SOMETIMES a player’s statistics, as impressive as they might be, don’t tell the full story.
Anthony Hill is a good case in point.
Before the Mildura Heat basketball club cut ties with him this week, the 203cm American forward was leading the Big V Division 2 competition in scoring, averaging 27.9 points per game, and third in the rebound count (11.7).
The Heat’s men’s team won their opening three games for 2022, before going 5-3 with a 91-77 win over Craigieburn at the Hothouse on April 30.
That’s the last time the team tasted victory. A seven-game skid has also coincided with the absence of Hill in most of these games after he sustained a hand injury.
The locally produced players put up a stirring fight without Hill against one of the league’s top sides, Sherbrooke, in round 8.
But, as harsh as it may seem, they have been outclassed in most of the other losses.
This isn’t about knifing the local guys, though. They’ve largely been trying their best.
Here’s my analysis of Hill as a player, and some of the inside mail about how he struggled to fit into the team.
He was certainly a good shooter. But when you hog the ball, instead of dishing off to teammates who might have a better look, you’re always going to be the team’s leading scorer.
There were other key attributes missing in Hill that you’d expect of a import who makes his living out of playing basketball.
I watched him closely in the first couple of home games. He was unfit and well behind the play in transition.
When I look at the Heat women’s import, Hungarian Fanni Szabo, I see a fit athlete.
She’s a likeable, passionate pro plying her trade in relative backwaters of the Big V, but nonetheless delivering and fitting in with the team’s structures, week in, week out.
And there’s the rub: being part of the team, listening to the coach and working as a unit.
The whisper about the Hothouse is that Hill was more focused on himself than the team. It basically made him uncoachable.
This is a nightmare for a coach, who wants every player rowing in the same direction and “buying in” to a team-first philosophy.
Even when Hill returned from his hand injury in the Heat round 11 loss to Mornington, you could see he still wasn’t fit.
He managed to knock down 35 points, but he was lazy and lacking discipline at the defensive end.
If you’re not working hard for your teammates, particularly in defence, then what is the point of being part of the team? How on earth do you earn the respect of the group?
A hand injury surely doesn’t excuse an athlete from getting on a bike at the gym, or myriad other non-hand exercises to get fit.
A colleague and I suspected that something was wrong with the Hill-Heat relationship a number of weeks ago.
And this week’s news of his exit confirmed it.
The Heat men are pretty much cooked for the season now, as far as finals aspirations go.
After such a promising start to the season, that’s a real shame.
I feel for the locally based players and head coach Calvin Henry.
The guys, who are languishing in eighth, come up against second-placed Pakenham tonight.
They are at long odds to win. But let’s hope they give the same cracking performance as they did in round 8.The dream continues
Earlier in the night at the Hothouse, the Heat women’s team will look to continue their remarkable journey towards a Big V Division 1 finals spot that seemed highly unlikely in early May.
Incredibly, James Madigan’s marvels, who have been wearing an invisible cape over the past month, now sit in fifth spot with a 5-7 record after losing their opening five games of the season.
The Mildura side plays third-placed Western Port (7-4) tonight.
A win is important, but a bigger goal is taking care of business by more than four points to secure a season tie-breaker against the Steelers in the event they finish the regular season level on wins.
Steelers coach Adrian Giblin has stirred the pot ahead of the crunch clash, but I love this stuff.
It puts some extra spice in the game and gives a key target like Vanessa Power a serious point to prove.
I’m tipping the Heat will have their biggest home crowd attendance of the season tonight.
It will be a fascinating contest, and one in which the home crowd could help lift our girls to victory, and cover the four-point head-to-head line.
It’ll be a great story if Power has a blinder tonight, and the team slices and dices the Steelers at both ends of the floor.
Power is obviously a key player in attack, but one of the key inclusions in the Heat team after the tough opening month has been new mum Mikayla Hermans.
She’s punching above her weight in defence, and has made some telling contributions at the attacking end.
The Heat have championship quality written all over them.
Sometimes adversity can lead to great things. It certainly makes the triumph even sweeter.
Madigan’s outfit has four more games left in the home-and-away season. Make them all count, girls.
