At the conclusion of Round 7 of the iiNet NBL Championship, when Jamar Wilson of the Cairns Taipans was awarded the Player of the Week award, I noticed a trend. At that point, players from seven different teams had won the award in each of the seven rounds of the season. The only teams yet to have players to take out the honours were the Gold Coast Blaze and the Wollongong Hawks.
And what do you know, in Round 8 the Player of the Week was Adris “2Hard2Guard” Deleon of the Blaze. That just left the Hawks as Robinson Crusoe on the POTW island.
2011/12 iiNet NBL Championship Player of the Week Winners
Round 1 – Patty Mills (Melbourne Tigers)
Round 2 – Shawn Redhage (Perth Wildcats)
Round 3 – Julian Khazzouh (Sydney Kings)
Round 4 – Daniel Johnson (Adelaide 36ers)
Round 5 – Gary Wilkinson (New Zealand Breakers)
Round 6 – Eddie Gill (Townsville Crocodiles)
Round 7 – Jamar Wilson (Cairns Taipans)
Round 8 – Adris Deleon (Gold Coast Blaze)
Last night was the Hawks’ chance to continue that streak, as they took on the Townsville Crocodiles. As you can see on the video below, the Hawks put in a mammoth effort in the final seconds…
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cfJ5Qxt0xHc
…but unfortunately for the Wollongong players and the law of streaks (whatever that is), the Hawks came up one point losers. Surely that would eliminate anything but a huge Hawks player’s effort to win the weekly award. Tim Coenraad was their best, with 22 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists — good, but not good enough to warrant award consideration on a defeated team.
[Video courtesy of andthefoul.net]
