Hunt for Hawks point guard back to square one

By Tim Keeble
Updated November 6 2012 - 2:40am, first published September 22 2011 - 11:16am
Former Charleston College guard Donavan Monroe (left) has been cut by the Hawks, but they have retained their other American import Joevan Catron.
Former Charleston College guard Donavan Monroe (left) has been cut by the Hawks, but they have retained their other American import Joevan Catron.

The Wollongong Hawks appear certain to start the 2011-12 NBL season with one import.Former Charleston College guard Donavan Monroe was cut by the Hawks on Tuesday, opening the door for the club to sign a replacement import.But with the season tipping off in two weeks, the Hawks have little time to find a new point guard.Yesterday, Wollongong coach Gordie McLeod said there were no immediate candidates.

  • Full coverage of the Hawks "We don't have anything else there," he said."We don't have anyone in mind in that position."The Hawks are in Brisbane for this week's inaugural Sunshine State Challenge. They tipped off the three-day preseason tournament with yesterday's 57-55 win over Cairns on the Gold Coast.McLeod struck gold with former imports Gary Ervin and Ty McKee in the previous two seasons, but the Monroe era ended ingloriously after a month."You don't want to make changes, but we met on Tuesday and made the decision as a club," McLeod said."We obviously thought Donavan was the guy for us but it hasn't worked out that way, and now we have to make that adjustment."We're looking for a certain type of player. The feedback and information we got [while recruiting Monroe], we haven't seen it come out to its fullest or to where we thought it would be."You try to go down paths and gather information, but it just hasn't worked out for whatever reason."At times these things happen. The majority of the time it's because someone gets injured or something like that."We have to look at what direction we head as a team and try to find that player we feel will complement the other guys we've got."That's important to us as a team because it's a big part of the way we play."The Hawks square off with the Melbourne Tigers tonight in Brisbane, getting their first look at how highly prized signing Patrick Mills is fitting in with his new club.Centre Larry Davidson made a match-winning tip-in on the buzzer against Cairns after the Taipans led most of the game.American forward Joevan Catron top-scored for the Hawks with 19 points, while Davidson had 10 points and nine rebounds.Wollongong captain Mat Campbell sat out the match with a minor achilles injury.McLeod will resume the search for a new import with assistant coaches Eric Cooks and Matt Flinn when they return from Brisbane."The whole process we've gone through ... we've made that decision as a club and now we're letting all that stuff go," he said."We'll get through the Sunshine State Challenge and we'll start the process after that."Agents and players are contacting us, but we've got enough on our plate to play this weekend."We'll just leave all that until we get home."Queensland-born guard Rhys Martin will be Wollongong's first-choice playmaker at least until a second import arrives.Tyson Demos, Campbell and Glen Saville will share most of the ball-carrying duties when Martin takes a breather."We were put in that position before with this group and those guys had to fulfil that role," McLeod said."It's not ideal, but that's where we're at now."
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