NBL Round 13 Guide
Tagged in: Competitions, NBL
According to the Juggling Information Service Committee on Numbers Juggling (JISCON) – seriously, that is not made up – the record for number of balls/beanbags successfully juggled by a person is 12.
Well, if those beanbags were players, then JISCON, Century City Wellington Saints coach Doug Marty would be your new record holder.
In recent rounds, Marty has added 13th and 14th players to his roster juggling act, with Tall Blacks point guard Lindsay Tait returning to the court last Thursday night after a five-month shoulder injury lay-off, and former Tall Black Brendon Polyblank making his Saints 2008 debut the previous week.
This season, Marty has already seen:
- Back-up guard Corey Vessey depart after round two
- Then-import centre Nick Horvath depart after round four
- Kiwi forward Leon Henry and new import centre Kevin Owens added before round five
- American guard Marquis Webb depart after round five
- American forward Ernest Scott added before round six
- Now-New Zealand citizen Horvath return before round nine; and
- Polyblank, on his return from Switzerland, added before round 11
- And Tait becoming the 15th player to suit up in Saints blue this season
“It is an interesting challenge, for everyone,” said Marty, the Saints first-year American coach.
“The challenge is trying to bring out all the talents and skills of the players for the better of the team. Everyone has something to contribute and you have to find a way.”
The Saints roster now runs 14 deep – with Troy McLean, Luke Martin, Arthur Trousdell, Randall Bishop, Matt Te Huna, Brendon Pongia, Terrence Lewis and Hugh Quinlivan on the roster since February.
That poses an obvious problem for Marty and assistant Fotis Liotis.
NBL teams can only suit up 12 players for each game, which means two have to miss out. The first to go was Quinlivan when Polyblank made his return, while Lewis, a 260-game NBL veteran, is likely to make way for Tait.
It also poses not-so-obvious issues.
“It can be a problem sometimes if you have selfish players but it’s not for us, we don’t have selfish players. Everyone understands that we’re pulling in the same direction and that the focus is on the team.
“The guys know that, the guys agree that as long as we keep the focus on the team, we should do alright,” said Marty, who has experience melding teams full of talent during his time with the Charleston Lowgators in the NBA D-League.
Although Marty said his game-time 12 were not locked-in, Lewis, who has played only 83 minutes in seven games in his 14th NBL season, will continue to practice with the team and fill an assistant coaching role for the remainder of the season.
“He’s going to slide over and be an assistant. He’s still going to practice with us and he’s a real asset for the team and we don’t want to lose him.”
With all the comings and goings, the Saints have not yet suited-up their top dozen in the same game, as Polyblank missed Tait’s debut with a thigh contusion.
That is likely to happen in round 13 when the Saints, who will claim the regular season title with four straight wins to finish, head to the South Island for their road double-header against the Marley Canterbury Rams and Cartridge World Otago Nuggets.
And that could be scary for the rest of the League.
“We can’t discount the talent that other teams have,” Marty said.
“We can’t think that we have an edge in talent. I just don’t buy into that. There is a lot of talent on some of the other teams.
“We have a lot of challenges ahead of us. We’re still building the chemistry and we’ve still got some adjustments to make. There are many challenges but it’s always fun trying to build a team.”
And something else that’s fun: juggling.
