Week 16 Men's SBL Player Column – Damien Scott

I'm loving my basketball at the moment. Coming over to Willo last year was a big decision but it's been made easy because these boys and the club have been so welcoming. We have a lot of fun on and off the court and I look forward to going to training to see these boys every week and to play with them, so it's the perfect mix.

I'm pretty happy with the move but it was definitely tough to leave Cockburn. I spoke to all the people I needed to before I made the decision and I think it was the right thing for me. I came here to play under Al and that was a good thing for me with all his experience. I wanted to learn as much from him as I could and now in my second year here it is working out great.

It was sad to see Al leave but there's not a lot of difference between him and Steve as a coach, and Steve is more than capable of pulling us together as well. They preach a lot of the same sort of things and we trust Steve just as much as we trusted Al with everything. Nothing has changed too much despite the changeover in coach early in the year.

Personally I am trying to work on my all-round game as much as I can. I was a little bit erratic when I started my career but I've slowed down a little since then and try to see the pace the game is played at and adjust along with that. I have learned to just find my place of when to take it on and when not to. As the two man, I'm trying to get a few more boards as well and then it's not hard to get an assist on this team when you have Jay and Kyle sitting out on the three-point line who are knockdown shooters who rarely miss when open.

We have patches as a team where I feel like no one can stop us. We've had a few quarters like against Lakeside a few weeks ago where we went 10-of-13 from the three-point line in the second quarter. We can just blow teams away and we know if we can get that sort of run going and get our spacing all correct I feel like we are a massive contender.

JJ has been a massive inclusion for us this year. He is a massive body and his competitiveness is probably his biggest strength, and he is a great passer for a big guy as well. Chuck comes off the bench for us and gives us a bunch of everything offensively and defensively, but it's at the defensive end where he has an especially big impact where he can change shots for us just by using his length and that's a great addition to our team.

Then there's Jay who has come into the group and become our first option. He is another great all-round player who scores a lot, plays great D and he plays every game like it's his last. I'm very happy just running down the other wing watching Jay do his thing every week. It's a lot of fun.

And then we have Kyle doing a great job running the whole team. He is our captain and his leadership really sets the example for the whole group. He leads us from the front and he's just such a good all-round player as well.

I did enjoy my time at Cockburn and it's good to see them up and about again this year. I feel like if we finish third and they finish second, which is looking possible at the moment, then we could have a derby semi-final series if we get past the first round. That would be something we'd all love to play in. You live to play in big games against rivals and having the whole crowd into it would make it exciting.

I've enjoyed my time at the Wildcats and you never give up on that NBL dream, but I am just concentrating on playing well here at Willo and seeing what happens down the track. The better I play here then the better my chances of something like that happening, so I can't afford to get to far ahead of myself.

Myself, Nic and Kyle have all had a bit of a look in previously and would love more of an opportunity, but it's not something we talk about or focus on. Our full attention is on playing with Willo and trying to win the championship here.

It's exciting to be playing in a good team again. Winning games is one of the best feelings ever and we are doing that. Basketball is that much more fun when you are winning and that's what we are doing, and we want to keep it going.

It's a lot of fun playing the way that we are playing as well. Getting out and running is what Steve wants us to do, and we are showing that we can blow teams away in patches of games. Our game style fits everyone in our team and it's all based on a lot of running, passing and kicking.




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