The Castec Rural Pioneers are set for a big weekend of basketball in the NBL1 South conference as they play a double header at Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre against the Sandringham Sabres and Eltham Wildcats.
The weekend will feature a special milestone for Pioneers head coach Richard Hill who will coach his 300th game on Friday night, with Hill saying that it’s a nice achievement that he could not have done alone.
“It’s nice, the fact that I’m doing it here for so long tells you there’s so many good people doing a lot of good things,” he said.
“I share my job with three assistant coaches who are all life members at the club and a manager that’s a life member at the club and for me that’s all pretty special and that’s the most important thing for me.”
Tomorrow night the Pioneers will kick off their double header weekend as the Sandringham Sabres come to town.
The Sabres have not gotten away to the best of starts as they sit last on the ladder with a record of zero and three.
Sandringham struggled in their first two games but played quite well against Hobart last weekend as they only went down by four.
The Pioneers are coming off a tough one point loss last Friday night and will look to bounce back as they had several tough patches throughout the game which played a factor in their first loss of the season.
Mount Gambier struggled with rebounding last game which will be an area of improvement for the side heading into the weekend.
The Sabres’ Malith Machar looks set to be a player who will cause problems for the Pioneers with his scoring ability.
On Saturday night the Pioneers will be back on the court as they take on last year’s NBL1 South champions the Eltham Wildcats.
Eltham have had a solid start to the season as they sit ninth on the ladder with one win and one loss.
The Wildcats have got a solid roster with several players who won the chip last year along with a few new additions.
One of them is Mitch McCarron who is a respected veteran player who has a bunch of experience at the NBL level and will certainly be good to watch on Saturday night.
Another is Gabe Hadley who has been the Sabres’ top scorer this season.
Hadley has been a deadly scorer so far and a threat from deep as he is coming off a big game from deep as he hit six of 10 from three.
A player set to have a big weekend for the Pioneers will be Kaden Archie who played his first game last Friday night.
Archie missed the first two games of the season due to clearance issues but he was back on Friday night.
He started a bit slow in the match but got hot in the final term and helped his side get back into the match.
Archie’s athleticism and ability to get to the basketball will cause a lot of problems for Sandringham and Eltham and he will be a great player to watch.
Hill believes this week will be a good challenge for his team as they go up against two sides with quite different rosters from last season.
“This weekend is not going to be any easier,” he said.
“While Sandringham are not quite the team they were last year they’re still very strong, they’re suffering because they have not had any preseason, most of their coaches and players are all involved in Melbourne United so they would not have had any preseason at all.
“Eltham were the championship team last year but they have lost a lot of high level players but they have replaced them very well so I’d expect they will be right in the firing line again, so it’s a tough weekend ahead.”
Hill believes that his side will match up well against Sandringham’s guards, along with Akech Aliir who he thinks will be in for a big game.
“We certainly have an advantage in the guard department I think so I think our guards should set us up,” he said.
“Akech (Aliir) is an elite player so he will be very difficult for them to stop, he would have trained with most those guys all year so it’s going to be interesting to see how that shakes out.”
