, Josh emailed us to say he wasn't Team Manager, but was in fact the ninth player.  He was all set to play in the grand final but was benched for Terry Sleep.  Yet again, we say ..... sometimes the strangest stories are the true ones.  Good times, good times.

Nine players away?  Is that a world record?  With top spot on the line against St Peters this week, Gateway find themselves without nine players and Coach Smith has one giant headache on his hands.  How do you manufacture a win against the league's top team - until last week - with 60% of your engine room missing?  And while we're at it, how to do you get a headache on your hands?  But we digress and on the other side of the coin, St Peters have been playing their own version of musical chairs with players rotating in and out of the lineup each week.  Kind of makes it hard to give an accurate prediction but that won't stop us and hopefully, it won't stop Gateway either.  With no further adieu, we present to you Gateway v St Peters.

LAST FIVE GAMES HEAD-TO-HEAD
2/6/2013: Gateway 54 (J.Smith 17, Z.Horskins 12, Penn 11) d St Peters 50
21/7/2012: St Peters 68 d Gateway 32 (J.Smith 14, Hallsworth 7, Penn 5)
19/5/2012: Gateway 53 (Stephenson 21, McKinnon 13, J.Smith 12) d St Peters 51
20/8/2011: Gateway 40 (Vucetic 18, J.Smith 14, Galway 5) d St Peters 39
9/7/2011: Gateway 41 (Vucetic 14, Gondolf 9, Howie 6) d St Peters 32
 
ALL-TIME HEAD-TO-HEAD
Played 29: Gateway 21, Draw 1, St Peters 7

2013 TEAM TOTALS
Gateway (1st, 9-2):  495 points @ 45.0ppg, 58 triples, 75/118 FT @ 63.6%, 122 fouls
St Peters (2nd, 8-1-2):  512 points @ 46.5ppg, 38 triples, 62/118 FT @ 52.5%, 110 fouls
 
2013 LEADING SCORERS (PPG - minimum 2 games played)
Gateway:  McKinnon 12.7, Vucetic 12.0, Halman 10.3, J.Horskins 10.3, Z.Horskins 10.0, Penn 10.0, J.Smith 9.5, Meyer 7.8
St Peters: Good 14.0, De Cure 10.8, Newland 10.2, Scammell 9.5, McMichael 7.6, Hautop 7.0

2013 PREMIERSHIP LADDER
1. Gateway 9-2, 29pts, 53.3%
2. St Peters 8-1-2, 28pts, 58.6%
3. Prince Alfred B 8-3, 27pts, 55.6%
4. Prince Alfred A 7-3, 24pts, 56.3%
5. The Corner 5-6, 21pts, 48.0%
6. Happy Valley 4-6, 18pts, 37.0%
7. Knightsbridge 3-1-7, 18pts, 48.0%
8. Brighton 3-8, 17pts, 44.2%

ALL-TIME GATEWAY SACBA STATS LEADERS (active players in blue)
Games: J.Smith 340, B.Smith 242, Kyriazis 227, Gondolf 210, Brook 115, Collins 80, Penn 80, Rudd 67, Ba.Smith 63, Halman 61
Triples: Gondolf 207, Swanson 120, Penn 106, Kyriazis 89, Hallsworth 77, Vucetic 73, Galway 65, Halman 61, Wickstein 56, McKinnon 39
Free throws: J.Smith 703, B.Smith 227, Swanson 132, Kyriazis 128, Rudd 113, Halman 107,Gondolf 89, Brook 88, Zajer 53, Collins 50
Free throw % (min 10 attempts): Watson 86%, Vucetic 78%, Moresi 73%, McKinnon 71%, J.Smith 70%, Swanson 69%, Halman 68%, Wild 64%, Ba.Smith 63%, Wickstein 59%
Fouls: J.Smith 711, Kyriazis 551, B.Smith 438, Gondolf 230, Brook 209, Halman 132, Ba.Smith 125, Collins 120, Rudd 111, P.Sampson 98
Points: J.Smith 5034, B.Smith 1829, Gondolf 1122, Kyriazis 1010, Swanson 712, Hallsworth 656, Brook 600, Halman 583, Rudd 577, Penn 563

MILESTONES
If Gateway win, they maintain first place.  Lose and Gateway fall to fourth place.  Yep, it's kind of an important game.

OUR PREDICTION
1) Make sure you have the remaining six players locked in, ready to go.  2) Hope St Peters have plenty of players missing.  3) Ask yourself "what would Robert Burneika do"?  He'd battle for top spot and that's exactly what the Thunder expect to do today.  With yet another new lineup - yawn - they make time to gel but their average age of 36 suggests a lack of experience won't be an issue.  Assuming they can score more baskets than the opposition, the Thunder should get the win.  With their last game on the Cal McKinnon Court for a month - their upcoming games are back on Court Dark - we turn to science for a prediction.  Mathematics makes the world go round.  We mean, the Cartesian co-ordinate system has an elemental power we find invigorating and even sexy - and we're not ashamed to say it.  So when two teams meet after attempting 118 free throws each for the season, you have to think there's something eerie going on.  Gateway have scored 13 more in 11 games at an average of 1 more free throw per game so we're going with Gateway by 1 point.  Let's hope the maths ring true.  Exciting times, exciting times.

The game had finished and we asked five-time SACBA premiership captain Brad Smith for his thoughts on a game that saw Gateway lead early, fall behind in the middle-third, and finish as they started - with an incredible 13-2 run.  "Hanging'tough.  Just hangin' tough or from what I've heard of this season, it's more hangin' tough.  This team just hangs tough."  We're tempted to leave the game review there but anyone under the age of 40 wouldn't know the historical significance of Brad's comments and with many of our viewers being new kids on the block, we'd best move on.  In a top-of-the-table clash that could decide who gets a top-two finish and the much-wanted double chance, the Thunder started with a 13-2 run that involved four triples that left St Peters wonderin' where it would end.  "We were wonderin' where it would end," they may or may not have said in the subsequent time-out huddle but alas for us, SA Church Basketball and Scouts SA haven't installed the much anticipated time-out microphones yet.  But we digress and as the game settled down, the blues began to wear down the whites one basket at a time, hittin' the front early in the second half.  They jumped out to a 35-31 lead with six minutes remainin' and appeared to have momentum and the game sewn up.  But like Rudy Tomjanovich said, you should never underestimate the heart of a champion and with two premierships in the last two seasons in grades underneath the top grade, the Thunder are well-tuned to hangin' tough and they gave us more hangin' tough yet again, finishin' with a Ben Todd-inspired 13-2 run that the capacity crowd of primary school kids scratchin' their heads and wonderin' why their fathers were so happy after the game.  The win sees the Thunder with a firm hold of top spot, whilst St Peters fall to a surprisin' fourth place - it's that close.  Gateway 44 (Todd 10, Gondolf 9, J.Smith 9) d St Peters 37.

PS.  A big thanks to The Chog for the above photo from his record collection.  Good times, good times.

Fresh off an opening round loss, the Thunder come into tonight's game smartin', needin' to hang tough and be diggin' out a win against Marion.  (Editor's Note:  Enough of the jokin' and replacin' the letter g with an apostrophe.  Brad Smith loves NKOTBSB.  Next joke, please.)  Marion meanwhile, look a new team with a number of new players.  That number is somewhere between one and four, making it difficult to predict tonight's outcome.  So one team comes in 0-1, whilst the other is 1-0.  One team has had the same players since Port Adelaide won the first Showdown, the other has been together only since Port Adelaide won the last Showdown.  Contrasting teams and potentially contrasting fortunes?  With no further adieu, we present to you Gateway v Marion.

LAST FIVE GAMES HEAD-TO-HEAD
6/5/2013: Gateway 47 d Marion 41
25/3/2013: Marion 50 d Gateway 43
11/2/2013: Gateway 46 d Marion 27
3/12/2012: (grand final) Gateway 56 d Marion 51
19/11/2012: (semi-final) Gateway 53 d Marion 42

OUR PREDICTION
The Thunder are set to be without point guard Nick Kyriazis yet again as he struggles to shake off a deliberating "crossing the road" injury, but should have all remaining players on deck.  That reminds us of a joke we heard recently.  "Why did Nick cross the road?  He didn't."  But we digress and the blues won't want to fall to 0-2 in what is a very even league.  Look for the Thunder to come out aggressive and take it up to Marion but in the end, like last week, it will come down to the Thunder's frontcourt v the opposition's backcourt.   The game though could be won in Gateway's backcourt and Marion's frontcourt, with both needing to perform or see their team drop the must-win game.  We tried contacting LOBOSEF for their thoughts but they were dead-set hysterical over Port Adelaide's amazing win in Showdown Chad #35.  They're also reportedly in serious financial strife after offering ridiculous odds on a Angus Monfries goal as the ball was in the air, only to see the ball bounce at right angles to deliver Port a much-deserved and just win as the premier football club in South Australia.  So with LOBOSEF silent, we turned to Daniel Bolton for his thoughts and he reckons St Peters will win by 12 points tonight.  Sorry Daniel, but they played Saturday and lost.  So with no help from Daniel or LOBOSEF, we'll go out on a limb and say Thunder by six.  Here's hoping we're right.

PS.  Looking back at the above photo/article, in hindsight ..... Ken Hinkley didn't turn out too bad, hey.  Go on folks, put on your best silver, teal, black and white to tonight's game and yes Michael Reu, we're looking at you.  We've got the Power to win .....

PPS.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Paul Stewart, who suffered a nasty broken wrist early in the game and faces an extended stay on the sidelines.  A champion player and person, he'll bounce back bigger and better.  Football sure is a brutal game.  Glad we play basketball .....

Gateway 57 (Anderson 19) d Marion 34 last night and when we name Bando as scoring 19 points - and we don't usually acknowledge individual scorers on a Monday night - there's a reason why.  You see, tonight was in all likelihood a Ramset Medal performance from the valiant youngster who only thirteen years ago led South Australia to the 1999 Jultopia Morphett Vale Under-18 title.  Usually absent, he was anything but last night, leading his elder teammates on a merry dance that saw the spinster post up, shoot from long range, finish fastbreaks ..... quite simply, he was everywhere.  The Thunder started this one strong and held out a new-look Marion outfit to move to 1-1 on the season but enough of his teammates because tonight was all about the Fan Belt and from everyone at leaguelineup.com and the Thunder, we look forward to more of it, both on Mondays and at Jultopia ..... assuming he's allowed to.  Good times, good times.

An anonymous viewer faxed us via Bookface asking "Where is Saturday's game?  CD?"  We thank a handful of our players who quickly answered by saying "Powerhouse.  CMC = Cal McKinnon Court (centre).  CD = Court Dark (left as you enter)."  Well answered, gentlemen.  Unlike CO  = Court Outback, the home of the 2013 Jultopia Boondall Brisbane Bullets Kenny Loggins 24-Hour Drive Masterchef Joel Wet n Wild Livin' La Vida Loca Anzac Pocket Hercules Elle Nino Annual Costume Sweat Party Ow Now How Foul the Brown Cow Cal Honky Tonk Badonkadonk Habadashery and Homewaresless Carnival Grand Final, Court Dark is still regulation size and a pretty fair basketball court but suffers from low lux levels and a severe lack of illuminance and luminous emittance.  Our anonymous listener also asked if we could have a legend.  Dear listener, we have lots of legends so without naming them all, you should know it's in the club song.  "And the legends are those who've earned the right, to wear the navy blue, orange and white."  They're called players.  Hope that answers your questions.  Good times, good times.

PS.  There is a legend available in our website header.  Click on the "More Info" button at the end of the header for further details.

Exciting times for two former Adelaide basketballers as confirmation came through today that 36ers' coach Marty Clarke has signed with St Mary's University.  St Mary's, famous for regular and successful recruiting of some of Australia's biggest basketball names including Matthew Dellavedova and Patrick Mills, signed Clarke as an assistant coach so expect more Australians to head to the Gaels in coming years. (Editor's Note:  No you can't say "Yes J-Dog, we're looking at you" - that's an unfair expectation to place on a 7-year old so we won't be printing that.) Meanwhile back in the land of Oz, local boy Erik Burdon, infamously unknown as the man who passed to North Adelaide's Michael Zorich to nail a last-second three-pointer over the outstretched arm of Thunder centre James Smith to win the 2004 ABL Reserves premiership - not that we're still bitter about it or that anyone else remembers it - has signed his first NBL contract, joining the Perth Wildcats for the upcoming season.  Whilst some remain dirty about the NBL Points Cap which can be argued that it has frozen players such as Everard Bartlett, Tom Daly and Luke Kendall out of the league because of their high(er) ratings, it does give players such as Eze an opportunity and realistically, the issue with the NBL is more about having too few teams than a points cap but we digress.  Eze is plying his trade with the Mount Gambier Pioneers in the SEABL at the minute and has them in serious championship contention, and it'll be good to see him in the NBL - good guy and good baller.  From everyone at leaguelineup.com and the Thunder, we congratulate both these guys on their new jobs and wish them all the best for the year/s to come.  Good times, good times.

PS.  Erik's second from the left, in the front row.  We searched for a photo and found the above one of the 2011/12 SECBL champion Mount Gambier Lakers and sure enough, the fax ran hot with emails from Thunder coach James Smith who may or may not remain even bitterer about the fact he never won a title in the SECBL.  Bitter man, bitter man.  But it at least allows us to say congratulations to the Lakers' Jason Humphries (second from the left, back row) on the title, and on achieving 500 games in the SECBL.  Super achievement by a super bloke.

Interesting contest today (aka this evening) at the ridiculous time of 5.10pm, with Gateway Baptist up against The Corner Uniting.  The Corner will always - OK, maybe not always but for a long time anyway - be remembered as the team that attended a presentation dinner rather than play a grand final in the grade between the top grade and the grade underneath the top grade last year.  If we look to the numbers though, they should be remembered as a team that along with the rest of the competition, don't score as much as the Thunder.  The numbers say Gateway have been scored against more than nearly every other team in the league but conversely, they  score a lot more themselves.  The Corner meanwhile, prefer a slower, more relaxed pace.  Both teams meanwhile, are deadset mad bombers, going 1-2 for triples this season.  Will the manic, fastbreak overcome the walk-it-up, deliberate offence?  We'll know soon - well actually we won't, seeing the game isn't until night time - but we digress.  With no further adieu, we present to you Gateway v The Corner.

LAST FIVE FOUR GAMES HEAD-TO-HEAD
15/6/2013: Gateway 48 (McKinnon 17, J.Horskins 13, Meyer 6) d The Corner 39
15/9/2012: Gateway 79 (Vucetic 29, J.Smith 27, McKinnon 17) d Crossways 36
14/7/2012: Crossways 43 d Gateway 38 (Stephenson 11, B.Smith 10, Gondolf 9)
12/5/2012: Gateway 20 d Crossways 0
 
ALL-TIME HEAD-TO-HEAD
Played 4: Gateway 3, The Corner 1

2013 TEAM TOTALS
Gateway (1st, 10-2):  541 points @ 45.1ppg, 64 triples, 79/127 FT @ 62.2%, 135 fouls
The Corner (5th, 6-6): 298 points @ 24.8ppg, 40 triples, 24/52 FT @ 46.2%, 55 fouls
 
2013 LEADING SCORERS (PPG - minimum 3 games played)
Gateway:  McKinnon 12.7, Vucetic 12.0, Halman 10.3, J.Horskins 10.3, Penn 10.0, J.Smith 9.5, Meyer 7.6
The Corner: Read 13.3, Maynes 8.3, Goodfellow 6.7, Ashby 6.4, Jarratt 5.4

2013 PREMIERSHIP LADDER
1. Gateway 10-2, 32pts, 53.3%
2. Prince Alfred A 9-3, 30pts, 59.2%
3. St Peters 8-1-3, 29pts, 57.5%
4. Prince Alfred B 8-4, 27pts, 54.9%
5. The Corner 6-6, 24pts, 48.6%
6. Knightsbridge 4-1-7, 21pts, 48.3%
7. Happy Valley 4-8, 20pts, 34.7%
8. Brighton 3-9, 18pts, 44.6%

ALL-TIME GATEWAY SACBA STATS LEADERS (active players in blue)
Games: J.Smith 341, B.Smith 242, Kyriazis 227, Gondolf 211, Brook 115, Collins 80, Penn 80, Rudd 67, Ba.Smith 63, Halman 61
Triples: Gondolf 207, Swanson 120, Penn 106, Kyriazis 89, Hallsworth 77, Vucetic 73, Galway 65, Halman 61, Wickstein 56, McKinnon 39
Free throws: J.Smith 703, B.Smith 227, Swanson 132, Kyriazis 128, Rudd 113, Halman 107,Gondolf 89, Brook 88, Zajer 53, Collins 50
Free throw % (min 10 attempts): Watson 86%, Vucetic 78%, Moresi 73%, McKinnon 71%, J.Smith 69%, Swanson 69%, Halman 68%, Wild 64%, Ba.Smith 63%, Wickstein 59%
Fouls: J.Smith 714, Kyriazis 551, B.Smith 438, Gondolf 230, Brook 209, Halman 132, Ba.Smith 125, Collins 120, Rudd 111, P.Sampson 98
Points: J.Smith 5043, B.Smith 1829, Gondolf 1131, Kyriazis 1010, Swanson 712, Hallsworth 656, Brook 600, Halman 583, Rudd 577, Penn 563

MILESTONES
Tom Halman needs 17 points to reach 600 career points.
James Smith needs 9 games to reach 350 career games but somehow, we don't think he'll get that one today ..... but we've been wrong before.

OUR PREDICTION
Last week saw a resilient Thunder defeat the competition's number two team despite missing their six leading scorers.  Today fortunately sees the return of numbers 1,2,3 and 4, with McKinnon, Vucetic, Halman and J.Horskins back in white which itself will come in handy given the low lux levels on Court Dark.  The Corner meanwhile - much like the rest of the competition - employ a solid rotation system with new players every week.  The Thunder come in without rookie big man Daniel Meyer who has strained his soft muscle, with the lineup filled out by Messrs Gondolf, J.Smith and Stephenson.  Look for the fastbreak game to be turned up even further - last time they employed the quadrumvirate model alongside two old blokes in the middle, they overwhelmed Prince Alfred A and it may or may not be the same today.  Whatever happens, expect a preview of the Thunder's finals setup with only four games remaining in the minor round.  So all that aside, our tip?  Geelong will beat Port Adelaide but the Power will put up a heckuva fight yet again.  Gateway meanwhile, will need to be on their game but despite Coach Smith's dislike of the f-word, it's time to start talking finals and with that in mind, we say Gateway by 14 points.  A reminder that if you're coming to the game, wear hi-viz clothing or risk getting lost afterwards.  Good times, good times.

"While we were all concentrating on the player with his pants pulled down, there was a guy in the background with a ski-mask on!"  Coach Smith may or may not have said.  Strange quote but it was one of those games as The Corner sought vengeance for last year's 79-36 grand final loss by comprehensively, well, pulling down the Thunder's pants.  It was shorts down from the opening jump as they nailed triple after triple and with the Thunder struggling to reply, the margin blew out further and further.  Valiant youngster J.Horskins tried to ignite the troops but discounting his very late first-half triple, the score was a ridiculous 30-6.  The second half saw the Thunder continue to tweak game styles as they searched for anything that worked, bringing the margin back to 10 points before The Corner adjusted themselves - not literally but you get the idea - going along their merry way to a final 59-35 victory.  The loss sees the Thunder move to second place with their top two hopes in jeopardy with two games yet to be played against the two Prince Alfred teams ranked #1 and #4 respectively.  That said, it's not time for panic but perhaps time for the team to focus more on preparation and come to the game ready to play.  They sure didn't today, but expect next week to be different with Meyer and Penn set to return and get the team back to something resembling normality.  The Corner 59 d Gateway 35 (J.Horskins 15, Vucetic 9, J.Smith 6).

"We are dead-set knackered.  We've played two games and no joke, we need a rest.  Lucky for us, we have a bye this week," Thunder captain Brad Smith may or may not have said.  If he did say it though, it would be accurate and he's right in saying the Thunder have a bye this week.  They head into the week 1-1 in second place with an excellent percentage courtesy of last week's blowout victory, and will spend the week relaxing and recuperating ahead of the next four weeks when they'll have to play a ridiculous four straight games in one month.  "Ridiculous," Ramset Medal hopeful Brad Anderson may or may not have added.  Next week's draw is not available as yet but will be released later in the week - stay tuned for that one.  Enjoy the week off folks, and see you next Monday night.

In an exciting announcement for Australian basketball, our very own Brett Brown (pictured above to the right) has been hired as coach of the Philadelphia 76ers for the next four years.  The 76ers this summer traded away their two best players - point guard and centre - bringing in two exciting rookies and effectively tanking the upcoming season to give themselves the best opportunity for next year's 2014 "best ever" draft class.  Along with Boston, they look decidely terrible but that aside, we're convinced Brown will do a great job.  Great guy, great pedigree ..... you can only judge him on what we've seen over the years and from Bulleen to North Melbourne to San Antonio to the Boomers, he has been exceptional.  From everyone at leaguelineup.com and the Thunder, congratulations to Brett on the appointment ..... and thank you very much Bill and Steve for your time.

If you didn't catch the Boomers v New Zealand last night, you didn't see the first tentative senior international steps of Australia's newest NBA-bound basketball prodigies, namely Dante Exum (son of Cecil) and Ben Simmons (son of David).  With both players' fathers having plied their trade as imports in the NBL in the 1980s/90s, the boys looked good in limited minutes alongside the men of Australia and NZ.  Exum in particular, is moving up the NBA draft board ahead of next year's draft, now ranked #3 in what many people are saying will be the best draft of all time.  That's lofty company and it all bodes well for Australia to have a 6-6 point guard in our ranks.  Click on the above picture of Exum to go to a Grantland interview on the young man.  Well worth a read with exciting times ahead, exciting times.

Get excited folks.  With the NBL transferring from under the ownership/administration of Basketball Australia to shared responsibility of the club owners - after four years of what can only be described as "slow growth" under BA - changes are coming.  Whilst nothing changes this season, other than the 36ers' rebuild and the Wildcats' signing Miami 2013 draft selection James Ennis (above), it's exciting to see the league moving in the right direction.  Check some of these topics on the table:

Exciting times ahead.  Less than two months to the opening match v Ennis and the Wildcats and we, for one, can't wait.  Exciting times, exciting times.

How bad were the Thunder last week?  30-6 down isn't good and from where we sit, it ranks as one of their worst performances perhaps ever in the history of all-time everness.  So you ask how bad?  Bad with a capital B but that usually happens at the start of a sentence so our point may have been missed.  But we digress and the beauty of sport is you can rock up the next week and put the previous week behind you, and that's what they'll be looking for this week.  Then again, doesn't that happen every week?  You move on to the next week and the previous week is behind you?  But we digress yet again and Gateway go into today's game with yet another new lineup - yawn - with a measly nine players unavailable, whilst Brighton remain a mystery but an exciting sign on top of a building that would look terrific lit up at night.  Sadly for Brighton, today's game is in the middle of the day.  Will make that a difference?  With no further adieu, we present to you Gateway v Brighton.

LAST FIVE THREE GAMES HEAD-TO-HEAD
22/6/2013: Gateway 55 (J.Horskins 11, Stephenson 11, Vucetic 10) d Brighton 43
11/8/2012: Gateway 53 (Penn 18, J.Smith 16, Hallsworth 5) d Brighton 27
16/6/2012: Gateway 52 (J.Smith 15, Gondolf 14, McKinnon 14) d Brighton 38

ALL-TIME HEAD-TO-HEAD
Played 3: Gateway 3, Brighton 0

2013 TEAM TOTALS
Gateway (2nd, 10-3):  576 points @ 44.3ppg, 69 triples, 85/135 FT @ 63.0%, 148 fouls
Brighton (8th, 3-10):  398 points @ 30.6ppg, 56 triples, 62/125 FT @ 49.6%, 84 fouls
 
2013 LEADING SCORERS (PPG - minimum 4 games played)
Gateway:  Vucetic 11.5, J.Horskins 11.0, Penn 10.0, McKinnon 9.5, J.Smith 9.2, Halman 8.5, Meyer 7.6
Brighton: C.Matthews 13.7, G.Whitford 11.6, Moulders 10.4,

2013 PREMIERSHIP LADDER
1. Prince Alfred A 10-3, 33pts, 59.6%
2. Gateway 10-3, 33pts, 52.0
3. St Peters 9-1-3, 32pts, 57.5%
4. Prince Alfred B 9-4, 31pts, 54.9%
5. The Corner 7-6, 27pts, 50.5%
6. Knightsbridge 4-1-8, 22pts, 47.2%
7. Happy Valley 4-9, 21pts, 35.8%
8. Brighton 3-10, 19pts, 44.6%

ALL-TIME GATEWAY SACBA STATS LEADERS (active players in blue)
Games: J.Smith 342, B.Smith 242, Kyriazis 227, Gondolf 212, Brook 115, Collins 80, Penn 80, Rudd 67, Ba.Smith 63, Halman 62
Triples: Gondolf 211, Swanson 120, Penn 106, Kyriazis 89, Hallsworth 77, Vucetic 75, Galway 65, Halman 61, Wickstein 56, McKinnon 39
Free throws: J.Smith 705, B.Smith 227, Swanson 132, Kyriazis 128, Rudd 113, Halman 108, Gondolf 89, Brook 88, Zajer 53, Collins 50
Free throw % (min 10 attempts): Watson 86%, Vucetic 77%, Moresi 73%, McKinnon 71%, J.Smith 69%, Swanson 69%, Halman 68%, Wild 64%, Ba.Smith 63%, Wickstein 59%
Fouls: J.Smith 714, Kyriazis 551, B.Smith 438, Gondolf 234, Brook 209, Halman 132, Ba.Smith 125, Collins 120, Rudd 111, P.Sampson 98
Points: J.Smith 5049, B.Smith 1829, Gondolf 1131, Kyriazis 1010, Swanson 712, Hallsworth 656, Brook 600, Halman 586, Rudd 577, Penn 563

MILESTONES
Tom Halman needs 14 points to reach 600 career points
James Smith needs 8 games to reach 350 career games but somehow, we don't think he'll get that one today ..... but we've been wrong before

OUR PREDICTION
Will the real Gateway please stand up?  Today's lineup sees Meyer and Todd return to action after a one week break, whilst McKinnon, Stephenson and Vucetic face a week on the sidelines, dropped after last week's performance (or lack thereof).  So it's J.Smith and Meyer up front, with Gondolf, Halman, J.Horskins and Todd in the backcourt.  Gateway remain the league's highest scoring team - both for and against - whilst Brighton are at the other end of the scale.  As such, our mathematical training tells us we'll have a clash of two cultures and assuming the Thunder can get the game into the open court, they should win.  If Brighton grind it out however, expect an arm wrestle though not literally, because we're fairly sure that would be a double foul.  It's been six years since Halman and Todd played together in the Thunder backcourt and that alone will be worth the price of admission and assuming the rest of the team can follow J.Horse's lead and actually try this week, they should get the win.  Our tip?  Gateway by 12 points.

"Chinese Restaurant."  And with those two words, retired Thunder premiership guard Trevor Horskins entered Burgo's Hall of Fame, providing us with countless memories and Trevor with a new set of wheels.  A big thanks to the anonymous viewer who sent us the above photo which is in no way related to yesterday's game but still, reminds us of good times, good times.  But we digress and yesterday saw Prince Alfred B defeat St Peters in the game prior, presenting the Thunder with a golden opportunity to extend their lead for a top-two finish.  And with the second-ranked team playing the bottom side, you'd be forgiven for expecting a blowout victory but Brighton had other ideas.  Gateway scored, Brighton scored, Gateway got a stop, Brighton got a stop (and not of the electric train variety though we hear it's not far away but we digress).  Half-time saw the Thunder with a 31-26 lead but Brighton came back with a bevy of triples and after a late flurry of technical and unsportsmanlike fouls as the tempo picked up, both teams remained locked away.  Enter Ben Todd, the bald veteran making up for a lack of follicles with a whole lot of heart and even more outside shooting.  Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang and he had 15 points for the half to lead the Thunder to a vital win that was made all the more memorable by how quiet youngster Joel Horskins was in the first half (sorry Joel but facts are facts - the bothan spies tell us you were pretty much invisible until just before half-time).  Final score Gateway 56 (Todd 24, Halman 12, Meyer 9) d Brighton 52, whilst the Thunder maintain a one-game lead in second place.  The premiership ladder is now as follows, with the Thunder set to play the #1 and #3 teams in the final two minor round games.

Spring's coming folks and that means garden time, spending what can only be described as some of the most wonderful, peaceful moments a man will ever have as you cut the hedges, mow the lawn, trim the lawn edges ..... excuse us while we wipe the drool off our chins.  The best times, best times.  And if you need your machine serviced or are perhaps looking for an upgrade, why not head on down to the Seaton Mower Service?  We don't know anything about them but when we Googled Seaton, their ad came up and from where we sit, that's good enough for us.  Back to tonight's game though and it's Gateway v Seaton, a rivalry born out of the late 2000s when they met in four straight grand finals from 2009 to 2011.  Seaton have returned to A Grade from the grade underneath the top grade and have looked good with a solid win last week and the Thunder will need to be on their game if they're to get the W tonight.  Seaton are a tall running team whilst Gateway are tall so assuming the Thunder can run too, it should be a belter of a contest.  Our bothan spies tell us the Thunder will be missing at least one player, meaning we have to wait another week for the inaugural "Orange Jacket at the CMC Night".  The Thunder looked composed last week with Terry Sleep back in action and should continue their recovery from an early season loss to ACH, with point guard Nick Kyriazis set to return from a long-term solaris injury.  Our tip?  Get on down to the Seaton Mower Service and tell them we sent you ..... and hopefully they contact us for a sponsorship deal.  Failing that, get on down to LOBOSEF with the Thunder to win by 8 points.

That's what I'm talking about or, what we're talking about we should say.  The Thunder arrived on time - both physically and mentally - Monday night and early on, took it right at the Seaton Ramblers despite the absence of Sleep (both literally and in name).  Reu started things off around the basket, then Bando and Gondolf from long range, Kyriazis found his passing game, Chog opened up on the break, and Coach Smith went certifiably nuts shortly after halftime.  The result?  A 45-22 lead with ten minutes remaining before a late Seaton flurry saw the margin back at 16 points.  With ACH struggling to shake Marion in the late game, there was a chance Gateway would regain top spot but alas, it wasn't to be but the boys in green would do well to watch over their shoulders, despite their claims that "Marion shapes up as potentially ACH's biggest threat to the title".  Expect that one to get used again but that can wait for later.  For now, Gateway open up a two-game lead in second place ahead of next week's match v Arndale.  Gateway 50 d Seaton 34.  Good times, good times.

Unlucky to not play in the 2004 AFL premiership and kicked the first score of the 2007 AFL Grand Final, the great Megahead is one of our favourite all-time Port Adelaide players in the AFL and today announced his retirement from professional football.  We won't list his achievements or memories - everyone else is doing that for us though his retirement has sadly been overshadowed by the ongoing Essendon supplements saga - but from everyone at leaguelineup.com and the Thunder, we just want to wish Brett all the best for the future, and to thank him for many wonderful memories.  A champion footballer and a champion bloke.

OK, we admit we've got a little Dante Exum thing going on - and with good reason because the young man is (and will be) something special - but some earth-shattering news today with reports that he's considering ..... playing this season in the NBL.  Channel Ten Perth reported that the Wildcats are considering offering a Development Player spot (memo to Dante's agent - forget a DP spot because he can be the #1 guy tomorrow with the Thunder - just name your price!), whilst other clubs are believed to be circling.  Rated the #3 prospect for next year's NBA draft, our bothan spies tell us it comes down to the fact that if he goes to college where he can only start later this year, he can't enter the NBA until 2015.  If he doesn't go to college and plays NBL or the like now, he can go to the NBA in 2014.  In addition, if he delivers low numbers in college, it will kill his draft chances whereas if this happens in the NBL, it becomes a boys versus men argument ala Ricky Rubio in Euroleague a few years ago and that turned out very well for the Spanish Timberwolf.  Oh, the complexity!  From where we sit though, we're excited no matter what he does because it's an incredible and exciting story no matter which way it plays out but we'll say it again ..... Dante, listen young man.  Forget a DP spot.  Come play for the Thunder and we'll let you choose your number - ANY number including dare we say #10 - you won't ever have to deal the cards at Uno, we'll pay for the red frogs each week, and we'll do the driving (you can ride shotgun) for the next Jultopia trip.  What more does a man want?  We await his reply ..... and watch this space with bated breath.  Exciting times, exciting times.

We're distracted.  Why?  "I don't think I've ever seen a sequence where there've been four in a row by the same guy like that."  Click on the above video to revisit the day Manute Bol (the guy on the left in the above picture) went bananas against the Orlando Magic, blocking four consecutive shots.  But if you don't want to go that far back, you should've been at Hillcrest this morning where Thunder Academy tyro Jonty Smith had his own block party, blocking four straight shots, finishing with nine for the game.  And then we return home to read that Manute Bol's son Bol Bol, is in seventh grade and stands 6-5.  If blocks are your thing, it's exciting times, exciting times.  Back to today though and we're distracted.  Hopefully we can get our focus back on today's game but with the match emerging as a dead rubber, it can be hard to fire up sometimes.  "Dead rubber?" you ask?  We'll explain further in a moment.  For now though, with no further adieu, we present to you Gateway v Prince Alfred A.

LAST FIVE GAMES HEAD-TO-HEAD
6/7/2013: PAOC 38 d Gateway 29 (Halman 17, Meyer 6, Bowie 3)
29/6/2013: Gateway 52 (Vucetic 26, Penn 11, J.Smith 8) d PAOC 42
11/5/2013: Gateway 33 (Meyer 14, Z.Horskins 8, J.Smith 7) d PAOC 31
4/5/2013: PAOC 39 d Gateway 30 (Penn 9, J.Smith 9, Meyer 7)
25/8/2012: Gateway 52 (McKinnon 16, Vucetic 15, J.Smith 14) d PAOC 50

ALL-TIME HEAD-TO-HEAD
Played 42: Gateway 21, Draw 1, Prince Alfred 20

2013 TEAM TOTALS
Gateway (2nd, 11-3):  632 points @ 45.1ppg, 69 triples, 85/135 FT @ 63.0%, 148 fouls
Prince Alfred A (1st, 11-3):  643 points @ 45.9ppg, 49 triples, 73/153 FT @ 47.7%, 144 fouls
 
2013 LEADING SCORERS (PPG - minimum 3 games played)
Gateway:  Todd 15.7, Vucetic 11.5, Horskins 10.4, Penn 10.0, McKinnon 9.5, Halman 9.2, J.Smith 8.6, Meyer 7.8
Prince Alfred A: Orken 11.1, P.Harford 9.8, J.Harford 8.5, Foo 7.9, Hobbs 7.1

2013 PREMIERSHIP LADDER
1. Prince Alfred A 11-3, 36pts, 60.3%
2. Gateway 11-3, 36pts, 52.0%
3. Prince Alfred B 10-4, 34pts, 54.7%
4. St Peters 9-1-4, 33pts, 56.6%
5. The Corner 7-7, 28pts, 48.2%
6. Knightsbridge 4-1-8, 22pts, 47.2%
7. Happy Valley 4-9, 21pts, 35.8%
8. Brighton 3-11, 20pts, 45.0%

ALL-TIME GATEWAY SACBA STATS LEADERS (active players in blue)
Games: J.Smith 343, B.Smith 242, Kyriazis 227, Gondolf 213, Brook 115, Collins 80, Penn 80, Rudd 67, Ba.Smith 63, Halman 63
Triples: Gondolf 212, Swanson 120, Penn 106, Kyriazis 89, Hallsworth 77, Vucetic 75, Galway 65, Halman 62, Wickstein 56, McKinnon 39
Free throws: J.Smith 705, B.Smith 227, Swanson 132, Kyriazis 128, Rudd 113, Halman 110, Gondolf 89, Brook 88, Zajer 53, Collins 50
Free throw % (min 10 attempts): Watson 86%, Vucetic 77%, Moresi 73%, McKinnon 71%, Halman 68%, J.Smith 69%, Swanson 69%, Wild 64%, Ba.Smith 63%, Wickstein 59%
Fouls: J.Smith 716, Kyriazis 551, B.Smith 438, Gondolf 237, Brook 209, Halman 132, Ba.Smith 125, Collins 120, Rudd 111, P.Sampson 98
Points: J.Smith 5051, B.Smith 1829, Gondolf 1134, Kyriazis 1010, Swanson 712, Hallsworth 656, Brook 600, Halman 598, Rudd 577, Penn 563

MILESTONES
Not a lot of guys playing today so from where we sit ..... perhaps Nick Kyriazis can make 11 triples to reach 100 for his career?
Then again, James Smith only needs 7 games to reach 350 career games.  Yep, we'll put our money on that one today before we bet on Nick's 11 triples (sorry Nick)

OUR PREDICTION
OK, here's the lay of the land from our bothan spies.  If the Thunder win today, the ladder becomes Gateway 39, PACA 37, PACB 37, SPOC 36 points.  If PACA win today, the ladder becomes PACA 39, PACB 37, Gateway 37, SPOC 36.  Then Gateway play PACB next week which for us, makes this week's games v Essendon and Fremantle as almost irrelevant - it comes down to Port v Carlton next week.  Interesting theory and mathematically correct even, but expect a contest today.  With just ten players missing, the Thunder go into the game with yet another new lineup - yawn again - with an underhanded frontcourt, backcourt and inbetweencourt.  Bowie, Halman, Horskins, Horskins, Maxwell, Meyer, Muller, Penn, Smith, Vucetic ..... we're thinking of making a team out of these guys alone because from where we sit, we think we'd do OK.  But we digress and today sees the return of 227-game veteran Nick Kyriazis after a long layoff but assuming he doesn't hit 11 triples (see above), the Thunder could find this one tough going.  PACA have been in good form of late, having not lost a game since their last game v Gateway.  That was a different Gateway team - though that's the case every week - but we're not sure about today.  Our heart says Gateway, our head says PACA and given our mouth is attached to our head and not our heart, we have to go with our head.  Prince Alfred A by 12 points.  Let's hope not though.

Undermanned but not outgunned, the Thunder fought valiantly yesterday but couldn't overcome a determined Prince Alfred (the team, not the man), losing by 11 points (and yes, we missed the margin by just one point).  Prince Alfred A looked stronger from the start but Gateway hung tough and as the first half drew to a close, Gateway trailed 21-18.  The second half opened with a maroon onslaught however, off to a 15-3 lead that left the Thunder reeling and looking for answers.  They found them in centre court owner Cal McKinnon, who hit shots from everywhere - not literally because we doubt that's possible - but even as they drew to within six points, they couldn't close it out.  Final score Prince Alfred (the team, not the man) 50 d Gateway 39 (McKinnon 20, J.Smith 10, Todd 6).  The dead-rubber nature of the game renders the outcome all-but meaningless, with next week's game to determine who gets the double chance.

In other unrelated but related news, the SACBA finals draw is out and wow, we're playing everywhere.  Well, not everywhere but close enough.  Semi-finals are at the Cal McKinnon Court, preliminary finals at St Peters, and grand finals at Wayville.  The only stadium not used is the one pictured above in Munich and whilst it would be interesting to play there - the uneven nature of the floor wouldn't bother Halman or J.Horskins given how much they've played at Hillcrest over the years but we digress - we're content with the draw as it is.  Content but bemused.  Three weeks, three stadiums, one premiership.  Good times, good times.

We pause from this week's game preview to reflect on the 60 Minutes' story from last night where Turia Pitt, one of a number of burns survivors from the 2011 Kimberley Ultramarathon, removed her mask to show the extent of her injuries.  The word "hero" is thrown around too loosely in our society but after watching that story, our prayers go out to her and boyfriend Michael Toskin.  Heroes, both of them, and an inspiration to us all.  With no further adieu, we present to you Gateway v Arndale.

LAST FIVE GAMES HEAD-TO-HEAD
20/5/2013: Arndale 34 d Gateway 31
15/4/2013: Gateway 51 d Arndale 36
4/3/2013:  Gateway 44 d Arndale 35
12/11/2012: Gateway 52 drew Arndale 52
8/10/2012: Gateway 49 d Arndale 26

OUR PREDICTION
No Orange Jacket night this week as yet another Thunder player elects to have a night off, rumours continuing to swirl about salary cap and behavioural issues.  Those aside, Arndale present a unique foe and one that knocked the Thunder off when they last met, guaranteeing a solid contest tonight.  Our bothan spies tell us they don't know which player will be missing the game, making a prediction all the more difficult, but they tend to cover any gaps pretty well with the team in good form after a strong performance last week.  Arndale are quick and come into the game favourites with LOBOSEF but like Fleetwood Mac, you can go your own way and we'll go ours.  Our tip?  Thunder by 6 points.

Exciting times last night at the Cal McKinnon Court as Gateway and Arndale locked horns in a thrilling 8.30pm match that saw both teams in full uniform - yes, both singlets and shorts.  Super stuff.  Far from their semi-final contest last season when four players wore Thunder uniforms against ACH whilst only one was in Arndale colours - a disgrace, an absolute disgrace - it was good to see more consistency amongst the teams.  Gateway started well but Arndale remained strong, taking a 23-18 lead with the Terry Sleep-less Gateway struggling to get in front.  Bang and out of the half, the Thunder went on a 12-0 run with Arndale falling quickly into serious foul trouble, in the penalty after just six minutes.  Arndale kept coming though and with some thrilling cameos from a young baker and not the butcher or the candlestick maker, they kept things tight but couldn't recover with every foul resulting in free throws, the Thunder taking the win 46-34.  The win sees the Thunder consolidate second place with a 3-1 record on the season ahead of next week's bye and hopefully sometime soon, the 2013a First Season Orange Jacket night.  Good times, good times.

Not since a few years ago have the Thunder declared a minor round prior to a final, a pre-final final, effectively calling the finals early before the finals and making the finals earlier than the normal finals - that is, pre-final finals.  It won't be the final word on finals but finally they've given in and conceded that it's time for the oldest trick in the book - pre-final finals.  Saturday's game effectively decides which team gets the double chance in the final finals so with the finals fast approaching, expect a fired up Thunder team finally ready for the pre-final final after a few average performances over the past few weeks.  "Saturday's game effectively decides which team gets the double chance in the final finals so with the finals fast approaching, expect a fired up Thunder team finally ready for the pre-final final after a few average performances over the past few weeks," Coach James Smith may or may not have said when responding to questions about finally declaring a pre-final final prior to the finals today.  So what does it all mean?  A different lineup yet again - yawn - and a pre-final finals-like atmosphere between the Thunder and Prince Alfred (the team, not the man).  So if you're not at the last ever AFL game at AAMI Stadium this weekend - and even if you are - get along to St Peters for what can only be described as a ..... well actually, we have no idea now so we'll just call it a basketball game.  Exciting times, exciting times.

We unashamedly borrow this story from AdelaideNow and its author Boti Nagy.  There ain't many places to pick up basketball stories in Adelaide so unless anyone can suggest another source, we have to stick with AdelaideNow.  Last time we checked, the newest source of basketball stories, aka the ACH Bullets' Bookface page, was all (in our best Pittsburgh Pisces female fan singing voice) Bullet, Bullet, Bullet ..... Bullet, Bullet, Bullet ..... oh Bullet Baby you're so fine.  Editor's Note:  Only two or three people in the world will get that joke = fail.  But we digress and if you're not excited about the upcoming NBL season, you soon will.  Enjoy and visit AdelaideNow for the full story (we've edited the story below).

When most of the New York basketball players you know have played in Australia on multiple occasions, the decision to grab an NBL contract becomes much easier. It certainly influenced new Adelaide 36ers import Jarrid Frye (pictured on the right) who already had two professional stints in Macedonia and one in Iceland under his belt. "My agent was telling me about it but I didn't take a lot of convincing," said Frye, 28 and a wiry 196cm package of slash-to-the-hoop dynamite.  "I had worked out with (36ers coach) Joey (Wright) at a camp last summer. Plus I knew Corey Williams, Adris Deleon and Gary Ervin had all come to Australia and they all had good things to say." But nothing says more about a place than a player's desire to return there, "Homicide", "2Hard2Guard" and "GE" all having played NBL over several seasons. "When someone wants to come back, that's all you need to know," Frye said.

Wright, who has been busy recasting the 36ers into a more fluid, exciting but resilient image, is excited by what Frye brings to his team. "He will definitely be very good for us on a wing," Wright said. "He can defend one-on-one on the ball really well and can guard all the one, two, threes (point guards, off guards, small forwards) in our league. He's also probably our best penetrator off the dribble. I've been really happy. I knew he'd be good but not this good." Wright said on those nights Frye was connecting with his mid-range shot, he would be "unguardable". His relationship with the 36ers' playmaking import Ervin, the NBL's 2011 MVP, has made the transition relatively smooth. "We've been playing against each other for years in the New York basketball circuit," Frye said.

Go on, get your season tickets folks.  With at least two Thunder players and six Thunder Academy players already signed up ..... it's exciting times, exciting times.

Is it just coincidence that Mel Gibson's William Wallace had blue and white face paint?  With the colours of the Gateway Thunder adorning his scone - admittedly he'd look even better with a splash of orange and gold but we digress - Wallace led his team to victory over the evil Englishmen until he ultimately died for his cause later in the movie (and in other movie spoilers, the Titanic sank and Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father - sorry kids).  Today sees the Thunder up against Prince Alfred (the team, not the man) with the winner moving on to a double-chance semi-final against Prince Alfred (the other team, not the same man) whilst the loser faces St Peters in a knockout final.  The stakes are high (possibly because the butcher is tall and he didn't want anyone else to eat them) and with the game shifted to St Peters so as to avoid the traffic congestion caused by 300,000 Port Adelaide fans heading to Football Park, it promises to be a deadset crackerjackmajetski.  With no further adieu, we present to you Gateway v Prince Alfred B.

LAST FIVE GAMES HEAD-TO-HEAD
24/8/2013: PAOC 50 d Gateway 39 (McKinnon 20, J.Smith 10, Todd 6)
6/7/2013: PAOC 38 d Gateway 29 (Halman 17, Meyer 6, Bowie 3)
29/6/2013: Gateway 52 (Vucetic 26, Penn 11, J.Smith 8) d PAOC 42
11/5/2013: Gateway 33 (Meyer 14, Z.Horskins 8, J.Smith 7) d PAOC 31
4/5/2013: PAOC 39 d Gateway 30 (Penn 9, J.Smith 9, Meyer 7)

ALL-TIME HEAD-TO-HEAD
Played 43: Gateway 21, Draw 1, Prince Alfred 21

2013 TEAM TOTALS
Gateway (3rd, 11-4):  671 points @ 44.7ppg, 74 triples, 89/145 FT @ 61.4%, 160 fouls
Prince Alfred B (2nd, 11-4):  562 points @ 37.5ppg, 56 triples, 82/168 FT @ 48.8%, 193 fouls
 
2013 LEADING SCORERS (PPG - minimum 4 games played)
Gateway:  McKinnon 11.6, Vucetic 11.5, J.Horskins 11.0, Penn 10.0, J.Smith 9.2, Halman 8.5, Meyer 7.6
Prince Alfred B: Aistrope 13.6, Hill 6.4, Campbell 5.6, Young 5.4

2013 PREMIERSHIP LADDER
1. Prince Alfred A 12-3, 39pts, 59.8%
2. Prince Alfred B 11-4, 37pts, 55.6%
3. Gateway 11-4, 37pts, 51.5%
4. St Peters 10-1-4, 36pts, 58.9%
5. The Corner 7-8, 29pts, 48.2%
6. Knightsbridge 6-1-8, 28pts, 48.0%
7. Happy Valley 4-11, 23pts, 44.6%
8. Brighton 3-12, 21pts, 42.4%

ALL-TIME GATEWAY SACBA STATS LEADERS (active players in blue)
Games: J.Smith 344, B.Smith 242, Kyriazis 228, Gondolf 214, Brook 115, Collins 80, Penn 80, Rudd 67, Ba.Smith 63, Halman 63
Triples: Gondolf 213, Swanson 120, Penn 106, Kyriazis 89, Hallsworth 77, Vucetic 75, Galway 65, Halman 62, Wickstein 56, McKinnon 43
Free throws: J.Smith 709, B.Smith 227, Swanson 132, Kyriazis 128, Rudd 113, Halman 110, Gondolf 89, Brook 88, Zajer 53, Collins 50
Free throw % (min 10 attempts): Watson 86%, Vucetic 77%, Moresi 73%, McKinnon 71%, Halman 69%, J.Smith 69%, Swanson 69%, Wild 64%, Ba.Smith 63%, Wickstein 59%
Fouls: J.Smith 718, Kyriazis 553, B.Smith 438, Gondolf 238, Brook 209, Halman 132, Ba.Smith 125, Collins 120, Rudd 111, P.Sampson 98
Points: J.Smith 5061, B.Smith 1829, Gondolf 1137, Kyriazis 1010, Swanson 712, Hallsworth 656, Brook 600, Halman 598, Rudd 577, Penn 563

MILESTONES
Tom Halman needs 2 points to reach 600 career points
Tom Halman plays his 64th game, passing Barry Smith for 9th place all-time

OUR PREDICTION
Pre-final finals.  They're always interesting with one team in finals-mode and the other still playing in the minor round.  When you think about it, they're probably completely unfair because we know finals see the intensity step up another level so perhaps the minor round team should get a handicap, perhaps three points for every score?  But we digress and with the Thunder missing only eight players today, their team starts to take on a finals look with the main roster almost completely assembled.  Gateway come in with an all-Jultopia backcourt whilst their frontcourt remains short - not in height but in number - with at least one player missing.  Names aside - we have to sustain some mystery - if the Thunder are to win the premiership as we expect, they need to win this one.  The double chance gives you a double chance so you can lose a game and come back the following week and play again with another chance (a double one) to make the grand final and then win the premiership.  With that looming as the prize for today's game, look for the blues to come out and get this one but it will be tough.  Prince Alfred was a tough guy in his time and this team is moulded in his image, albeit without the beard.  Our tip?  Gateway to rebound from a few disappointing weeks and win by 12 points.

PS.  Last game at Football Park and we're wearing the black and white prison bars?  Carn the Power.  If you're not at the game today, you're somewhere else.  Good times, good times.