Some of his older more experienced team-mates are loving the extended FIBA break but not so Hawks guard Biwali Bayles.
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Bayles played a season-high 13.46 minutes and contributed plenty of energy at both ends of the court in Illawarra's last-start win over the New Zealand Breakers on November 19.
Buoyed by his showing in interim coach Justin Tatum's first game in charge, the 21-year-old was "itching" to play "straight away" but will have to bide his time and wait until the Hawks travel to Brisbane to play the Bullets on December 3.
"I want to be playing, for sure," Bayles said.
"Some of these other guys that have probably been playing 30, 35 minutes are probably enjoying a break but I feel like I just got my kind of first minutes and I'm itching to get back out there. I'm trying to go guard again, I'm itching to play.
"But I understand we have 10 days now where we can get our offence straight, add a few things in and be ready for Brisbane.
"But yeah, I wanna get out there now."
He played a big part in the win but conceded the Hawks still had a lot of improvement left in them.
"It was great to win most importantly," Bayles said.
"It was a fun game, great atmosphere but I just felt like we all contributed. We all did well. It was just good to be out there and just mainly having fun, you know, everyone was buying in."
Bayles added the players were treating the change in coach, following the sacking of Jacob Jackomas, as a new beginning.
"We are looking at it as 1-0.
"I go a long way back with Jake, so seeing him leave was sad. But at the same time, we're focused on trying to get wins now and moving forward.
"So JT coming in, you know, he's a real players coach.
"He gets around the guys and we've been saying it all week that it's a f familiar voice stepping up.
"We all want to go to battle for him and make his job a lot easier as well and have his back.
"He makes it easy to do by being a great guy as well. He's doing a great job."
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
