2010 Jones Cup: Will the real Townsville Crocodiles please stand up?

[Derek]

Bizarre news story of the day.

Focus Taiwan (http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aALL&ID=201007130032):

Taipei, July 13 (CNA) Four local teams are among 11 men's and women's basketball teams competing in the 2010 R. William Jones Cup International Invitational Basketball Tournament, Taiwan's top international hoop event, from July 14-20 in Taipei.

Iran will be defending its title in the men's group, which will be played in a single round robin. ...

The other [non-Taiwanese] men's teams are the Townsville Crocodiles of Australia's National Basketball League, the Lebanon national team and the Philippines national team.

The Crocodiles' Facebook and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/TsvCrocs) feeds:

The Townsville McDonald's Crocodiles would like to make an announcement that we ARE NOT currently participating in the 2010 R. William Jones Cup in Taiwan. We have reported this to Basketball Australia and are looking further into the misuse of our brand.

This site (http://www.asia-basket.com/William-Jones-Cup/basketball.asp?NewsID=196157) has rosters for all the teams:

Townsville Crocodiles (NBL, Australia)

Head Coach: Alan ERICKSEN
Assistant Coach: Peter STANLEY

NO. Name D.O.B Height Weight
7 Troy CLARKE 1970.10.02 176 80
10 Lloyd KLAMAN 1974 183 83
12 Aaron EDWARDS 1977.03.27 195 94
14 Wayne BIDDLE 1979.12.08 187 92
20 Shaun PHELAN 1991.05.17 197 85
22 Warren ESTCOURT 1968.06.17 191 95
24 Read CLINT 1979.08.01 198 120
32 Greg REGAN 1978.02.12 194 95
33 Lee SMITH 1977.02.13 201 100
34 Ben STANLEY 1984.07.15 206 110
42 James BUCKNER 205 105
44 Damian MATACZ 203 110
Average 194.6 97.4

Are they confusing the Townsville Crocs with the Basketball Australia Crocs? Possible, but quite a few of those guys on the roster are a bit old for that team.

DN

[Silencer83]

Google searches turn up player links to the WA SBL in a couple of cases.

The more names I search the more it looks like an SBL All Stars team, a few retired players included.

[Cussy]

One guy even stole Clint Reed's name!!

[Cussy]

Google searches turn up player links to the WA SBL in a couple of cases.

The more names I search the more it looks like an SBL All Stars team, a few retired players included.

It's made up of SBL players, certainly not an All Star team.

[Silencer83]

SBL All-Retired Team ? :P

[Clips]

Wow! Lloyd Klaman? He was the assistant coach of the Cannons in thier final season...

edit: I also think he lied about his age. Surely he was older than 30 when he was here....

[Mookie]

You know your league is on the up when people will actually try to misappropriate your identity to drum up support for their tourney. I love this story.

[Cussy]

If this was the real Townsville Crocodiles I'd expect to see more kids!!!! And which one was their MVP ebcause we all know what happens to those lol

[haggard]

most of the names I recognise weren't that good at SBL level... power to them I guess.

[jake31]

They finish off the comp at 0-5.
Not a pretty sight.

[mattic]

This is just another sad indictment on the Crocs Board and Management. They can't even protect their name; and they lose another competition.
What were Ben Allen's stats?

[Cussy]

Apparently teams called "Crocs" are a dime a dozen.

[DDFan]

Apparently teams called "Crocs" are a dime a dozen.That's just an alligation, from Bob who's gross.

[DDFan]

Are they confusing the Townsville Crocs with the Basketball Australia Crocs? Possible, but quite a few of those guys on the roster are a bit old for that team.

24 Read CLINT 1979.08.01 198 120

DN

One guy even stole Clint Reed's name!!Read CLINT, obviously not the same bloke, literately. ;)

[Mike]

lol i wouldnt exactly call ben stanley an SBL all-star

[5t0n3r1]

lol i wouldnt exactly call ben stanley an SBL all-star
I love you.

[curious]

Crocs pursuing legal action to prorect their name.
http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2010/07/20/155911_crocs.html

[haggard]

any one have any pictures of these guys in their uniforms?

[Cussy]

I understand why they'd be annoyed but none of this would have been an issue if the journalist involved wasn't so careless to not actually research the team. He admitted he thought it was weird that the third best Aussie team was getting smashed but didn't bother reading the roster, which woudl have told him that only two players from this fake team have got NBL experience.

[Hoffa]

any one have any pictures of these guys in their uniforms?

There is one here mate - http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2010/07/15/2003477979


http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2010/07/15/P20-100715-001r.jpg

[Mookie]

There is too much wrong with that picture to even begin...

[Cussy]

What's with all the empty seats? Where are they playing? The SEC?

[haggard]

could be the Taiwan answer to high stakes hoops.

[Cussy]

Someone with a funny blog should try and photoshop some pics to confuse the issue. If they can't do it, maybe haggard can.

[Lukosius]

#20 is definitely Lee Smith, a retired former SBL player with the Bunbury Slammers.

It does appear that this was a legitimate team of former SBL and ABA players playing under the name 'Australian Crocs'.

Clarke, Edwards, Biddle, Read, Regan, Smith and Buckner are all recently retired SBL players, some of them very notable in SBL ranks. Read is the 'Clint Read' who was a bench player with the Wildcats a few years back and should not be confused with 'Clint Reed'.

Stanley is still playing SBL while Matacz has predominately played in Europe in recent years, and also had a short stint with the Wildcats a couple of years ago.

Klaman is an American and is the only non-Aussie on the team. He's more notable within SBL circles as an SBL coach in the early/mid 90's. He's definitely older than what the roster says. Recently he was coaching in Melbourne (BigV) and I believe he coached the same team that Phelan played in (Altona?).

I think Estcourt has also been recently coaching in the BigV.

The coach of the team, Alan Erickson, is a retired former import and all-star at SBL level, while the manager (Pete Stanley) is the current manager of the Cockburn Cougars in the SBL.

The common denominator here is that most of these guys have some link back to the Cockburn and Willetton SBL programmes.

[Julian]

I've seen a couple of reports, penned by authors whose Google skills aren't retarded, list the team as Western Australia.

[mattic]

Moved to Crocs thread. (http://www.ozhoopsboards.com/showthread.php?p=234967#post234967)

[Clips]

Cockburn Cougars in the SBL.Fantastic! (Language warning) (http://www.youtube.com/user/nousernamesarefree#p/u/170/lv6OCdfzZ-8)

[Mike]

I love you.

I love you two, but I do feel the need to see other people