One shock, one brilliant Brisbane Bullets signing, Bryce Cotton looks set for Japan as Perth Wildcats scramble to replace great, March Madness Final Four, NBL team by team free agency breakdown, Warwick Senators NBL1 West preview from Cody Ellis.

Cody never thought coaching might be for him but he's now starting to change his view and it could be something he fully throws himself into at some point, and he's already helped the Warwick Senators U14s team to the National Championships.

The Brisbane Bullets coaching appointment was always likely to surprise and the announcement of Stu Lash certainly provided that, and Cody was somewhat shocked at the news, but he feels their appointment of Professor Stephen Reid as High-Performance Director is brilliant.

There was no surprise that Bryce Cotton decided to leave the Perth Wildcats but it's still significant news and Cody believes where he will end up next will be signing a lucrative deal in Japan, and there's no chance of him landing at a rival NBL club.

The changes under new ownership look to be ecxiting at the NZ Breakers and it all starts by trying to recreate what was once a winning culture where they had a great connection with New Zealand, and it no longer appears management will be hindering the team's chances of having success.

With NBL free agency now underway, we take a look at the outlook of all 10 clubs including a big off-season for the Adelaide 36ers with a lot of work to do under coach Mike Wells.

The Brisbane Bullets have a lot of pieces locked in but top-level import help for Casey Prather is the focus while the Cairns Taipans have done well to re-sign key talent including Sam Waardenburg but their import signings are also key.

The Illawarra Hawks have most of their championship team locked away and Cody does expect coach Justin Tatum to return while the team they beat, Melbourne United, look set to be undergoing some significant change to their personnel.

The NZ Breakers are changing a lot but the majority of their local personnel are locked while Flynn Cameron looks a key target and they'll be replacing all three imports likely including Tacko Fall.

The Perth Wildcats have big decisions to make on how to replace Bryce Cotton and Keanu Pinder with Kendric Davis and Josh Bannan the leading candidates while re-signing Matt Hurt has to be the focus for the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

The Sydney Kings need to be going with three imports and they'll all be new faces in NBL26 while there could also be significant change afoot at the Tasmania JackJumpers but brining back Milton Doyle should be a priority.

March Madness has got to the Final Four stage and there are all the No. 1 seeds that have made it with Cody predicting an upset with Houston beating Duke while he's sticking with Florida to join them in the NCAA Championship Game with a possible 70,000 crowd at the Alamodome.

We then wrap things up by talking about the NBL1 West season ahead for Cody Ellis at the Warwick Senators with Todd Withers back alongside him along with new signings Elijah Pepper and Mitch Clarke.

Cody also casts his eye across the rest of the competition including Terrico White, Emmett Naar and Isaac White among the arrivals while he is blown away with the talent on the women's side that could have it the strongest conference in Australia.

All made possible thanks to the support of Hoops Heaven (www.hoopsheaven.com.au) and TABtouch (www.tabtouch.com.au).

Cody Ellis on watching Illawarra Hawks triumph, brutal loss again for Melbourne United, frustrating MVP situation for both Davo Hickey/Matthew Dellavedova, NBL Championship Series breakdown and former Saint Louis Billikens captain talks NCAA March Madness.

From the perspective of a former Illawarra Hawks player who went to their last Grand Final appearance, Cody Ellis couldn’t be happier or more proud for the entire Wollongong community to now be celebrating a championship.

We also look at what a mixed week it was for the Froling family with Harry's heartwarming return after a horror two years while it was a heartbreaking achilles injury for Hawks co-captain Sam.

It wasn’t a series without controversies either highlighted by the horribly unfortunate situation of the MVP voting where Matthew Dellavedova won the Larry Sengstock Trophy but surrendered it to Davo Hickey.

It was a horrible situation for both players to be put in but Cody sees an easy solution to make sure it never happens again and that's simply for the votes to be cast at the end of the series and not after each game.

Not only that, but Justin Tatum continued to voice his opinions and the Illawarra Hawks coach was again fined by the NBL while there was an ill-timed leaking of the club owners potentially looking to assume ownership from Larry Kestelman.

All season long the depth has been key to the Hawks success and that was again on show the longer the Championship Series went while their rebounding and hustle became key while Davo Hickey led the charge in all areas to be the hero of the triumph across the series.

There were plenty more heroes for the Illawarra Hawks including Lachlan Olbrich stepping up against the experienced bigs of Melbourne and then his former Warwick Senators teammate Wani Swaka Lo Buluk playing a key role in becoming a four-time NBL champion.

Melbourne United has now lost two straight Championship Series after leading 2-1 and this time it's rebounding that Cody saw as their great weakness, and as demoralising as it must be to lose again, he credits their consistency while acknowledging they might need to now retool.

To wrap up this week's episode, we talk some NCAA March Madness as we enter the Sweet 16 stage with Cody making his predictions on who will make the Elite Eight while also reflecting on his own experiences including a Conference Championship as captain with the Saint Louis Billikens.

All made possible thanks to the support of Hoops Heaven (www.hoopsheaven.com.au) and TABtouch (www.tabtouch.com.au).

Breaking down Illawarra Hawks-Melbourne United NBL Championship Series, fingers crossed for Shea Ili, not good enough from Jack White, Adam Caporn perfect Boomers choice, Andrew Bogut's first step to coaching Sydney Kings, New Orleans Pelicans on the way.

Plenty of other things to discuss along with the Championship Series beginning with Adam Caporn being appointed the Australian Boomers coach and Cody sees him as the perfect choice for the role moving forward.

We then also discuss if Keanu Pinder's social media posting was a farewell to the Perth Wildcats, if Josh Bannan is now the hottest free agent commodity and if Andrew Bogut being a Sydney Kings assistant coach might be his first step towards being head coach.

We also look at the New Orleans Pelicans coming to Melbourne in October with Zion Williamson to play a couple of NBA pre-season games against Melbourne United and South East Melbourne Phoenix.

We then break down Game 1 of the Championship Series in what was the perfect example of a game of two halves with the Hawks having things on their terms in the first half before United turned things on its head for the win.

Melbourne's experience and physicality came to the fore in that second half with Marcus Lee playing a huge role while the back court of Shea Ili and Matthew Dellavedova helped ensure that Trey Kell III and Tyler Harvey had tough starts to the series.

We then turn our focus to Game 2 in Melbourne and the Hawks were in control of a lot of it but there was a lot to dissect in the last 10 seconds with Ian Clark's go ahead foul shots, Tyler Harvey's massive three and then Chris Goulding's three rattling out.

Also in Game 2, the Hawks won the physical battle and going big with Lachlan Olbrich and Sam Froling worked while Harvey and Trey Kell III fired with Jack White not good enough for Melbourne United but Tanner Krebs showed his value.

After wrapping up the first two games, we take a look at the TABtouch odds for Game 3 and then the rest of the series, and Cody is going with the Hawks to win Game 3 and to take the series 3-2 from here.

The WNBL championship has been decided with the Bendigo Spirit led by Sami Whitcomb winning and while the league has a strong on-court product, it needs a big boost in promotion to boost the profile which should begin happening under the NBL banner.

We then rapidly run through some free agents with Cody giving his thoughts on the future of players in the NBL including Bryce Cotton, Keanu Pinder, Kendric Davis, Montrezl Harrell, Tacko Fall, Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Jaylen Adams, Derrick Walton Jr, Milton Doyle and Jordon Crawford.

All made possible thanks to the support of Hoops Heaven (www.hoopsheaven.com.au) and TABtouch (www.tabtouch.com.au).