Aussie sees Pinoy cage upswing

SYDNEY – Australian national U-19 coach Damian Cotter said yesterday it’s just a matter of time before Filipinos break into the global basketball stage because in his mind, Lithuania and the Philippines are the only two countries in the world where the game is loved with an unbridled passion.

Cotter, 41, recently led Australia to fourth place at the FIBA World U-19 Championships in Prague and has just been appointed one of two assistant coaches with the Australian national senior women’s team nicknamed the Opals. Golden State center Andrew Bogut was one of Cotter’s protégés when the seven-foot center played with the Australian juniors.

Cotter expressed his views on the game during a STAR interview at the New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) center at the Olympic Park. After the interview, Cotter welcomed 20 elite basketball players, aged 17 to 20, who were awarded one-year scholarships at NSWIS, a high-performance facility inaugurated in 1996 with the goal of providing a comprehensive spectrum of support services to emerging athletes.

Cotter and Australian paralympic men’s team coach Ben Ethridge supervise NSWIS’ basketball program. “I’m surprised that no Filipino has been recruited from the Philippines to play in the US NCAA or the NBA,” said Cotter, a master’s degree holder from Sydney University. “In 2010, the Philippine national team was in Sydney with coach (Rajko) Toroman and beat our U-18 team by about 20 points. I was impressed by the skill level and physicality of the Filipinos. The guards were excellent shooters. I know how Filipinos love basketball and scouts should realize there are Filipino players out there ready to make the big jump internationally.”

Cotter opened the NSWIS doors to Filipinos, explaining that the Institute’s holistic approach will benefit players of different levels. “I can relate with the Philippine disadvantage in size because at the World U-19 Championships, we were small and younger than most other teams,” he said. “We also had athleticism issues. China had a 7-2 player (Zhou Qi) and some guards who were deadly shooters and we lost to them (88-79) in the second round crossover. But we upset No. 1 Spain, 87-76, in the knockout quarterfinals and lost to Serbia by five in the semifinals after losing to them in the first round by 21. We lost to Lithuania, 106-100, in overtime in the playoff for third. Considering our handicaps, including injuries to several key players, we didn’t do badly and that’s because our guys were well-conditioned. Our top shooting guard Mirko Dejeric couldn’t play. We played a do-or-die game against Russia to determine which of us would go to the quarterfinals and what was first an arm-wrestling match turned out to be a 15-point difference in the last eight minutes when they got tired. We’re not as athletic as Serbia or Lithuania or Russia but because we’re trained to play hard, we pushed those teams to the limit.”

Cotter said he has been offered to conduct basketball clinics in Russia. He began coaching in the third level of basketball at 25 and has now logged eight years of experience in the international game. Cotter has conducted a FIBA Europe clinic in Romania.

Cotter said coaches must be educators if they hope to influence players to be disciplined. “When we bring a new batch of basketball scholars to NSWIS, the first thing we do is aerobic conditioning to build up upper body and core strength,” he said. “We want to develop a culture of getting fit. We advise the players the type of food to eat and when. We use a wellness chart and monitor their weight every day. We check the minutes they play and determine the extent of their hydration. Because basketball isn’t a major sport in Australia, the process of selecting our elite players is critical. We want the education to start with the U-16 team as we expect the life cycle of a national athlete to be about six years.”

Cotter said the three pillars of player development are education with career support, strength, agility and conditioning and skill development. He quoted Michael Jordan as saying, “Talent may get you to the top but hard work will keep your there.” Cotter shunned the three Ss which players should never be----soft, stupid and selfish. “I understand Kobe Bryant takes 1,000 shots in practice a week and 10,000 during the offseason,” he said. “Work ethic implies commitment, sacrifice, habits and honesty. Adaptability means handling outside influences, dealing with discouragement and enduring adversity. Progression presumes preparation, knowledge and performance. Finally, gratitude is important as grateful people are positive people.” Cotter encouraged the new NSWIS scholars to take advantage of the opportunity to take their game to the next level and not to squander the chance of a lifetime.