Hawks cult figure Larry Davidson doesn't believe he has drawn the short straw with Saturday night's defensive assignment against Perth Wildcats beanpole Luke Schenscher.
Relying on a multi-faceted offence which they complement with aggressive defence, the Wildcats hovered in the NBL's top two all season, and their 216cm red-head has been a big exclamation point in the paint.
Despite taking longer than expected to find his feet with his new club, the former Adelaide 36ers centre and one-time NBA back-up has been one of Perth's best players lately.
Full coverage of the Wollongong Hawks At 209cm, Davidson is Wollongong's second-tallest player behind 211cm Tim Behrendorff.
The pair will have to share the job of keeping Schenscher quiet in the top-of-the-table duel with the Cats.
"It's always tough going up against big Schensch'," Davidson said.
"He's tall and he knows how to play tall as well. He's never bringing the ball down and doesn't want to shoot jump-shots. He just always wants to stand over you and do lay-ups. It's always a challenge against him."
Davidson said Schenscher's size and skills made him difficult to cover.
"You don't want to let him catch the ball in the paint because he can go left and right hand and he's got some good moves, so you want to try and keep him out of the paint as much as you can and try to force him into tough shots," he said.
The Hawks (8-5) are coming off last Thursday's 93-91 road win over New Zealand, while the Wildcats take on the Breakers tonight before taking on Wollongong on Saturday.
The Hawks beat the Wildcats 94-92 at home in round one before the Cats squared the ledger with an 87-80 victory in round six.
"Last game against them we didn't do that bad, but this is definitely one we don't want to lose," Davidson said.
"We're definitely looking forward to playing them, especially after the good win we had last week. We've got a good week here to work on some stuff and tweak a couple of plays."
Davidson believes the come-from-behind triumph over the Breakers gave the Hawks a timely shot in the arm.
"I don't know if it restored confidence or if it was just kind of good to get that reinforcement that what we're doing is working," he said.
"It was also good to know we could play not that good for a period of the game and still come back and win. We were down most of the game and they're tough to beat at home, and we stuck with it. After having some struggles on the road, that's a really good one to get.
"That's the way the season is going to be. If you drop a couple of games you're going to be right back down with everyone else. If you keep getting regular wins you know you're going to be all right."
One of the main factors in the Hawks' success halfway through the season has been their superior fitness.
"Because we go so deep, Gordo (coach Gordon McLeod) is always saying to go out and do your job, and if you're tired we'll get you a sub. It really showed in that game against New Zealand, because we had a lot of guys on at the end who didn't start. They were the ones getting the job done."
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