In The Post – “Not a basketball play”: Kings coach fumes

Catch up on all the latest headlines from around the basketball world in today’s edition of In the Post.

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Buford whacks Hodgson’s shove

Sydney Kings coach Chase Buford has slammed Perth Wildcats centre Matt Hodgson after he shoved Kings guard Dejan Vasiljevic in the face twice yesterday.

“It’s not a basketball play to take a swipe at someone’s face twice. I don’t have a lot of respect for that play,” Buford said via The West Australian.

The NBL Game Review Panel will assess the incident. 

“Slap in the face” for Melbourne 

Chris Goulding says United’s defeat to the Sixers could be the wake up call the champions need.

“Maybe this is the slap in the face we needed to really get back to playing the basketball we want to play,” Goulding said via The Age.

Vickerman surprised with refs decision 

Melbourne coach Dean Vickerman has voiced his displeasure that United didn’t get the ball with 20 seconds left in yesterday’s loss to Adelaide.

After the out of bounds decision was called 36ers ball, the decision stood after review, which led to Dusty Hannahs’ game-tying three-pointer and Adelaide’s eventual win in overtime.

“We’re up by three with 20 seconds to go and what we thought was a very simple out-of-bounds call gets called the other way, which was a massive surprise to all of us. So that’s disappointing that we don’t get that possession,” Vickerman said via the Herald Sun.

Taipans have “regressed”

After a positive start to the campaign, Cairns Taipans coach Adam Forde says his club, who are on a three-game losing streak, have regressed.

“Performance-based, mentally, the break hasn’t been good, and we have regressed. It’s disappointing now that things will start to creep in after you lose…it’s going to be an interesting week,” Forde said via the Cairns Post.

NBA interest booms

Commissioner Jeremy Loeliger says interest from NBA teams to play NBL teams in preseason games has reached “unprecedented” levels.

Click here to read the full story via Newscorp.

Kenyon a “diamond in the rough”

Tasmania JackJumpers coach Scott Roth has lauded Matt Kenyon, saying the 23-year-old still has a big career ahead of him.

“I think the sky is the limit for him, I think he is a diamond in the rough that people have kind of passed over and I think he's another great story for the NBL and our team in general,” Roth said via The Examiner.

We were dominated says Morrison 

Scott Morrison didn’t sugar-coat his thoughts on the Wildcats’ loss to the Kings yesterday.

“We got outplayed, we got outcoached, we got outworked,” Morrison said via The Daily Telegraph.

Hawks handle bounce back  

Illawarra Hawks coach Brian Goorjian is proud of how his club bounced back from defeat in Saturday night’s win over Cairns.

“We're trying to build a culture here that we play hard every night, we handle the losses and the wins the same, and we're ready to play the next one, and the next one. There's still a process to go, but I do like the way we've handled that,” he said via the Illawarra Mercury.