Dubbo Rams guard Dan Medway believes Dubbo Basketball is riding the crest of a wave at the moment, and is hopeful of more on-court success when the Rams host Newcastle in the Waratah League on Saturday night.
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The arrival of American import Conrad Etchi, combined with a strong junior program, has created plenty of positive vibes within the hoops community and with the mens side riding the wave of two consecutive wins the Woolshed is all of a sudden booming once again.
“I think the board deserves a lot of credit, and what they’re doing at that level is filtering right down to the on-court stuff,” Medway said.
“The boys are pretty pumped at the moment, and everybody involved with basketball is buzzing, which is great.
“It helps winning games as well, and now that we’ve got that taste of winning we want to keep going.”
The Rams have struggled in the years since former American star Daniel Mercer left the city, with the emphasis on local talent resulting in very few wins.
But what it has done is help create a solid core group, expose the players to a high standard of basketball, and allow Etchi to filter into a very close-knit squad.
“We’ve done it tough the past couple of years particularly but the boys have kept turning up and they’ve been getting experience,” Medway said.
“Guys like Nick Conte, Zac Mills and Adam Wheeler have come through the juniors, had some exposure at this level, and now are holding their own, and we’ve even been able to start using the word ‘depth’.
“Add Con to that and it has helped create a pretty good squad. The promotion of basketball has been great and the atmosphere up at Sportsworld has been awesome in recent times.”
Newcastle will arrive for Saturday night’s match with not much known about them, as they play in a different pool of the Waratah League competition.
But the chance to line up against a different opposition is one the Rams are looking forward to.
“They’ve traditionally been pretty strong but their season record isn’t much different to ours, and we haven’t played them for a long, long time,” Medway said.
“For years we’ve played against mainly the same teams each season, but they’ve introduced crossover games and it does give us a chance to take to the court against some different opposition. We don’t know what to expect but I suspect Newcastle don’t know what to expect either.”
Tip-off is at 5pm.