Mountaineers off to flying start
Taking on teams from across south-east Queensland, the Toowoomba side, made up of established Mountaineers and fringe squad players, proved too strong for their opponents, finishing the tournament undefeated from five games.
While impressed with his players' performances in their first games together for 2011, Mountaineers coach Pop Dickerson knows plenty of improvement is still needed from his charges.
“We won all of our games but in saying that, they were games we should have won,” Dickerson said.
With the Queensland Basketball League not starting until April, Dickerson is using these tournaments as a way of unearthing new talent to help Toowoomba snap their losing streak.
Dickerson was particularly impressed with the exploits of Dalby guard Chris Hamill who has previous QBL experience with the Northside Wizards.
“He ran the show really well and showed a lot of presence with the ball,” Dickerson said. “To me he looked quite a classy player.”
Young forward Dario Streebl, who looked impressive on his way to finishing runner-up at the inaugural National One-on-One Basketball Association tournament in Toowoomba on January 8, also caught Dickerson's eye.
“He's a kind of streaky player who runs up and down the court well and plays really hard,” Dickerson said.
Dickerson called the tournament “a war of attrition” with each team required to play five full games in the space of six hours.
“It was great fitness for us and it gave us the opportunity to run a few plays,” he said.
“It was like a six-hour training session.”
Dickerson says the Mountaineers' next practice matches will most likely come against Darling Downs sides from the Regional Basketball League.
“We want to keep that continuity going and to do that we need to play against other regional clubs,” Dickerson said.
“The season doesn't start until April so we're going to take it slow and I don't want to put a great deal of pressure on the players.
“But we've got to keep having games to keep building combinations and momentum.”
AFTER two years without a win, the Toowoomba Mountaineers got their 2011 campaign off to a positive start at the Redlands basketball tournament on Saturday.
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