Hyrum Harris is embarking on his first year as a professional but you would never guess that watching the way he operates on the basketball court.

That’s because Harris belongs to the sought-after species of players who leave nothing in the tank when asked to perform myriad duties during the Sal’s National Basketball League (NBL).

“I tried to go back to [American] college but I couldn’t pick up any offers,” says the 21-year-old from Hamilton who is making his debut with the Taylor Corporation Hawks this season.

The Hawke’s Bay franchise team play their first double header with a 7pm tip off against Go Media Jets at Ballroom Arena Manawatu today and then reload against Augusta Taranaki Mountainairs at the same time at the TSB Stadium, New Plymouth, tomorrow.

Ask Harris to define himself as a player, he replies: “I’m just real aggressive. I like to give it my everything type of player who is kind of an almost bully.”

He considers “hustling” as his most sound attribute, with passing not far off, but shooting isn’t his forte just yet.

He is just happy the Hawks chalked up a win first up, 92-84, against SIT Zerofees Southland Sharks in the NBL opener last Thursday but feels they still have a lot to work on individually and collectively.

Under the tutelage of Hawks coach Zico Coronel he appreciates he has just as good an opportunity as anyone else to show his prowess.

He had got on the court for 16 minutes, eking out six points and seven rebounds, including four defensive ones at the Pettigrew-Green Arena last Thursday.

Embracing the impending challenges in the NBL this winter is high on his agenda and the marquee teams will become the litmus test for him.

Keen on playing basketball in the key, Harris wants to sharpen up his lay-up skills.

The Jarrod Kenny-captained side had clinical shooting from outside, he says, and the defence was good but they have been working on their rebounding this week

The Hawks found lots of love from the rim, sinking 13 times from outside the arc.

While Australian import centre Angus Brandt was fouled out within 15 minutes in the much-anticipated face-off with Sharks counterpart Alex Pledger, he should make the most of the match up against a young Callum McRae tonight.

The Jets, returning after a two-season hiatus, have had the wood on the Hawks in five of the previous six outings but it’ll be an upset of gargantuan odds if they prevail tonight.

The Airs’ first home game tomorrow, of course, will be a slightly sterner test considering they boast a similar record to the Jets against the visitors.

Harris is coming off a three-season stint with the 2 Cheap Cars Supercity Rangers but has no qualms about coming out of his comfort zone.

“I just wanted a change to see what I was like on my own,” says the swingman, who works part-time at William Colenso College as a teacher aide.

Coronel and his maternal uncle, Kazlo Evans, of Hamilton, are friends so Harris’ name cropped up after the under-23 national tourney and the rest is history.

Apart from the lifestyle changes from the Big Smoke to here, Harris says the likes of forward Dillon Boucher and versatile guard Dylan Tait boasted heaps of experience with the Rangers.

“I feel like our Hawks team are fairly young — we have JK and Everard Bartlett — but we’re still very young so that’s probably the biggest difference for me.”

Coronel says Harris was one of the standout players at the pre-season Blitz in Palmy North a fortnight ago for someone who picked up an injury last season with the Rangers after three games and then didn’t really find his way back into coach Jeff Green’s rotation.

“His great strength is his versatility so he can play at [number] three or four and handles the ball very, very well.”

Harris can perform the role of a point guard and hustle but Coronel feels he is more pronounced as a No 4.

However, the player emphasises by no means are the Hawks going to look through them tonight.

His parents, Allies Evans and Reuben Harris, have supported him since he found traction with the game an 8-year-old when some cousins asked him to join them for a scrimmage.

The former Fraser High School pupil had won basketball scholarships to Mary Knoll (2012-13) and Kahuku (2014-15) high schools in Hawaii. He then attended Umpqua Community (junior) College in Oregon in the United States in a similar vein in 2015-16.

 

By: Anendra Singh

– NZHerald

Dion Prewster had dwelled on his debut stint with the Hawks in 2013 and how it was time for him and three other players to right the wrong.

Well, Prewster walked the talk tonight as he spearheaded the Taylor Corporation-sponsored Hawke’s Bay franchise team to a 92-84 upset victory over the SIT Zerofees Southland Sharks in Napier to signal an electric start to the Sal’s National Basketball League (NBL) season.

The 28-year-old was named the player of the match after scoring a game-high 23 points, six rebounds and an assist and block each.

“We’ve come in with a focus. We know we have a pretty solid group so to get a whole lot of people here tonight was great so, hopefully, we can keep it going,” said the Wellington player in his second stint with the Hawks after a forgettable season with coach Tab Baldwin in 2013.

Prewster said Southland centre Alex Pledger was one of the best rebounders in the game
so it had been impressed on the Hawks that they needed to keep him and others off the boards.

“We stuck to what we do best so, fortunately, we managed to get a win,” he said after Pledger claimed the only double-double of the clash with 14 points and 13 rebounds.

The Jarrod Kenny-led Hawks brought back memories of days of a powerhouse region as a former coach of both the Hawks and the Sharks sides, outgoing New Zealand Breakers coach and current Tall Blacks mentor Paul Henare, watched the humdinger of a match at the Pettigrew-Green Arena in Taradale.

The visitors had to be the favourites as the NBL’s losing grand finalists last season but someone forgot to tell that to the Hawks, who are under the tutelage of Hawks rookie NBL head coach Zico Coronel.

The beaming smile from Hawks board chairman Keith Price required no interpretation.

“It’s a great start,” Price said as he shook hands with well wishers.

Befittingly Prewster started the match with a three-pointer and then added another from the charity stripe before Breakers and Tall Blacks centre Pledger dropped a basket.

Fellow Tall Black Ethan Rusbatch also dropped one from the car park for the Hawks to take it to 10-7 before the first timeout was called.

The hosts close the account 24-22 up in the first quarter although the southerners had the last say.

Swingman Prewster top scored with 11 and Rusbatch six for the Hawks in that quarter while Australian import guard Jarrad Weeks, the latest New Zealand Breakers signing, led the charge for the Sharks with eight points and point guard Dion Raukawa added six.

Predictably the two centres, Hawks Aussie import Angus Brandt and Pledger, dominated the boards.

The surprise turnout for the Hawks was 36-year-old power forward Oscar Forman from Adelaide, a former Breaker and ANBL campaigner who wore the shirt of David Barlow who had returned to Adelaide four days after arriving in Napier.

Last year’s grand finalists Southland made a move in the second spell, opening a 10-point as the Hawks were guilty of making a few unforced errors and finding little love from the rim.

However, they chipped away, Forman signing off with a three-pointer to reduce the deficit to 39-44 (15-22) at halftime.

Prewster (13 points) with Rusbatch (8) and guard Hyrum Harris (7) were the main contributors while Raukawa and Weeks shared that role for the Sharks with 10 points each. Pledger added eight points and collected seven rebounds as he ominously headed for a double-double.

The Bay Batucada group entertained the 75 per cent-full PG Arena with the booming sounds of the Brazilian samba drums.

Whatever Coronel said at halftime his men had responded in the third quarter to lock the scores at 55-all with two minutes left on the clock.

When play resumed, homeboy Everard Bartlett dropped a three-pointer way out from the arc to loud cheers.

By the time the clock ran out of juice, Bartlett had dropped another bomb and captain Kenny signed off, as the Hawks bench did the yo-yo act, for a resounding 67-58 (28-14) third-quarter, don’t-argue statement.

By: Anendra Singh

–NZHerald

When Dion Prewster was last sporting Hawke’s Bay tribal colours the province was humming amid anticipation of big things with the arrival of distinguished coach Tab Baldwin and his burning desire to impress on his proteges the then newfound full-court press European brand of basketball.

That 2013 season turned into a winter of despair as the Hawks finished in seventh place in the nine-team NBL with five wins from 11 games.

But fast forward from Prewster’s forgettable debut to tonight where he’ll assume the mantle of “comeback kid” this season and you’ll find he still believes it’s still not too late to conduct a post mortem on what went wrong.

“It was unfortunate because there were high hopes for us. We didn’t perform to our capabilities,” says the 28-year-old before the Taylor Corporation-sponsored Hawks host SIT Zerofees Southland Sharks in a 7pm tip off at the Pettigrew-Green Arena, Taradale, to signal the start of the Sal’s National Basketball League (NBL) season.

He sees the irony in Baldwin leading the Hawks to the NBL championship final the following year.

“Maybe it was me who was the problem or something, I don’t know,” says the former Tall Black with a laugh as he embarks on a season with new Hawks coach Zico Coronel.

On a serious note, Prewster believes it’s an opportune time for the players who were with him — Jarrod Kenny, Kareem Johnson and Everard Bartlett — to put the wrongs right.

The 1.94m tall swingman from Wellington has returned from the ProA second-tier league in Germany having plied his trade for Uni Baskets Paderborn, which finished 13th out of 16 teams in the 2017-18 season.

Last year Prewster played for the Nelson Giants and three seasons before he played for his formidable hometown franchise of Wellington Saints.

He sees some similarities but notes the major changes with the coaching staff, including the front office management.

“I’ve always enjoyed my time here in the Bay and, obviously, playing with some of the guys previously — like Jarrod, Kareem and Everard — it’s very, very calculable for me.”

So how has Prewster grown from then to the specimen he has evolved into now?

“Just humbled more than anything,” says Prewster whose evolution has been more mental than anything else in playing in Germany.

“You always think like, ‘Oh surely I’ve seen it all’, in learning different styles of play and different concepts on how to guard things.

“Going against stronger opposition kind of helps you grow in other ways where probably your weaknesses are highlighted more, so you just come back on those things to try to work on them and be better.”

Fundamentally he found out Germany places more emphasis on team play rather than individual one-on-one action where the game is free flowing but structured.

“I think they start their systems at a very young age, teaching kids how to play team basketball. They see the game very differently so it’s very hard to explain.”

He laughs when asked if some of that has rubbed off on him.

“I hope so [because] we’re going to find that out [tonight]. I’m just happy to be here and happy to be a Hawk.”

Staying home in the capital city is always the desire but Prewster says it didn’t work out for him but a former Saints connection struck a chord.

“Knowing Zico in my time in Wellington, I’ve had a relationship with him so when I heard he’d got the job here and he approached me I was pretty keen,” he says of the 13-season assistant coach who is embarking on a head coach role on debut with the Hawks.

“Everything else started lining up and it felt just right,” he says after four seasons with the former high schoolteacher.

Prewster sees it as a win-win situation with Coronel “wanting to grow” just as he does.

“I see it more as an opportunity to step up and learn more from him in a different perspective as a head coach as opposed to an assistant.”

He sees Coronel as a passionate bloke, diligent and immaculate in his methodical way of paying attention to details.

“I think he understands strategy but also, I think … he’s grown a lot in terms of maybe his basketball philosophy as opposed to perhaps just his numbers so I definitely think he deserves the role that he has now.”

Prewster suspects Coronel, in his trip to Spain at the height of the southern summer, is trying to implement some of those European principles here.

“Hopefully I can help guys who aren’t accustomed to that here as well,” says the former Sydney Kings player after arriving in the Bay a fortnight ago.

It was a pleasant surprise for Prewster to find teammates taking ownership in a structured environment.

He puts the sudden arrival and departure of Australian import No 4 David Barlow as one of those many unorchestrated things that happen in sports, akin to injuries.

“The only things we can focus on is what happens inside the lines when we’re training and when the game time comes around.

“It’s obviously sad but, at the same time, we have to move on so all the best of luck to David because we have to try to get ready for [today],” he says of the 34-year-old former Boomer who helped his Melbourne United franchise team win the ANBL crown on March 31.

“There’s no right time to leave but if you’re going to pick and choose I suppose now is as good a time,” says the American-born player whose mother Ana Hunt is Samoan and father Norvell Prewster hails from Long Beach, California.

Prewster says the Judd Flavell-coached Sharks will be tough tonight with “big bodies” on the inside on the platform of a few Tall Blacks.

The match will be an ideal litmus test for the Hawks, impressing home games are godsend but it’s imperative to take advantage of them.

“We’ve got to get the community behind us and put out a good product so people will want to see us … play winning and exciting basketball.”

Prewster says anytime there’s a new team formed the element of continuity will be missing so growing pains will be a given.

“The thing with this league is the team that is going to adjust quickly and find chemistry early will find that it pays off because it’s a short window and then the playoffs will be here.”

 

By: Anendra Singh

–NZHerald

He waited for what seemed like a lifetime but for Kareem Johnson it was all worth it when he was sworn in as a New Zealand citizen yesterday.

It has a bittersweet feel for Johnson but, he hastened to add, more sweet than bitter that the Taylor Corporation Hawks power forward’s status in this country has come at the twilight of his professional basketball career.

“At the end of the day I really appreciate it,” the 37-year-old said last night after attending a “special, urgent” citizenship ceremony at the office of Napier mayor Bill Dalton at 2pm.

The American-born player had received an email last Thursday from the Immigration Department notifying him of his status in the country.

“I’m finally a Kiwi now, after all that’s been said and done, and it’s a good feeling.”

He spent yesterday afternoon reminiscing and celebrating with Bay-born wife Lucia and their three daughters, Swiss-born Ruby, 9, as well as Bay-born Sophia, 6, and Juliette, 2. He also has a son, Jeremiah, 13, living in Las Vegas, in the United States.

“I took them to Hot Chick and the girls spent some time on the playground so we had a nice little tea out there,” he said of Spriggs Park along the Ahuriri waterfront strip at the height of the school holidays.

Johnson is indebted to Hawke’s Bay for sticking by him for all those years — he has difficulty in pinpointing when he exactly lodged his application — so it’s almost nostalgic that he will be in a position to finish his playing career in the province.

That magical moment will come on Thursday when the Zico Coronel-coached Hawks will tip off their Sal’s National basketball League (NBL) campaign against the SIT Zerofees Southland Sharks at the Pettigrew-Green Arena, Taradale, at 7pm.

He will play his first NBL game without the tag of “import” after his name.

 

By: Anendra Singh

–NZHerald

Naming a starting five or appointing a captain isn’t high on the agenda of rookie head coach Zico Coronel as the Hawks prepare to begin their National Basketball League campaign next week.

“We have a deep team and we have a number of calibre players who are starters so that is a good position to be in,” says Coronel.

The Taylor Corporation-sponsored Hawke’s Bay franchise host last season’s runners-up, SIT Zerofees Southland Sharks, in the 7pm tip off at the Pettigrew-Green Arena, Taradale, to signal the start of the Sal’s-sponsored NBL season on Thursday.

Nothing is concrete as the mentor, who has had a stellar 13 seasons as NBL assistant coach, takes in variables that will dictate how the Hawks will approach different oppositions who will bring myriad styles of play.

“The little tactics that we may wish to employ may sometimes call for different starting line-ups. I’m not too concerned about who starts,” says the 34-year-old former Wellington school teacher now based in Napier as a fulltime coach.

“People make a deal of a starting five in basketball but probably the most significant thing that tells you who the coach believes are the main people aren’t who starts but those who close [matches].”

That “reversing of minutes” to nut out who should remain on the court as the shot clock runs down can change the nature of a game.

Coronel says assuming the mantle of captaincy in basketball isn’t as demanding as in rugby or cricket because the coach is heavily involved in making decisions.

“In basketball, what is important is to have leaders. The more you have the better. On who will actually be captain isn’t something we’ll give a huge amount of thought to because we have so many good leaders that it’ll be about someone who has to do the speeches …”

He feels they have done well in recruiting in the off season, adding players with Tall Blacks’ experience to the players retained from last season.

Despite David Barlow flying the coop within four days of arriving in Napier from Melbourne, he believes the presence of Gold Coast Commonwealth gold medal winner and Perth Wildcats big man Angus Brandt will add impetus to any other import they entice in the next few days.

“David Barlow’s a significant loss. In the short time he’s been with us he’s proved to be everything that we hoped he would be and more.

“He’s a good human being and a very good basketballer and he’s capable of doing a lot more than we’ve seen him do in his role with Melbourne United so I think he would have been outstanding,” says Coronel who sees the loss as more work for him and the management to replace him with another big.

He says Barlow could have been a template but the Hawks also are very adaptable.

The inclusion of young, promising players in the mould of Mitchell Newton (NZ Breakers development) and Hyrum Harris (Super City Rangers) offers options.

“Hyrum Harris and Mitch Newton have done a very, very good job and Angus Brandt is a high quality player and we’re happy with the way Kareem Johnson has been going in the pre-season so, basically, they’ll have to stand up in the absence of Barlow until we know what the solution is.”

Aspiring players Harris and Newton recognised what barlow was going to bring to the table and were looking forward to gleaning knowledge off him during training.

“So it is a little bittersweet. They are disappointed that he is not with us … but they’ll be happy because they are players who want an opportunity and you want those type of players who are hungry and excited.”

A crop of home-grown players as well as equivalent talent from outside the province (Auckland and Hamilton) lend credence to the franchise’s reputation of possessing a template and culture that will pave a pathway for progress.

Coronel emphasises there was never any intention to be partial towards imports from Australia or any other country but simply to be mindful of known quantities.

“Whether that’s an import who has played in our league before so you know what you’re getting or whether it’s players from the ANBL in Australia because there’s so much cross-over between the two leagues that you can make so many comparisons as to how good someone can be.”

That sense of familiarity is perhaps best reflected in the cohesiveness that Brandt may have developed with one-season Hawk swingman Dion Prewster during the Sydney Kings campaign and with Tall Blacks point guard Jarrod Kenny with the Wildcats.

“They [Prewster and Kenny] were able to speak for his character so what in the guessing game was whether he would a good person became a known thing for us.”

Kenny was expected to arrive this weekend while Brandt was to follow later next week because of Gold Coast commitments.

“It’s a great thing for them, their lives and their careers and also a good sign for us that they are high calibre players so it’s a good trade off.”

Coronel juxtaposes that with higher calibre players who tend to ply their trade overseas and, consequently, are “less available” because of international commitments that overlap with the NBL here.

He sees the three-day preamble to the NBL, the eight-team Blitz which tipped off in Palmerston North last night, as an opportune time to see how the Hawks’ “system” is working against the other franchises.

“For all basketball teams, when you play each other, you kind of get a false sense of security by the nature of you’re playing against yourself.”

He is mindful that no one really cares who wins the Blitz so it becomes an ideal test tube in a laboratory to carry out experiments.

“It’s a great chance to give some players a chance to show they are ready because with real games you cannot really use them as finals as there’s more to lose.”

Coronel says chucking players on the floor in the Blitz for 10 minutes means coaches glean relevant data on them without worrying about the outcome.

Making the Final Four playoffs in early August is part of the agenda but he says if the team ticks the boxes along the way that will take care of itself.

While there may be a tendency to lose one’s way in setting the bar at different heights, Coronel says the ultimate goal is whether a team can play the game at a standard that has never been played in the country before.

He understands there’s a height of expectancy in the Bay community where players are seen as role models.

“They are good basketballers who will play in a way that people will enjoy. Basketball in itself is a very enjoyable experience because if there is a storm you don’t have to worry because you’ll be inside a warm stadium enjoying the atmosphere and high scoring.”

Hawke’s Bay once was the best crowd in the league. In a couple of years, inconsistency kicked in, he says, but now there’s another opportunity to get back to the winning ways the Hawks have been used to in the past 15 years.

■ Hawks squad: Jarrod Kenny, Angus Brandt (import), Everard Bartlett, Dion Prewster, Ethan Rusbatch, Hyrum Harris, Mitchell Newton, Kareem Johnson, Nick Fee, Dominic McGovan, Kaleb Edwards, Nikau Joyce, Ravi Mani, Reuben Fitzgerald, Jaxson MacFarlane, Peter Wilkie.

■ Head coach: Zico Coronel
■ Assistant coaches: Morgan Maskell, Kaine Hokianga
■ Managers: Nigel Prior, Keirran Stafford, Jordan Wise

■ Doctor: Andy Edwards
■ Physiotherapist: Colin Tutchin
■ Trainer: Amy Percy, strength and conditioning

 

By: Anendra Singh

–NZHerald

Professional players yearning to represent their countries during the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games will lift the intensity of the National Basketball League when it tips off in late April this season, according to Hawks coach Zico Coronel.

“Because of that you’ll find we’ll have a very strong New Zealand NBL this year,” says Coronel, after signing Australian import Angus Brandt for the Taylor Corporation-sponsored Hawke’s Bay franchise team.

Players such as Brandt, a Boomer, tend to ply their trade in Europe but the continent’s loss will be the NBL’s gain as players opt for proximity to fulfil their national team obligations.

Coronel, although he doesn’t wish to speak on behalf of other Kiwi teams, anticipates the number of Tall Blacks competing in the NBL will be tenfold.

For Brandt, he suspects, the challenge will be to retain his Boomer berth when the NBA-calibre and high-level European Australian players return for the Commonwealth Games from April 4-15.

“I imagine all of those players, including Angus, will be keen to pursue that,” he says, emphasising court time will be vital to maintain their constitutions.

“We have a lot of people who are hungry to play at the higher level here so Angus will fit right in with them,” he says of the 28-year-old who he classifies as a “pure” No 5.

Coronel says they had identified Brandt who Hawks co-skipper Jarrod Kenny had endorsed as a Wildcats teammate. So did Brandt’s former Sydney teammate and 2018 Hawk, Dion Prewster.

While it was a long process to negotiate a contract through his agent, Coronel says Brandt is someone who fits the mould as a team player who others enjoy playing alongside. He will not only grow as an athlete but also add value to others’ template.

Hawks veteran centre Kareem Johnson will be in direct competition for a starting five role with the Sydney-born Aussie.

By: Anendra Singh

-NZHerald

Angus Brandt, like countless youngsters, simply wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, John, while growing up in Sydney, Australia.

The only trouble was Brandt had to come up with a pretty convincing sales pitch to convince his mother, Lorraine, even though he knew it was going to be an exercise in futility.

“My parents wouldn’t let me play rugby because my mum’s a nurse and dad picked up injuries playing rugby,” says the 28-year-old basketballer before he embarks on a contract to ply his trade with the Taylor Corporation-sponsored Hawks in the 2018 National Basketball League (NBL) in Hawke’s Bay.

But the irony of his mother’s concern and welfare for her son isn’t lost on Brandt who will make his NZNBL debut in a country where rugby union is a religion compared to Australia, which is undergoing a renaissance of sorts in the winter code.

“When I was growing up they said no, not rugby because it’s too dangerous you’ll get hurt so I played basketball and still ended up getting hurt,” said the Perth Wildcats centre competing in the Australia national Basketball League (ANBL) alongside last season’s Hawks co-skipper, Jarrod Kenny.

“She says it’s better the knee then a neck injury,” says Brandt, with a laugh, when asked if his mother saw the irony.

“I’m sure they would have chucked me in the second row [in rugby] so that’s what my parents were afraid of because they didn’t want me in there.

“When the scrums collapses your head tends to go straight into the ground so they didn’t want that to happen and that was the main reason they said no to rugby,” says the 2.08m
professional basketballer who isn’t a Wallaby but has realised a childhood dream of pulling on a Boomers singlet.

“I grew up watching the Boomers play so I dreamed of playing for Australia. It was a pretty lofty dream, so I never really thought I would, but now it’s just an amazing time and such a great experience.

Brandt made the cut for the Australia national team last year after a season-defining stint for the Wildcats.

Last ANBL season he had a 100 per cent court attendance (33 games), averaging six points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 2016-17. in the three-match grand final, he averaged 10 points a game against the Illawarra Hawks, including 15 points and 11 rebounds in the winning game two in the absence of injured Matt Knight.

That stint catapulted Brandt into the 20-man national squad for the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup campaign.

Brandt said after receiving a call from franchise general manager Kevin Wagg he had consulted Kenny and liked the sound of what the Hawks were about.

“He told me how good the club was and how happy the atmosphere was and the culture about it, so he definitely told me to make up my own mind about it from there.”

New Zealand isn’t unfamiliar territory for the Sydneysider who plays against the New Zealand Breakers in the ANBL and visited Wellington, Christchurch and Invercargill during pre-season stints with the Sydney Kings.

Having plied his trade in Lithuania, Brandt is “playing it by ear this time”.

“The quality of the [NZ] NBL attracted me and, of course, it keeps me close to Australia for any Boomers commitments.”

It negates the need for him to travel from far flung destinations, such as Europe, then having to take another three-hour flight to the east coast of Australia.

“I wanted to go somewhere I could play good quality basketball in the off season,” he says.

Brandt is resigned to making a delayed start here considering Perth, as ANBL defending champions, are perched in the top four playoff rungs of the ANBL ladder, below leaders Melbourne United, Adelaide 36ers and above the Breakers.

“The [Gold Coast] Commonwealth Games may potentially interfere as well,” he says of the April 4-15 games.

The 2.08m centre rates himself as a pretty good screener, roller and someone adept at paving the way for the guards to have a good look at the rims with a extra passes.

“I’m sure I’ll get the balls to the post and then go and do my thing. I’m also a good passer of the ball at the post so if I’m good at attracting a lot of attention to find open shooters.”

The Hawks have won only one NBL crown and that was under Australian ANBL mentor Shawn Dennis in 2006.

His time in Lithuania offered a taste of European style of basketball and broadened his horizon.

“I’ve definitely picked a few new tricks and a few other things along the way. It’s a really good standard of play there and if I get another chance I’d absolutely do it again.”

The No 5 is keeping his fingers crossed in making the Boomers cut for the Commonwealth Games.

“You can’t count your chicks before they’re hatched. If I can make it, yeah, it’ll be phenomenal to play at the Commonwealth Games, especially the one in Australia.”

After month-long trial last year, Brandt made the cut of 12 to travel to Lebanon. The Boomers were undefeated at a tournament to claim gold. On the way they beat the Paul Henare-coached Tall Blacks in the semifinals.

Brandt remained in the undefeated Boomers’ equation for the World Cup-qualifying window last November and must fancy the loyalty of selectors in another qualifying window this month.

He had represented Australia in 2014 in a series against China. In 2011, he represented his country at the World University Games in Shenzhen, China.

Brandt is a graduate of Blaxland High School in the Blue Mountains, on the outskirts of Sydney. In 2008, he spent a season playing high school basketball for Lake Forest Academy in Illinois in the United States.

He won a scholarship to Oregon State University, competing in the Pac-12 Conference which includes the likes of UCLA, Arizona and Stanford.

In the five years at Oregon State he was twice named in the Pac-12 All-Academic Team.

In his senior season in 2013-14, he averaged 12.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 30 starts for the Beavers.

A tear in the ACL of his right knee in November 2012 tested his resolve as he went under the surgeon’s knife.

Brandt says it was a pretty serious injury considering he knows of cases where it has curtailed careers.

“I hard to really work hard to get back, not just physically but also mentally, to regain the trust in my knee.

“That took a little bit of time but that’s a hurdle I’ve had to overcome so now it’s well and truly in the rearview mirror. I don’t even think about it anymore so that’s really nice.”

Brandt spent the first two years of his professional career with his hometown Sydney Kings in the ANBL. In 2014-15 he won ANBL Rookie of the Year honours.

In his first foray into Lithuania in 2016 season, he helped Neptunas to the finals where they lost to European powerhouses Zalgiris.

Brandt grew up playing basketball in the backyard of their Sydney home.

“When I was in year 6 all my mates played basketball so I started and from there got into it after school and then got into reps,” he says, relishing the speed of the game and intensity.

“You know, there’s always something happening whether it’s offence or defence so there isn’t any time in a basketball game where there isn’t anything happening so I really love that about it.”

As he aged his growth spurts kicked in as natural selection took over to mould his niche.

With age, the intensity and seriousness of the game kept each other in check.

It was his recruitment into the New South Wales Institute of Sport, under the tutelage of Damian Cotter, that Brandt made incremental developments.

 

By: Anendra Singh

-NZHerald

Ethan Rusbatch will preen his feathers with the Hawks this season in a bid to help the Hawke’s Bay franchise team win a second crown in the New Zealand Basketball League.

Rusbatch, last season’s co-skipper with the Canterbury Rams, will add to the shooting artillery of the Taylor Corporation Hawks on the foundation of a physical and uncompromising presence in the driving lanes where coaches like to see him enter early.

A cog in the wheel for collectiveness, he considers himself “a glue guy” who can slot in for cohesiveness in a team no matter how variable the backgrounds of individuals in a squad.

However, the swingman stresses leaving the Rams’ enclosure wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment move but one he gave a lot of thought to.

“It wasn’t an easy decision at all,” says the 25-year-old from Christchurch after Hawks co-skipper Jarrod Kenny approached him to discuss details before Rusbatch reflected on them to switch allegiances from his birthplace although he leaves with the blessing of the Canterbury team.

“It was tough for me but I’m looking forward to coming back to play with them again.”

What tilted it in the Hawks’ direction was the platform of opportunities under the tutelage of new coach Zico Coronel to flourish.

“I wanted a fresh start with some new coaching to look at it in a different way,” says the 2016 Tall Blacks shooting guard/small forward who believes he has benefited immensely under Rams coach and former international Mark Dickel.

He respects Coronel’s nous as a long-time career assistant coach on the cusp of making the big calls at the helm of the Hawke’s Bay franchise team when the season tips off in April.

Rusbatch chuckles at the thought of visiting the Pettigrew-Green Arena in Napier where the Rams have had their share of skirmishes with the Hawks.

He says he is looking at having the vociferous support behind him rather than deflecting the heckles.

The basketballer has made 72 NBL appearances, averaging 12.2 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists last winter, but his intention is to embark on a journey that will help him make the transition to the higher echelons of basketball with a lot more stability and consistency.

The former New Zealand Under-18 captain, who stands at 1.96m, has won national crowns in 2009 and 2011 in age-group teams for Canterbury.

Rusbatch recognises the proud history of the Hawks, whose past few seasons have hit turbulence, that has yielded only one NBL crown, under Australian mentor Shawn Dennis in 2006.

The ex-Cashmere High School student was a development player with the New Zealand Breakers during the 2016-17 Australian NBL but the franchise didn’t retain him after he reached the age threshold last year.

He began his career in 2012 with the Southland Sharks after a year studying and playing for Lincoln Trail College in the United States in 2010-11. He spent a year with the Taranaki Mountainairs before settling with the Canterbury Rams from 2014.

Rusbatch made an extended 23-man Tall Blacks squad for their Fiba World Cup qualifier against South Korea in Wellington last November but missed out on the trip away overseas with New Zealand coach Paul Henare.

Born in Christchurch, he was initially raised in the country town of Twizel where there wasn’t much in the shape of basketball but his passion for the game intensified when his family moved to Wellington. There he honed his skills alongside the likes of former Hawks and Tall Blacks shooting guard Dion Prewster and Brooke Ruscoe after absorbing the culture shock of living in the capital city.

“I’ve always had a good relationship with Dion,” he says, recalling they were teammates when Rusbatch started with the Sharks in 2012.

School programmes were the norm and camps beckoned, helping mould a relatively green template that was ready to be exposed to more challenges when he returned to the Garden City as a 10-year-old.

He has a proud heritage in basketball with mother Sharon Rusbatch, of Christchurch, but the biggest influence was an uncle, Kenny Perkins, an American and a 1980s Rams player whose son Kendrick is an NBA professional centre in the US.

“He’s played for the Rams and won titles.”

His father, Palmer Rusbatch, living in Porirua, is a Cook Islander so the tribal tattoos he sports go back to his Pacific Island roots.

Rusbatch stays with his Rams basketballer brother Bede Marsters in Christchurch, and is living the dream.

 

By: Anendra Singh

– NZHerald

Hawks franchise board chairman Keith Price has been elected to the board of the New Zealand Basketball League.

“It’s great for basketball in Hawke’s Bay and for the Hawks,” said Price who is holidaying with wife Amy in Spain. “I see myself there to promote basket ball in New Zealand.”

A player, coach and administrator in several codes, the fourth-term Napier City councillor feels that sport is at the heart of a thriving and successful community.

Price has a degree in coaching from Massey University and realises the importance of basketball at regional, national and international levels.

 

By: Anendra Singh

Zico Coronel has a burning desire to become better as a professional basketball coach so he has no qualms about straying well outside his comfort zone.

Coronel, who is on the cusp of making his National Basketball League (NBL) debut as head coach of the Taylor Corporation Hawks team, is in Spain.

The 34-year-old career assistant coach, who has deputised with remarkable success for 13 years in the NBL, has been going back and forth between Barcelona and Valencia by high-velocity trains, to broaden his horizon in a bid to watch the elite professional teams train and compete in their league.

But Coronel isn’t there in the hope of securing the signature of pedigree players for the Hawke’s Bay franchise team.

“It’s not to scout players but to improve as a coach,” explains the health and PE teacher at Rongotai College in Wellington.

Clocking the mileage has been a mind-boggling but immensely liberating exercise for someone who is prepared to leave no stone unturned in trying to make a memorable first impression as NBL head coach.

“To fly from Barcelona to Madrid would take about an hour 20 and it takes about four hours 45 on the train so by the time you factor in going to the airport and doing the security to get back into the inner city, it’s not particularly different to getting on a train.”

He could have gone to the glitz and glamour of the United States but he’s done that “multiple times”. The challenge isn’t that imposing considering the Americans speak English and their culture is “pretty similar to ours”.

In Spain, he says, the brand of basketball differs to here and there’s the obvious language and culture barriers but, he emphasises, it needn’t be if the code becomes the currency for growth.

No doubt, Coronel is looking at bringing a different perspective to his approach.