The mention of Andrew Gaze, Lanard Copeland, Marcus Timmons and Darryl McDonald in the same sentence would make you think you were back at a Melbourne Tigers match in the late 1990s or early 2000s.
It wasn’t quite the case on the weekend, although it was basketball which brought the four players back together at Broadmeadows Basketball Stadium on Saturday and Sunday.
Instigated by a conversation between Gaze and Copeland on the golf course, the inaugural pre‐season Corral Classic basketball tournament was launched.
It involved Hume City Broncos, Melbourne Tigers, Knox and Hawthorn teams, which are coached by the four former Tigers players.
Diamond Valley and an American college team were also involved in the tournament.
Copeland, who coaches the Broncos, said the tournament was a good idea.
“Originally it was just for me and Andrew and we were going to have a practice game between the Broncos and Melbourne Tigers,” he said.
“We were playing golf and were talking about and he’s going to [coach in] the SEABL and he was saying ‘I need help, do you have any players,’ but I said I needed myself.
“He said I need practice games and I said let’s put something together.
“Then D‐Mac said ‘let me get in involved,’ so I had to find another team and I thought about Marcus.
“Then Andrew invited the American team and I had to find another team and Diamond Valley wanted to get involved.”
McDonald, in his first year as coach of Knox, said he didn’t have to be asked twice for his team to be involved.
“Hopefully we can do it again next year,” he said.
“I see Copes all the time as we work together and we talk about it during the year and I said we’re definitely in.
“It’s still competition and you want to beat them, like they want to beat you.”
Copeland was thrilled with the response to the tournament.
“We had a massive crowd . . . people always want to come out and see Gaze versus Copeland,” he said.
“Throw in another element with the American team and all these other teams and it was standing room only.
“I think we’re going to try to do it every year now.”
Results wise, the Broncos had a mixed weekend.
They defeated the Tigers 56‐54 on Saturday, before a 71‐43 loss to the American team.
Not for the first time there was interaction between Gaze and Copeland while coaching against each other.
“I know Gazey is an offensive guy and was never known for his defence,” he said.
“He was yelling at someone to play defence and I said to him ‘Gaze you don’t know anything about defence, how can you teach defence?’
“Anytime I can beat Andrew I’m happy about it.”
In other results, the USA team beat Melbourne Tigers, Knox defeated the USA team, Diamond Valley rolled Knox and Hawthorn was too good for Diamond Valley.
