Illawarra announced on Friday that the 33-year-old would remain skipper for 2021/22, which tips off in early December.

Ogilvy is keen to build on an impressive first season in charge. The Hawks finished third and played finals, despite spending the majority of time on the road due to COVID and injuries to key players such as Cam Bairstow.

However, after the club made some key recruits during the off-season, Ogilvy feels more at home heading into this campaign.

"I'm excited to lead the team again this year. It was a bit of a learning experience last year, especially with all of the COVID situation and those extra difficulties that weren't really anticipated. I will look to put what I learned last year into practise this year, and lead this talented team to the top of the ladder where I think we should be," Ogilvy told the Mercury.

"I think at the start of last season, if you told us that Bairstow would go down injured and we'd still make finals, we would have taken that very happily. But with the way the team came together and performed, we feel like we should have been in the grand final series.

"We've retained a couple of great players in Tyler (Harvey) and Justinian (Jessup), and added some great pieces. I think Duop (Reath) and Antonius (Cleveland) showed what they could do in that second pre-season game the other night."

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The Hawks have been among the frontrunners in the pre-season, opening up their NBL Blitz account in Victoria with an overtime win over the Phoenix before securing a 97-90 victory over Melbourne United.

Illawarra now return to meet rivals Sydney on Saturday, after Thursday's clash with the Breakers was called off due to a COVID scare within the NZ travelling party.

"It's as much about the way we're playing as it is about the wins for us," Ogilvy said. "The pre-season wins don't mean much when you're trying to make a finals run, but playing our brand of basketball and really stepping up defensively is a fantastic positive for this team."

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