Articles by Smoke

Life membership - Jason Kotchoff

Smoke was awarded life membership of MUBC in October 2023, here’s a bio for his involvement:   2002: Joined club 2003: Awarded best first year player 2003-2005: Volunteer statistician for Big V women 2005: Built a new website for MUBC, includi...
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Teams of the Decades - 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s

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Teams of the Decades event

In celebration of our 70th anniversary, and for the first time, our Melbourne Uni Basketball life members have convened to nominate our 'Teams of the Decades' going back to our club inception in 1953. Subscribe and stay tuned to our Facebook and Instag...
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Vale Keith Nicholls

MUBC club founder Keith Nicholls has passed away peacefully. Keith will be remembered as the driving force behind the creation of Melbourne University Basketball 'Club'. Our inception as a club can be traced back in this video interview with Keith and...
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Peter Byrne - Video Interview

Peter Byrne, the first Australian to play professional basketball in Europe recounts his career including two olympic campaigns in 1968 and 1972, the Melbourne Tigers, Melbourne University as well as playing and coaching in Germany. 0:36 1959 Box Hi...
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Dribbling Balls 2019 - Volume 32 Edition 2

CYMS Winter MVPs, Tournament Reports from Ballarat, Queens Birthday & Uni Sport a strategic review and more.

Dribbling Balls 2019 - Volume 32 Edition 1

Albury and your new committee
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Dribbling Balls 2018 - Volume 31 Edition 4

Unigames, Winter domestic recaps, presentation night and the introduction of an elite playing award
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Dribbling Balls 2018 - Volume 31 Edition 3

Pride Night celebrating LBGTI (Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, Gay, Transgender, Intersex), 1978 Reunion, Brief history of MUBC couples and Big V coaches recaps.
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Dribbling Balls 2018 - Volume 31 edition 2

Brandon Armstrong, CYMS winter teams / summer results and a Ballarat Tournament report (2.7mb, 23 pages)
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Dribbling Balls 2018 - Volume 31 edition 1

Presentation Night, Lauren Jackson, Albury Tournament and upcoming events (1.3mb, 12 pages)
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Dribbling Balls 2017 - Volume 30 edition 5

2017 Winter CYMS grand final edition. 6 Uni teams, 4 MVP's, 3 premierships, Big V 2017 coaches recaps and more (5.4mb, 30 pages)
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Dribbling Balls 2017 - Volume 30 edition 4

Big V 2017 Alumni Night including player profiles for all the men and women, an interview with Dean Vickerman and a recap of the legends game (2.1mb, 11 pages)
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Dribbling Balls 2017 - Volume 30 edition 3

Photo journal memories from Trivia Night 2017 including four full rounds of trivia, the famous arm wrestle, Bernies joke, Grantley's song, the Dance-off and Jimmer's cartwheel (2.1mb, 16 pages)
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Dribbling Balls 2017 - Volume 30 edition 2

A complete recap of the 2016/17 summer CYMS season and a Ballarat tournament report (2.3mb, 21 pages)
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Dribbling Balls 2017 - Volume 30 edition 1

A complete recap of 2016 including a CYMS wrap-up, 2017 Calendar, Trivia night 2016, Presentation night 2016, Alumni night 2016, Warrnambool & Ballarat tournament, origins of dribbling balls, club origins, pan pacific masters games, Big V 2016 and ...
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Warrnambool 2017

Nine teams from uni made the trek to the seaside basketball carnival in Warrnambool this year and it didn't dissapoint. Without the luxury of a 3rd day of long weekend, events were packed into a tight Friday-Sunday schedule which included two house par...
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John 'JC' Campbell - Video Interview

The heart and soul of Melbourne Uni Basketball throughout the 80's, John 'JC' Campbell visits the clubrooms to chat about his time at the club. Summary
Active player for 26 years, from 1976 through 1991 inclusive.
Played a total of around 2,000 game...
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Uni 'for the win' in GF game 1

Related Links:Click here to watch a youtube video of the end of the gameClick here to watch a short facebook video of the game winning shot by MelClick here for the Box ScoreClick here  for the game video (check back on Wednesday for this)Click here ...
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Black Angel Women into D2 Grand Final

The lady black angels have pulled off a stunning sixth victory in a row in yet another must-win final to again end a highly fancied opponents season. The Blackburn lady vikings had no answers, no answers at all for the girls from uni who unleashed bli...
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Henry Cooper - Video Interview

The namesake of our 'Henry Cooper award' shares all things basketball with a focus on the 70's and 80's at the Melbourne University Basketball Club. Highlights include our involvement playing in the top league in Australia, our first olympic representa...
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Keith Nicholls - Video Interview

Keith Nicholls is the founder of Melbourne University basketball club. Here he joins Norm Longmuir and smoke to talk about the first three years of MUBC.
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Alumni Night 2016

Related Links:Click here to watch the post-game victory song by the mens team and the alumniClick here for the official event write-up by Stu VerrierClick here for video of the alumni half-time speeces by Stu, J.C, Coops & NormClick here for a Fa...
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Norm Longmuir - Video Interview

Norman Longmuir is one of the founding fathers of Melbourne University Basketball Club from 1953. In this interview, Norm recounts several experiences during those formative years including intervarsity, provides some context around the Victorian bas...
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Filming sport on an iPad - advice and gotchas

This post details the setup required to film sport and upload to YouTube using an an iPad circa May, 2016. Equipment (priced in AUD Australian $):$1,400  Apple: 256g 9.7 inch iPad Pro (or $899 for 32g). ~2 week delivery time including engraving.    67...
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2016 King of the court won by Smoke & Masunda

In what seems to be turning into a regular theme, MUBC alumni smoke and sexual chocolate Nicholas Masunda have taken out another 3 on 3 tournament and another $1,000 in streetball prize money. At yesterday's King of the Court tournament at the Viva yo...
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Warrnambool 2016

Another year, another Warrnambool tournament and this year was arguably the most successful one ever for Melbourne Uni. Both of our A grade girls teams cruised through pool play to face off against each other in the grand final where the big v girls go...
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MUBC boys crowned 2015 Red Bull Reign 3 on 3 champions of Australia

Hundreds of Australia's most elite ballers had their cages rattled by the boys from uni yesterday as Masunda, Stef, Smoke & Jack were crowned national champions in the Australian leg of the global Red Bull Reign 3 on 3 basketball tournament. We to...
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Longhorns basketball club

Every Sunday at MSAC's CYMS basketball league, a mini-crowd forms to huddle around Court 7 to watch the show. They're not there to watch the retired VBL or NBL stars from Breakaway, Moonee Ponds or Westside. They're not there to cheer on their mates f...
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Tuesday night finals match reports

MU3 Women - left to right: Jamie LePage (#5), Caitie McClelland (#4), Maddy Jane (#31), Danielle Jones (#32), Tess Symes (#11) MU2 Women - clockwise from top left: Joy Low Theng Koon (#40), Kayleigh Button (#45), Grace Currie (#12), Katherine Hilbert...
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MUBC history project - Phase 1 published

MUBC has a rich history dating back to the 1950's. Over the past few years, a group of our alumni have dedicated themselves to a putting together a comprehensive digital volume of club history. The first phase of this project has been the collection a...
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AGM 2015

Today MUBC held the annual general meeting to review club business and elect a new committee. Verrocchi and the Anj were masterfully eloquent in their arranging of the meeting and the majority of the positions were successfully filled. I can't believ...
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Dunking

Did you ever spend time as a kid on a basketball court wishing and pretending you could dunk?  Jumping off a chair or a fire hydrant lid or nailing a 'backboard slap' and pretending you were in the NBA? Ever get lost in a day-dream where you were fly...
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2014 AUG Mens team

  The Melbourne Uni mens basketball team from unigames 2014. They placed 4th overall. Nice. Clockwise from top-left:Daniel Sneddon (#13), Andrew Steel (#35), Johnny Edwards Wang (#9), Simon Clark (#23), Jayden Robertson (#43), Joel Rimes (#8), Andr...
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Downtown part 2 - Tommy Greer

Following on from Downtown part 1 with Liam Santamaria, we caught up with recently retired NBL Melbourne Tigers captain Tommy Greer to talk downtown and NBL. enjoy!    Tommy, congratulations on the launch of Downtownball, i'm a huge fan! Cheers mat...
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Downtown part 1 - Liam Santamaria

With the recent front page article on The Age promoting former MUBC'er Liam Santamaria's Downtown Ball podcast and website with NBL Tigers captain Tommy Greer, we thought this would be a good chance to follow up on our last announcement about Downtown ...
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Thursday Mens team - The Great Gorto ain't losing this one

In last nights VBHBA A grade mens nail biter between second placed T Roy Brown and sixth placed Melbourne University, one thing was clear. Baskets were valued at a premium.Still struggling with a two week old hangover, Karl Edwards was heard regurgitat...
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Vlade Divac Interview

Melbourne University Basketball Club training was graced today with the presence of NBA superstar and sensational bloke Vlade Divac (@bgoodvlade) in a special guest visit to the Tin Alley sports center. Vlade was very generous in teaching our big me...
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2014 Event Calendar

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MU Alumni launches new basketball blog

MUBC Gold medal winning unigames alumni Liam Santamaria (brother of former black angel VBL captain Ken) has joined forces with Melbourne Tigers NBL captain Tommy 'Grizz' Greer to launch a cool new aussie website about basketball: http://downtownball.n...
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300 games of phenomenal basketball from Liam Norton

Read about MUBC alumni Liam Norton in this month's edition of the Big V magazine:300 games of phenomenal basketball from Liam Norton In case you didn't know, Liam has been involved in 4 Big V finals series for Melbourne Uni including the famous "Norto...
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Free throw visualisation training program

This free throw visualisation program was developed by MSAC referee Fatemeh Fazel who is doing post-graduate studies in Psychology. As part of her course work, she has been testing a basketball imagery training exercise with a number of MUBC players. ...
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D-Mac interview with NBL Tiger captain Tommy Greer

This is a pretty cool interview with former NBL superstar D-mac (Darryl McDonald) recorded by current Melbourne Tigers NBL captain Tommy Greer. Notable quotes: "I dropped out of high school in the ninth grade, and I used to drop out and go to the par...
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NBL Breakers Head Coach reminisces with the Black Angels

With the recent appointment of former Black Angel head coach Dean Vickerman to the head gig at the New Zealand Breakers, we thought this would be a good chance to get Dean to reminisce on his experience with us. enjoy!    Hey Dean mate, congratulati...
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MU crowned King of the Court 2013

The Melbourne Streetball scene was set alight by Masunda, Smoke & Stef last Saturday when they held court to defeat all comers and win the $500 cash prize at the 2013 Melbourne 'King of the Court' 3 on 3 outdoor tournament. The 20 team field didn'...
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Warrnambool Tournament A and A Reserve Men won by MUBC affiliates

Warrnambool 2013 was once again, a roaring success for Melbourne Uni Basketball. Fielding 3 domestic womens teams, a Big V womens team, two Big V mens teams and 3 affiliated mens teams, there was always going to be a party on the dancefloor and the ga...
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2012 AUG Mens team

The Melbourne Uni mens basketball team from unigames 2012. They took home the Silver. Spicy. Clockwise from top-left:Daniel Sneddon (Assistant Coach), Andrew Walker (Coach/Player), Paul Kopanidis, Ryan Oirbans, Stefan Pomasan (#9), Will Burrell (#8), ...
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MUBC men champions in 2012 Ballarat A Grade

 The MU domestic men were crowned A grade  champions at Ballarat 2012 beating Keysborough's Big V team 55-44 in the final after knocking off Keilor's Big V team in the Semi Final. From left to right: Scott Cuffe, Peter Betros, James Fidler, Mark Farag...
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2011 AUG Mens team

The Melbourne Uni mens basketball team from unigames 2011. They placed 4th overall. Blow the whistle! Clockwise from top-left:Tom Bicknell, Tim Clark (#55), Callum Repper (#44), Hunter Santamaria, Andrew Walker (Coach), Will Burrell (#11), Owen Scott ...
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MU Men win 2010 Big V Division 1 Championship

Champs again! This time cutting down the nets in Geelong.

Unigames 2009 Men take home Silver, Women take home Bronze

Great success on the sunny gold coast.

MU Women take home 2009 Big V Div 2 Runners-Up

 Congratulations to the girls! Awesome close-out to the season.

MU Men win 2009 Big V Div 2 Championship

Undefeated regular season. Would have been a clean sweep if the team didn't drop 1 game to Horsham in the finals series. Team list (clockwise from Giosis in the front row wearing the blue towel):Chris GiosisChris NealRobby McCoyMatt RaftonJustin Turnl...
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Brendo & Sam - Life Membership

At the 2006 presentation night, the club elected by three fourths majority to award life membership to Brendan 'Brendo' Green and 'Slamming' Sam Sterling in recognition of their enormous contributions to the club. Here's a taste of their involvement. ...
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2005 Unigames men

The mighty, mighty brisvegas squad (Mark Farag is absent from photo). Back row from left: Mark Facciolo, Marcus Norton, smoke, Ben Cleeve, Mike Woodrow, James Fidler, Matt HillbrichFrom row: Glenda De Marinis (coach), Nick masunda
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1953 - MUBC is reborn

In 1947, Melbourne University enrolled and competed in it's first intervarsity basketball tournament. Read more about it in the extract accessible from the 'PDF' link to the right scanned from 'The Ties that Bind' written by June E Senyard (published...
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