With his second consecutive National Basketball League career high, Bruton scored 38 points, including five three-pointers from 10 attempts.
He hit an extraordinary baseline jumper in the final second of regulation time to level the score 74-74 and in the extra five-minute period, scored seven of Wollongong's nine points.
Bruton has already been drafted (by Vancouver and immediately traded to Portland) to the NBA last year, and seems certain to play in the NBA at some stage of his career.
"C.J. is one of those rare players who wants the ball when the game is on the line," Aminof said.
"There's only a finite number of players like that in the world. He's a player of unmistakable talent and skill. He's a very interesting basketball player. Someone worth watching."
Aminof was also impressed with the Wildcats' Los Angeles Lakers draftee Paul Rogers and the Hawks' Australian junior team centre, David Andersen.
He is also keen to look at Sam Mackinnon, Simon Dwight, Frank Drmic, Ben Melmeth and Matt Nielsen.
"There are quite a few players here who could help an NBA club," he said.
Bruton's Most Valuable Player performance on Saturday elevated Wollongong from eighth to fourth on the NBL table with a 2-1 win-loss record.
Click here to see all the NBL Scores and Ladder.
Click here to see all the WNBL Scores and Ladder.
New York, USA (Oct 26) - NBA owners and players returned to the bargaining table over the weekend, but made no progress toward ending the league's lockout, reports Associated Press.
In the meantime, Australia's basketball spotlight will remain on the NBL and WNBL in progress here, and Australia's college exports set to tip off in the US next month.
The three-hour meeting in New York between NBA commissioner David Stern and union director Billy Hunter was the first negotiations since October 13.
Deputy commissioner Russ Granik, league general counsel Joe Litvin, vice president of basketball operations Steve Mills, union president Patrick Ewing and union attorney Jeffrey Kessler also attended the meeting.
The league's Board of Governors will meet Tuesday and Wednesday and the union is trying to get all 400 players to be in New York for the meeting.
The NBA has already canceled the first two weeks of the season, and the rest of the November schedule is expected to be scrapped next week.
When the sides meet Wednesday -- a faceoff that could include 500 players -- the lockout will be in its 120th day.
The owners, demanding cost certainty, want an absolute ceiling on player salaries in the next collective bargaining agreement. They had the right to seek a new labor agreement if the percentage of revenues devoted to salaries exceeded 51.8 percent, and it reached 57 percent in the 1997-98 season. In their most recent proposal, owners asked the percentage be reduced to 52 percent in the 2000-01 season, 50 percent in 2001-02 and 48 percent in 2002-03.
South Carolina, USA (Oct 21) - Australia's Nigel Berghan sent an early warning message to opponents as Coastal Carolina University started college basketball with "midnight madness" to mark the start of official practice in the NCAA across the US.
A 10 minute scrimmage game was not much of a contest, as senior guard Nigel Berghan lead the CCU Green team to a 27-9 rout of the Bronze squad. Other members of the dominate CCU Green team were 1998 Big South All-Rookie Team member Marcus Stewart (4).
The evening kicked off with free samples to the 700-strong crowd of the Kickin' Chicken Sandwich, named after Coastal Carolina's student cheering group The Kickin' Chicken Fanatics.
With the clock ticking towards midnight, the cheerleaders were introduced along with Chauncey, the Chanticleers mascot. Following a few flips and dance routines, the buzzer sounded to indicate that it was midnight.
With that, the fans went wild. The players were introduced one at a time as they were called out alternating between the men's and women's squads. Following the players came the introductions of the coaching staffs for both the men's and women's programs. The crowd's noise level continued to build to the introduction of Pete Strickland, Coastal Carolina's new head men's basketball coach.
The men's team got things going quickly though as the slam dunk contest took center stage.
The showstopper came on the final dunk as senior Larry Roberts bounced the ball on the floor and ripped his shirt off on his way to a double-pump reverse slam.
Nigel prefers to let his game do the talking, as the season proper unfolds.
Follow the fortunes of Berghan throughout the 1998-99 college season, and all the other Australians playing NCAA division 1 basketball, right here at Australian Hoops.
Canberra, AUSTRALIA (Oct 21) - A telethon is aiming at helping the Canberra Cannons survive in the National Basketball League.
The appeal will continue until Friday. The ABC reports that as of Monday it had raised $34,000. That's hardly enough to open a hotdog stand at their next home game.
Cannons owner Col Alexander says this week could determine whether the club continues beyond the first five games of the National Basketball League summer season.
Meanwhile, the ABC also reports that Newcastle Falcons have signed NBL veteran Willie Simmons for part of the 1998/99 season to replace injured forward Grant Kruger.
Simmons has played in the NBL since 1986 and was a member of the Canberra Cannons premiership winning team in 1988.
He says the Falcons squad for 1998 has the right balance of youth and experience. In any case, he'd rather be in Newcastle than in Canberra right now.
See the latest NBL scores and WNBL scores all in one place right here at Australian Hoops.
New York, USA (Oct 21) - In a big victory for NBA owners, an arbitrator rejected the union's grievance that 226 players with guaranteed contracts should be paid during the lockout, reports Associated Press.
The decision came on the 111th day of the lockout, which has caused the league to cancel the first two weeks of the regular season and thus missing games due to a labour dispute for the first time in history.
With negotiations stalled and the sides far apart on the main economic issues, the ruling clearly strengthened the owners' bargaining position by removing the prospect of them being forced to pay more than $700 million in salaries to the players they have barred from work.
"We are pleased with the arbitrator's ruling," NBA chief legal officer Jeffrey Mishkin said. "Unfortunately, it does not get us any closer to a deal with the union's leadership.
The ironic twist to all this remains. The baseball dispute that virtually skipped an entire season heralded the end of Michael Jordan's baseball career. This basketball dispute may well prolong his basketball career - by enticing him back to a short, sharp season.
That's so long as we get an NBA season at all, of course.
Sydney, AUSTRALIA (Oct 12) - The National Basketball League season is only one week old, but West Sydney Razorbacks' Gordie McLeod is the early pick for coach of the year after his fairytale started from the opening page.
The multi-award winning coach in Australia's CBA and a Silver Medal coach at the World Youth Championships, McLeod has the credentials, and seemingly the team after his rookie Razorbacks stunned seasoned cross-town rivals Sydney Kings to open the season over the weekend.
The game was not without controversy, provided by Sydney forward Matthew Nielsen, whom McLeod has coached at the AIS and in the Australian Youth Team before opposing him this time around.
The Australian reports that the NBL has supported the controversial technical foul issued on Nielsen for hanging on the ring in the Kings' 103-97 loss to expansion team West Sydney.
In a decision which influenced the result of the game on Saturday night at the Kingdome, Nielsen received a technical foul after he slam dunked at a crucial stage in the fourth quarter.
Compounding the situation, Nielsen was given another tech foul for gesticulating to the Razorbacks' bench as he left the court with his sixth personal foul.
West Sydney guard John Rillie, who equal top-scored with 23 points, shot four free-throws and a three-pointer off the Razorbacks' possession from the side of the court.
The seven-point turnaround put West Sydney in front for the first time and swung the momentum their way.
While the Razorbacks celebrated their first league win as if they had won the title, the result was disastrous for the Kings.
Playing in front of their best season-opening crowd (8000) for several seasons, the Kings needed to beat the new boys to restore credibility.
But it was a sense of deja vu for long-suffering fans, who watched the team capitulate after leading by 19 points at one stage in the first quarter.
To lose with West Sydney point guard Derek Rucker on the bench (calf injury) was further embarrassment.
Victoria Titans, dubbed the NBL "Dream Team", had a nightmare debut, losing to Melbourne Tigers 99-80 at Melbourne Park with an 11,187-strong crowd - a record for a season-opening game.
Melbourne captain Andrew Gaze scored a round-high 41 points, more than half the Titans' total.
Click here to see the full NBL results, standings and next games.
Meanwhile, former North Melbourne coach Brett Brown has meanwhile taken a position on the operations staff of US NBA team San Antonio Spurs.
Tuggeranong, AUSTRALIA (Oct 12) - Sydney's western suburbs were almost in unseasonal party mode over the weekend as its basketball teams looked good in both the NBL and the New South Wales State Basketball League grand finals.
West Sydney Razorbacks won their historic opening NBL game, and the Bankstown Bruins came from behind to win the NSW womens grand final. Only the mens Bruins team, which were tied at the half, lost as they went down unexpectedly to the Illawarra Hawks in their grand final.
Bankstown, which boasted NSW MVP Evan Vallance and Defensive Player of the Year Adam Smith, had beaten Illawarra on the last two occassions the teams had met.
The first five minutes of the second characteristically proved telling, Illawarra cracking open the game previously tight as a drum. They outscored the Bruins 13-5 over the stretch, opening an eight point gap which laid the foundation for the win.
Illawarra obtained their lead by dominating the paint, Final MVP Vos ( 26 points, 10 rebounds) and Guy Brandon (16 points, 6 rebounds) comprehensively outplaying their Bankstown counterparts. The unselfishness of the big men, with some neat interior passing, was the highlight of the Hawks' play.
Hubbard, little used in the semifinal win over Maitland, made a timely contribution of the bench with some neat playmaking and heady steals. With 11 minutes left, he made two thefts on one sequence, setting up Vos for a three point play to send the lead to 56-42.
Click here to see all the SBL mens results.
In the womens NSW SBL grand final, Bruins trailed 28-20 before going on a 7-0 run to hit the lead six minutes into the second half, on a three-point play by State League MVP Meredith Parker.
The Bruins eschewed their characteristic full-court defense, which had been Hornets' coach Delmas Green's biggest concern. Instead, they showed themselves capable of locking out Hills with their halfcourt defense, repeatedly turning the Hornets back.
With ten minutes remaining, Bruins guard Laura Howlett deflated the Hornets with a baseline jumper as the shot clock expired, buttressing the lead to 44-39.
As the game moved into the last quarter, Bankstown ran out to a 61-44 edge with Christine Smith and Tammy Bywater combining for three quick break baskets.
Bankstown were guided by SBL Coaches of the Year Tony Guihot (former coach of the CBA's Brisbane Metros) and Ross Smith.
Click here to see all the SBL womens results.
Los Angeles, USA (Oct 12) - Four years after playing in Australia in the World Masters Games, tragedy has struck former Los Angeles Lakers centre Leroy Ellis.
Associated Press reports that a teenager who was found shot to death on a street was identified as the son of former NBA player Leroy Ellis and the brother of ex-NBA forward LeRon Ellis.
Lee Ellis, 19, was shot on the evening of Oct. 1 outside a home in Los Angeles but was identified on Saturday, Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Bob Killeen said.
Witnesses saw a dark-colored car driving away from the crime scene and discovered Ellis on the street.
Investigators believe the teen may have been carjacked, but his car was not immediately found.
Leroy Ellis played with the Baltimore Bullets and Portland Trail Blazers and was with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1971-72, when the team set the then-NBA season record of 69-13. He won a gold medal at the World Masters Games in Brisbane in 1994.
Ellis' son, LeRon, played for the Los Angeles Clippers in 1991-92, the Charlotte Hornets in 1993-94 and the Miami Heat in 1995-96.