Basketball and everything in between

As I was watching one of my favourite reality TV shows – Project Runway, an ad break came on. My wife was cooking dinner and my legend 2 year old son Jalen (yes I named my son after Jalen Rose: I have loved him since the Fab 5 era at Michigan and my wife loved the name. Except on the day that he was to be born, she wanted to spell it Jaylen and I talked her around!) had gone to bed. Earlier at 7:00pm we had been watching another family favourite – Home and Away During the ad breaks I switched the TV over to Fox Sports and checked out some of the Hawks v Taipans game. Jalen got super excited and started calling out ‘Basketball Basketball Basketball’ I quickly changed the channel back before my wife realised what was happening and told him to be quiet. Anyway,  the ad break came on for Project Runway and my wife hit the ‘back’ button on the remote and it changed over to the game.  She realised that it was a close game and kept it on (to my excitement!)  It was just after half time and something was going wrong with the shot clock.  They had a close up on the coaching staff of the Hawks and I noticed that one of my favourite all time NBL Players Kevin Brooks was a member of the coaching staff of the Hawks. This got me thinking: who has the best assistant coaches in the league?   Then my next thought was ‘This would be an awesome blog entry’.

So here we go.  Here is a team by team breakdown of the assitant coaches.  I will attempt to do my best in being fair and impartial.  I am by no means an expert but I think that I have a pretty firm grasp on who is who in the world of assistant coaches in the NBL.

Cairns: Mark Beecroft is left as the only assistant coach after Aaron Fearne left the Taipans to be with Nathan Jawai in Toronto.  Mark has an extensive coaching background and has been a fixture on the Cairns basketball scene for a number of years. He is a good bloke who knows what he is talking about.

Townsville: Rohan Short (on his profile he has the most obvious nickname of all time – Shorty ) and Lyndon Brieffies (who I have known for years) both seem to have solid understanding and experiences. Undies was a solid NBL and ABA player for a number of years.

Gold Coast: Mark Watkins has had a stint as a head coach for the West Sydney Razorbacks and some time with the Canberra Cannons. He was criticised for his teams underperformance during his time as head coach of the Razorbacks. Not sure of him. To be honest – I haven’t heard to many positive things about him.

Wollongong: I visited the Hawks website to get some information but unfortunately all I got was a list of names (Kevin Brooks and Matt Flinn). I have no clue who Matt Flinn is and couldn’t tell you a thing about him. Everybody knows who KB is but I wonder how good of a coach he is. He was an outstanding player who had stints with the 36ers and Kings. Brooks started his managerial career as head coach of the Australian Basketball Association Woodville Warriors. In June 2005 he joined the Stamford Grand Basketball Academy in Adelaide, South Australia as assistant coach, training a future player-base for the 36ers. In 2007, Brooks was named coach of the Wellington-based Central City Saints He was a great player!

Sydney: Shawn Dennis and Brett Coxsedge both have solid pedgree’s and have been around the scene for a while. I think that Coxsedge was involved at the NSWIS level and Dennis has bounced around the league as a head and assistant coach at Newcastle, an assitant coach at Woolongong and now at the Spirit. I think that he also coached in Korea or Japan for a while.

Melbourne: Darryl McDonald, Warwick Giddey and Ian Stacker form an interesting trio for head coach Alan Westover. McDonald is one of (if not the) greatest PG and imports to ever play in our country, Giddey was a solid solid player and Stacker has had extensive head coaching experience in the NBL. Stacker really polarised people – you either loved him or hated him, but he generally got the job done. I personally feel that this is the strongest combination out there and the Tigers are lucky to have them.

South Dragons: Guy Malloy has been in the NBL for ever and a day. He has extensive head coaching experience and has gone a ‘full circle’ and ended back with BG again. I have no clue who Craig Simpson is but he has a cool job title – Video Coordinator / Assistant Coach Malloy’s coaching experience is a bonus here.

Adelaide: Richard Hill and Liam Flynn. I have known Liam since he used to coach the under 14 boys at Southern Districts in Qld. Richard Hill is not a name that I have ever heard of. Steve Brehney was here for ever and a day.

Perth: Mark Radford came from NW Tasmania in the SEABL. He is a first year assistant in this league. Mick Downer is another Southern Districts old boy who has held jobs with the QAS and WAIS. Interesting that a rookie head coach would take two rookie assitant coaches into battle with him.

New Zealand: Dean Vickerman shot to fame by being a member of the Melbourne Tigers who wore red boots. In Andrew Gaze’s book (look out for a book review next week on this!!) Vickerman tore strips off of Lanard Copeland at their first training session. He has had coaching stints in the NZNBL, Singapore and the QABL. Judd Flavell played in the NZBL for 14 years and is entering his third year with the Breakers.

So to wrap it up:

Assistant with the most kids starting with the letter ‘D’: Daryl McDonald
Best staff: Melbourne Tigers. It isn’t even close
Worst staff: Perth Wildcats (followed closely by Adelaide) No experience at all
Best assistant who would win a game of one on one: Kevin Brooks.
Best assistant to set a screen: Lyndon Brieffies.
Assistant who problary should be a head coach: Ian Stacker or Guy Malloy. Both have proven track records.
Assistant who will problary be asked to takeover mid season: Mark Watkins (that is if the Hammer doesn’t want to player/coach again!)

So there you go.  Assistant coaches are very important to the running of NBL programs.  You have got to love them. 

Go the Spirit!