Anstey ready to roll
Melbourne star Chris Anstey has declared himself a definite starter for the Tigers' season opening clash against Cairns on Saturday despite missing much of the pre-season with a knee injury
From www.sportal.com.au
Download source here
Melbourne star Chris Anstey has declared himself a definite starter for the Tigers' season opening clash against Cairns on Saturday despite missing much of the pre-season with a knee injury.
Anstey tore his medial collateral ligament and missed several training sessions, while he also missed out on representing Australia at the FIBA World Championships last month.
But the 2005/06 MVP has since played three halves in the NBL Blitz as well as 18 minutes in another pre-season match against Brisbane, and feels ready to go for season 2006/07.
"The game against Brisbane was obviously the best one," Anstey told www.tigers.com.au.
"I pulled up best from it and pushed myself the hardest."
"I'll definitely play round one, if (coach Al Westover) wants me to play 30 or 40 minutes I'd love to be able to do that, if he wants me to play 20 I'm fine."
"I just want to be 100 per cent, I don't want to get out there and not be right."
Despite his interrupted pre-season, Anstey was back to his best against the Bullets, notching up 24 points in 18 minutes as the Tiger piled on 135 points.
"We just shot the ball really well in the first half," Anstey said. "Brisbane are really, really talented, but they're also really small without Bradtke, so we got a lot of easy stuff around the basket."
"The numbers were probably a little bit flattering, but I think we executed our stuff well. Personally it was the best I've played this pre-season."
While Brisbane has been tipped by many to be the Tigers' strongest opposition this season, Anstey was quick not to write off Perth and last year's runner-up Sydney.
"I don't know if you can just narrow it down to only Brisbane. I think we're going to have to go through Perth again, they match up well with us, they're probably the only team in the league that matches us with size."
"Sydney are always going to be there. I'm sure there'll be a surprise somewhere along the lines, I don't know if you can narrow it down to two or even four."