SBL Shootaround

We've got to Episode 20 in Men's SBL Shootaround and it's our lucky last show of 2020 and what better way to finish things off than being joined by the father-son championship winning captain-coach duo from the Warwick Senators as we wrap up the West Coast Classic and the year that we've had here on the show.

We open up Episode 20 of Men's SBL Shootaround as co-hosts Chris Pike and Ben Ettridge provide a full rundown of the finals weekend in the West Coast Classic which ultimately saw the Warwick Senators bring the first banner since the inception of the SBL to Warwick Stadium.

Continuing on from that discussion, we then chat with Mike and Cody Ellis about their championship triumph together with the Warwick Senators. We discuss what it means for the father and son to share in a championship together, and what it means to win for the Senators and also their thoughts on just how strong and successful the West Coast Classic has been in 2020.

We also discuss with Mike where this success rates in his achievement during his 48-year involved with the Senators in a life in basketball that obviously also has him an all-time NBL great at the Perth Wildcats where he was a 302-game player and the inaugural championship winning captain.

We also talk with Cody about his relationship with this group at the Senators and what it means to him as well as looking back on his strong 150-game NBL career that he put together and how he feels about things moving forward.

We then continue on SBL Shootaround but continuing to look back on the season that was in the West Coast Coast with Ben Ettridge telling us where the finals teams are on the championship clock moving forward. We also discuss the now vacant head coaching position at the Willetton Tigers.

Then it's time to wrap things up on SBL Shootaround for 2020 with a big thank you to our guests and listeners while Ben announces his Personality of the Year and then signs off for the season.

It's a bit sad that this is the last Women's SBL Shootaround episode of 2020 but we are going out with a bang with Makailah Dyer joining us as co-host, Sami Whitcomb joining us as a very special guest and then we wrap up the finals weekend of the West Coast Classic.

It's a massive final episode of Women's SBL Shootaround this week with regular co-hosts Chris Pike and Randy Miegel joined in the studio by two-time SBL All-Star Five superstar guard and Her Hoops AU founder Makailah Dyer.

We open up the show by breaking down what we saw in the finals weekend of the West Coast Classic that ultimately saw the Joondalup Wolves defeat the Perry Lakes in the Grand Final.

It's then time to chat with the legend herself Sami Whitcomb and boy is there a lot of ground to cover. We chat to her about reaching another WNBA Finals with the Seattle Storm but now her decision to return home to Perth to be with pregnant wife Kate Malpass, and why she has to go through four weeks of quarantine just to get home!

We then talk basketball and discuss her time in the WNBA at the Seattle Storm, reflect back on her joining the Rockingham Flames and why her brilliant SBL form saw her break down the door for a WNBL opportunity with the Perth Lynx.

We also discuss why she's so excited to return to the Lynx for the upcoming WNBL season and then we talk motherhood, where home will be and just how competitive her and Kate's baby son will be.

It's a fascinating discussion but then we continue on with SBL Shootaround to breakdown in more detail what we saw this season in the West Coast Classic in terms of our Wandering Distillery Player of the Week award winners, the Bassett-Scarfe Realty Player of the Year award winner, and then breakdown how we saw all 12 teams.

It's then time to put Makailah Dyer under the microscope to discuss Her Hoops AU and her basketball journey before wrapping things up on SBL Shootaround for 2020.

This is a truly monster episode of SBL Shootaround as we provide a full rundown on the last round of the West Coast Classic, name our last Wandering Distillery Player of the Week, update the Bassett-Scarfe Realty Player of the Year, provide a full finals preview thanks to Her Hoops AU and our special guest is a triple MVP winning all-time great.

The huge episode of SBL Shootaround begins with co-hosts Chris Pike and Randy Miegel wrapping up the race for the finals in the West Coast Classic with Perry Lakes Hawks booking in their spot alongside Warwick Senators, Joondalup Wolves and Rockingham Flames.

We then run through our candidates for the Wandering Distillery Player of the Week and announce our winner who will receive a voucher in the mail as a result.

We then update our leaderboard in the Bassett-Scarfe Realty Player of the Year award and we couldn't separate Stacy Barr and Ash Isenbarger meaning that our listeners will now vote this week to determine the winner.

It's then time for a full rundown of the results in Round 9 of the West Coast Classic to wrap up the regular season

We then turn our attention to our special guest and it doesn't get much better than the triple SBL MVP winning, Grand Final MVP and championship winner with the Lakeside Lightning, Ali Schwagmeyer-Belger.

We obviously discuss her time in the SBL and how special of a place Lakeside will be to her for so many reasons for the platform it provided to break into the WNBL, her bond with coach Craig Mansfield and with her teammates and also the home it provided at the most challenging time in her life following the tragic loss of her sister.

We also discuss Ali's journey into the WNBL firstly at the Perth Lynx and now with the Sydney Uni Flames, and how she still has goals to play in EuroLeague and the WNBA.

We also get to know Ali on a more personal level and dig deep on what makes her tick and what things are most important to her, how she is so thankful to have Courtney Belger by her side and we even discuss with Ali what it was like to snatch an SBL championship away from Randy Miegel and the Mandurah Magic.

It really is one of the most fascinating discussions we've had with a guest all season long on SBL Shootaround.

We aren't done there, we come back and provide a full preview of this weekend's West Coast Classic finals as well thanks to Her Hoops AU. 

Business is picking up with one round remaining in the West Coast Classic and we are following suit here on SBL Shootaround with an in-depth look at all the finals potentials along with an update on our All-Star Game and two very special guests from two men heavily involved in the competition.

First up on Men's SBL Shootaround this week and we take a look at some of the raging West Coast Classic questions with one round to go:

Are the Senators the team to beat?

Will Hawks beat Cougars to book in home final?

Who are you backing in massive Saturday night contests featuring Lightning v Redbacks, Wolves v Tigers and Senators v Flames to determine final spots?

We then further analyse our virtual SBL Shootaround All-Star Game coached by our co-hosts Chris Pike and Ben Ettridge. We reveal the results from the votes given by our listeners and Ben also runs his rule over all the match ups.

Then after taking a close look at all the results from Round 8 in the West Coast Classic, it's time to get to our two guests for this week.

First up is five-time SBL Referee of the Year, along with WNBL and NBL official Steve Diconza. We have a tremendous chat about life as a referee, the challenges of 2020, the differences between SBL and WNBL/NBL, building rapport with players/coaches, sharing refereeing with his wife and brother, what refereeing Ben Ettridge was like, and much more.

Then our second guest for Episode 18 is rising East Perth superstar Shaquille Maharaj. He has proved one of the best players in the West Coast Classic with the Eagles having returned from his college career in Canada at Camosun College.

He's delivering 20.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists a game in the West Coast Classic with the 23-year-old keen to now embark on a professional career which he hopes does start in Perth as a Wildcats development player.

We then have a full preview of Round 9 in the West Coast Classic and talk about who we expect to see in the finals and that's it all for another week of Men's SBL Shootaround!

Things continue to go up a notch week after week here on SBL Shootaround and what a show this one is with the announcement of a new sponsor, naming of Wandering Distillery Player of the Week, update on Bassett-Scarfe Realty Player of the Year and we speak to a legend of West Australian basketball.

This massive show begins with co-hosts Chris Pike and Randy Miegel providing an update on the status of the race to finals positions in the West Coast Classic with one round of the competition remaining and seven teams genuinely still in the hunt.

We then take a look at all the candidates for the Round 8 Wandering Distillery Player of the Week award and we settle on Joondalup Wolves superstar Kayla Steindl after two massive performances for the top-of-the-table Lady Wolfpack.

We then provide an update on the Bassett-Scarfe Realty Player of the Year award and announce the very special prize which is a Mandurah Getaway including a night for two at The Sebel, dinner for two at Catch 22 and also a Dolphin and Scenic Marin Cruise for two.

We then rundown in more detail everything that took place in Round 8 of the West Coast Classic as the race for the finals heats up.

It's then time for our special guest of this week and it's the legend herself from the Mandurah Magic, Casey Mihovilovich. We discuss why she settled on being known as Casey Milo early in life and then get to discussing her unbelievable playing career.

She is a 13-time Mandurah Magic MVP, an SBL MVP winner, a five-time All-Star Five representative and has now played 490 SBL games to be second all-time having made her debut with the Magic as a 14-year-old.

She has also played in the WNBL with the Perth Lynx/West Coast Waves, has reached six SBL Grand Finals and done it all while a mother of two and working full-time.

We talk about what continues to drive her on, her plans to play on in 2021 and why there's so much more to her love of basketball than just what happens on the court.

It's a fascinating chat and made all the more enjoyable given her relationship with Randy Miegel who coached her for five years with the pair reaching two Grand Finals together.

We then announce our new partner and sponsor of our preview segment on SBL Shootaround, Her Hoops AU while giving our thoughts on the final round of the West Coast Classic with the final spots up for grabs.

Getting towards the business end now of the SBL replacement West Coast Classic and we are kicking it up a notch on SBL Shootaround by analysing it all along with announcing our All-Star Teams and speaking with a current player who is already an all-time great.

We open up Episode 17 of SBL Shootaround by taking a look at a fascinating Round 7 in the West Coast Classic where the Warwick Senators and Perth Redbacks kept on winning while the Willetton Tigers and Lakeside Lightning suffered tough Friday night losses, and the Goldfields Giants took their winning form on the road.

It was then time for our co-hosts to put on their coaching hats and select their All-Star Teams from the West Coast Classic. Chris Pike is coach of the South team and Ben Ettridge of the North so they picked their teams of 12 and we'll come back next week to determine a winner!

We then have a chat with Cockburn Cougars captain and all-time great Gavin Field. He has now played 250 SBL games with the Cougars, has been part of two championships and is universally as one of the best pure scorers and all-round players to ever lace up a pair of boots in WA basketball.

But we chat to him about plenty including what Cockburn means to he and his family, and what it always has, talk about the type of player he is and the NBA legend he might remind us of and also reflect back on the highs and lows of his career to date.

We also chat about his college career at West Georgia and then turn our attention to his life as a husband, father and teacher along with plenty more. He even passed on something to Ben Ettridge he is going to use in his coaching moving forward.

We then keep moving on SBL Shootaround by providing a full preview of Round 8 in the West Coast Classic.

We are planning a monster final month here on SBL Shootaround to close out 2020 to coincide with the end of the West Coast Classic, and that begins this week as the finals heats up as we announce Player of the Week, update Player of the Year and speak with the reigning MVP who is on fire.

First up on SBL Shootaround for Episode 15 is a look at how the West Coast Classic is shaping up with just two rounds to go before the finals weekend and the Round 7 results and action that we saw on the weekend.

It's then time to decide our Wandering Distillery Player of the Week and while our guest for this week might have been the obvious choice, she's already received a voucher this season so that meant our 2-vote getting was named the winner for Round 7.

We then provide an update on the race to win the Bassett-Scarfe Realty Player of the Year award and we now have two players tied on 6 votes with two weeks remaining.

It's then time to turn our focus to our guest for this week and it's the reigning SBL MVP winners, Warwick Senators superstar and the West Coast Classic's leading scorer, Stacey Barr.

There's so much ground for us to cover with Stacey including her 49-point performance on Saturday and just how she feels when she gets in the zone like that.

But we also discuss her remarkable career playing in the SBL, Big V and SEABL as well as her four years at the University of Idaho where she went on to become the schools' all-time three-point leader along with a host of other accomplishments.

She's also had a stint in the WNBL with the Perth Lynx and we discuss her ambitions there along with having spent two years playing in the AFLW with the Fremantle Dockers as well as now moving into her teaching career full-time.

SBL Shootaround then continues with a preview of Round 8 in the West Coast Classic before Randy Miegel finishes off with another story from his lifetime in basketball. 

We aren't taking our foot off the gas here at SBL Shootaround and we bring you another massive show this week as things heat up with just three weeks remaining in the West Coast Classic while we speak to a four-time NBL championship winning Perth Wildcats great who prefers to be known for the work he's now doing in the mental health space.

It's a huge Episode 16 of Men's SBL Shootaround with co-hosts Chris Pike and Ben Ettridge looking at everything going on in the West Coast Classic. In Round 6, that included a monster 45-point outburst from Jackson Hussey, a thrilling win for Mark Worthington's South West Slammers and the Goldfields Giants and Geraldton Buccaneers continuing to win at home.

There was also a focus on the race for the top four spots with just three rounds remaining before the finals weekend and we run the knife over all the results from the Round 6 action.

It's then time for this week's guest and it's none other than 243-game, four-time Perth Wildcats NBL championship winner Greg Hire. We also discuss his 198-game SBL career with the Joondalup Wolves and Rockingham Flames which includes the 2011 championship where he won the Grand Final, and also his 3x3 exploits representing Australia since retiring from the 'Cats.

But this is a chat about much more than that as Greg reconnects with two co-hosts he has a long history with and the stories shared about his tough upbringing before he met Ben who would go on to become his high school Phys Ed teacher and ultimately his SBL coach are remarkable.

However, what makes Greg such a remarkable figure and role model is the work he is now doing to raise awareness of mental health in the community and his willingness to back up his words by helping as many people as possible, and partnering up with as many organisations as possible to have an impact.

There's every chance Greg's legacy in mental health awareness will trump anything he did as a basketball player and that's what makes this a fascinating discussion. But there's plenty of basketball goodness in there for you to enjoy too!

It's then time to preview Round 7 upcoming in the West Coast Classic as we sign off for another week of SBL Shootaround.

A monster episode of SBL Shootaround this week as the action heats up in the West Coast Classic as we name our Wandering Distillery Player of the Week, update the Bassett-Scarfe Realty Player of the Year and talk to two very special guests.

Episode 14 of SBL Shootaround sees co-hosts Chris Pike and Randy Miegel open up by taking a look at how the West Coast Classic is shaping up after the Round 6 action and then dissect the candidates for the Wandering Distillery Player of the Week. For Round 6 the debate landed with Rockingham Flames' Christina Boag while an update was provided on the race to win the Bassett-Scarfe Realty Player of the Year from the West Coast Classic.

It was then time to dissect all the action in more detail from Round 6 in the West Coast Classic before moving on to our two guests for this week.

First up was Kalamunda Eastern Suns star big Jessie Edwards. We talked about her outstanding West Coast Classic so far back at home with the Eastern Suns as well as signing a full WNBL contract with the Perth Lynx for the upcoming season and how much that means to her having already been a development player previously at the Lynx and Adelaide Lightning, and spending a season playing professionally in Europe.

We also discuss her time at college at the University of Minnesota, if football was ever a calling with her father Craig a 200-game WAFL player at South Fremantle and East Perth, and a Sandover Medallist, and much more.

Our second guest was then Lakeside Lightning star Ash Isenbarger. We discuss her championship win back in 2018 against Randy's Mandurah Magic along with what makes Lakeside so special to her and the fact that she met her husband Jack there as well only adds to that.

We also talk about Ash's time so far in the WNBL at the Lynx and Melbourne Boomers, and her desire to earn another opportunity at the top level but also an overall look at her life and ambitions. All up, it's hard not to get caught up in the infectious energy and positivity she provides.

Then next up on Episode 14 is a look at Round 7 in the West Coast Classic before Randy wraps up with another famous story from his days in basketball.