Vickerman Joins Pistons
Tagged in: Competitions, NBL
Tall Blacks and NZ Breakers assistant coach Dean Vickerman will have the job of replacing the legacy of Murray McMahon in Waikato.
Vickerman, 37, was confirmed as the defending National Basketball League (NBL) champion Waikato Pistons new coach on Thursday, signing on for two years to replace the late McMahon, who passed away in early July.
This will be Vickerman’s second stint in the NBL after coaching the Wellington Saints in 2002 and 2003.
“We’re delighted,” Pistons general manager John Davey said.
“The circumstances involving Murray are pretty tragic, but to get someone the caliber of Dean, we’re very happy.”
The Victorian will continue in his role with the Breakers, joining the Pistons locker room full-time once the Breakers season in the Australia NBL is over.
Depending on if and how long the Breakers last in the ANBL playoffs, Vickerman could miss the opening weeks of the 2009 NBL. Last season, the Breakers were eliminated from the playoffs six days before the NBL tip-off.
“That’s a possibility but we don’t envisage too many problems because Dean is only an hour and a half away. During the pre-season he’ll just have to get the programme set up and put it in the hands of whoever the assistant coaches are,” Davey said.
“He’ll still be down here, he just won’t be at every practice in pre-season.
“Although the two seasons may overlap, with the quality of guy we’ve got, I don’t see too many problems.”
A long-time assistant, Vickerman has had coaching stints under Al Westover with the Melbourne Tigers, Geordie McLeod with the Singapore Slingers and Andrej Lemanis with the Breakers. He also coached the Singapore national team two years ago and led Melbourne University to an ABA title in 2004.
“It was certainly my intention to get back into the League this year and with the Tall Blacks job, if I want to keep that, then I needed to be involved as a head coach,” Vickerman said.
“I’m getting a championship team and trying to defend it is pretty exciting. Hopefully we can bring back the core of the championship team and then bring in some young talent aswell.”
Vickerman posted a 9-11 record with the Saints, going 7-9 but missing the playoffs by one game in his only full season in 2002, before resigning after four games in 2003, when Mike McHugh replaced him and took the Saints to the title.
McMahon died on July 8, five days after suffering a major heart attack while playing basketball, and just 18 days after he celebrated his first championship following the Pistons 2-0 sweep of the Saints in the NBL Finals.
