Townsville coach Shawn Dennis believes the similarities with his side and Wollongong are endless.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Two regional teams that can’t make the finals, yet both have played their best basketball of the season over the past month.
But it’s not just the obvious on-court parallels that stand out to Dennis.
‘‘You’ve got two teams down the bottom four who are playing for bigger things than this season,’’ he said of Friday night’s meeting in Townsville.
‘‘Both of us went through our own different troubles. The Hawks went through all that turmoil early in the year and that sort of stuff has an effect on the team.
‘‘We went through a slightly different thing with [guard] Stevie Markovic. When you have someone who’s such an intricate part of the program struggling it affects the team.’’
Townsville have won 10 of 26 games, four more than wooden spooners Wollongong.
Dennis says the Hawks’ overhaul of last season’s playing roster forced coach Gordie McLeod to virtually start from scratch.
‘‘Things take time to build,’’ he said.
‘‘The Hawks in the last few years have had that consistency of success because they’ve usually kept most of the team intact with only an import change. This year they brought in a lot more people and expectations went up. It obviously played with their chemistry early on and it’s taken a while to rebuild all that.
‘‘The Hawks are very similar to us, because it’s taken a while for Gordie to get those guys to gel and fit together, while for us it’s about our young guys developing and becoming more consistent.’’
Both the Hawks and Crocodiles have won three of their past four games heading into this weekend’s final round.
The Crocs play their last game against the Wildcats in Perth on Sunday, while Wollongong host red-hot Adelaide on Sunday.
‘‘I’m not looking at this year, and though I can’t speak for Gordie, I’d imagine it’s similar for the Hawks,’’ Dennis said.
‘‘I’m looking at what we’re building for the future of this club on the floor. That’s been our motivation since I stepped through the doors. We have to build a team and build a franchise on the floor because we can’t go out and buy it.
‘‘It doesn’t always result in wins on the scoreboard, but if you look at the development of guys like [Mitch] Norton, [Todd] Blanchfield, [Mirko] Djeric and [Clint] Steindl, we’re ticking along okay. In the last six weeks we’ve been playing as well as anybody.’’