{"id":916761,"date":"2026-10-05T08:26:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916761\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T08:26:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:26:27","slug":"team-by-team-hooyah-harden-up-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916761\/","title":{"rendered":"Team-By-Team: Hooyah & Harden Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Damon Lowery.\u200d<\/p>\n

Round 3 Edition<\/p>\n

Author\u2019s note: These opinions are mine and mine alone. It\u2019s NEVER personal and always about the basketball. <\/p>\n

A Hooyah is given for exemplary play and standout performances so if you get one \u2013 bask in the glory. <\/p>\n

A Harden Up signifies an underwhelming effort or poor play so if you get one of these – cop it and just move on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Defeated by Illawarra, defeated by New Zealand<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Nick Rakocevic: That loss to the Breakers would\u2019ve been way worse if you weren\u2019t playing like a man possessed. 29 points and 16 boards were monstrous and both were career highs.<\/p>\n

HARDEN UP \u2013 The whole team: When you\u2019ve shocked the entire state of South Australia by being down 30 at the half, y\u2019all gotta wear this one. Your first-half defence against the Hawks was putrid and had more holes in it than an echidna\u2019s waterbed. You allowed them to not only pile on 65 in that half but also shoot 50% from downtown, and you didn\u2019t cause any turnovers.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Defeated by Sydney, defeated by Tasmania<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Tyrell Harrison: Is this a first \u2013 a Hooyah and a Harden Up to the same player? Versus Tasmania, you got 15 shots and made 9 to finish with 24 points and 12 boards. Will Weaver, myself and the entire state of Queensland are happy with that.<\/p>\n

HARDEN UP \u2013 Tyrell Harrison: Shooting 75% in the Sydney game is awesome, but doing it on only 3\/4 shots is NOT awesome. Coach Will Weaver, myself and the entire state of Queensland would appreciate it if you never finished a game with only four shots. You\u2019re way too dominant for that foolishness.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Defeated by New Zealand, defeated Melbourne<\/p>\n

TRIPLE HOOYAH ALERT<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Reyne Smith: Melbourne United fans came inside John Cain Arena to escape the rain, then got Reyne-d on inside! I\u2019ve been patiently waiting for that shooting explosion. The lefty stroke was lethal: 21 points, including 5\/10 from downtown, and the character-revealing win. \u201cBlame it on the Reyne\u201d (Milli Vanilli voice).<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Jaylon Brown: At the end of the third quarter against Melbourne, you were having a Betty Crocker (rhyming slang for shocker). You were 1\/9 FG with 2 points and a couple of turnovers. Then something happened in the fourth: you snapped, realised that you were \u201cthat dude\u201d, poured in 16 points and broke United\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Keanu Pinder: When you picked up your second foul in the first 48 seconds, I said to myself, \u201cHere comes a Harden Up.\u201d But not only did you finish the game with just three fouls, you had a devastating 27 points at 71%. That\u2019s \u201cWassup\u201d.<\/p>\n

HARDEN UP \u2013 Defence: You held the Breakers to under 100 but allowed them to get 45 from the three-point line. Giving up 15 made threes will snakebite you every time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Defeated Adelaide, defeated by South East Melbourne<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Kelan Martin: Staring a possible 0-4 start right in the eyes, you unleashed your scoring prowess and gave Adelaide the business with 28 points.<\/p>\n

HARDEN UP \u2013 Defence Again: I thought your defence had turned the corner, but you had a relapse. With 4:50 on the clock in the second quarter against the Phoenix, the scores were tied. How on earth did you end up down 18 at the half?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Defeated by Tasmania, defeated by Cairns<\/p>\n

DOUBLE HOOYAH ALERT<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Cole Anthony: Never let it be said that I don\u2019t have appreciation and respect for someone who can drop a 40-piece. Even though it wasn\u2019t enough for the win against Cairns, it was brilliant to watch. After going 1\/8 to start the game, you finished with 40 and somehow made it look easy.<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Malith Machar: I\u2019m a massive fan of your work. You started against Cairns and finished as Melbourne\u2019s second-highest scorer with 14 at 71%. Nobody is more confused than me about how you couldn\u2019t get more than 14 minutes. Keep it up, my man.<\/p>\n

HARDEN UP \u2013 Team Discipline: Against the JackJumpers, I had options. I could\u2019ve had a go at the 5\/20 three-point shooting, the 18 offensive rebounds you allowed, or the 16 missed free throws, but I settled on discipline. You collectively took whinging and moaning to another level. I know there were plenty of confusing and frustrating calls, but you\u2019ve gotta do a way better job of controlling your emotions.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Defeated Cairns, defeated Adelaide<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Parker Jackson-Cartwright: You were MVP of last season\u2019s Ignite Cup Championship, helping NZ win $300K. As soon as the $550K Ignite Cup started, I knew that \u201cWednesday Night Parker\u201d was gonna show up and ball out. You terrorised the Taipans to the tune of 27 points and 10 assists. Then in Adelaide you had a near triple-double with 27 points, 9 boards and 10 dimes, and threw in 2 blocks. Little BIG MAN!<\/p>\n

HARDEN UP \u2013 Pass.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Defeated South East Melbourne<\/p>\n

DOUBLE HOOYAH ALERT<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Kristian Doolittle: You stood on business once again. With JLA out with a calf, you simply had to do more, and that you did. 22 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds were big-time.<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Elijah \u201cCayenne\u201d Pepper: I don\u2019t know if you\u2019re superstitious, but whatever you\u2019re doing, keep doing it, \u2019cause not once, not twice, but three games in a row you\u2019ve dropped 25. South East Melbourne was on the receiving end of your haul and this time you got the win.<\/p>\n

HARDEN UP \u2013 Rebounding: You somehow survived giving up 17 offensive rebounds \u2026 barely. Just so you know, you\u2019re asking for trouble doing that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Defeated by Perth, defeated Illawarra<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Dash Daniels: The Teenage Mutant. I\u2019m loving your evolution; you\u2019re growing up right before our eyes and now you\u2019re flirting with triple-doubles. Against the Hawks, you turned in an eye-popping performance with 16 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists, and only needed 23 minutes to do it.<\/p>\n

HARDEN UP \u2013 Tanner Krebs: I love the way you usually go about your business, but against the Wildcats you went 0\/5 in 19 minutes and broke my \u201cStarters can\u2019t go scoreless\u201d rule.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Defeated Brisbane<\/p>\n

DOUBLE HOOYAH ALERT<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Kendric Davis: You\u2019d think if someone went 0\/7 from three, they probably didn\u2019t score much, but not in your case. You still finished with 24 points and 7 dimes. Scoring and assisting are innate; it\u2019s the 8 rebounds that raised my eyebrows.<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Makuach Maluach: There\u2019s hot, there\u2019s fiery hot, and there\u2019s surface-of-the-sun hot. And that\u2019s where you\u2019re currently at. If the ball leaves your hand, it\u2019s a good shot right now. I\u2019m surprised when you miss. In three games, your shooting percentage from mid-range is 75% and from downtown it\u2019s 73%. That\u2019s outrageous.<\/p>\n

HARDEN UP \u2013 Home Sweet Home: Your schedule has been extremely kind, with three straight home games to start the season. Your next game is at home too, off the back of a long break. I\u2019m waiting to see how you guys travel before I get too excited about your form.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Defeated Melbourne, defeated Brisbane<\/p>\n

DOUBLE HOOYAH ALERT<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Will Magnay: In your 100th game, you celebrated with a vintage performance \u2013 17 points, 11 boards, 3 blocks and an important win.<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Taran Armstrong: In one of the strangest games of the season against Melbourne, you delivered the goods with the game-winning bucket. You then backed that up with 29 on the road in Brisbane. They grow \u2019em tough down there!<\/p>\n

DOUBLE HARDEN UP ALERT<\/p>\n

HARDEN UP \u2013 Josh Bannan: In your first game of the season you would\u2019ve been jumping out of your skin. But you only lasted 18 minutes because you fouled out. You received a tech for taunting (which I thought was soft), a delay-of-game technical after a score (which I thought was silly), and then you had a charge and your night was over. Luckily, you got the win. Gotta be smarter and protect yourself.<\/p>\n

HARDEN UP \u2013 The Doc: Whoever did the patch-up job on Dakota Mathias\u2019 nose. Dakota copped a stray elbow to the beak that caused a major leak, and stopped him hitting a scoring streak. The medical team taped him up and sent him back out looking like a freak (like what I did there?)!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

HOOYAH \u2013 Scott Butler: As head of referees, you\u2019ve been doing the media rounds lately, and it\u2019s a great thing. On broadcast you\u2019re clarifying coach\u2019s challenge decisions, and on Mondays you\u2019re fronting the journos and chatting through issues from the weekend. Regarding the Melbourne vs Tasmania game, you admitted it was over-officiated, and that\u2019s great leadership.<\/p>\n

HARDEN UP \u2013 The Hobart Hack-a-thon: I didn\u2019t think that game between Melbourne and Tasmania would ever finish. 72 total foul shots and six guys fouled out. I picked up two fouls and I was on the couch at home!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Damon Lowery.\u200d Round 3 Edition Author\u2019s note: These opinions are mine and mine alone. It\u2019s NEVER personal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":916762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-916761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}