How big a loss is Lisch?
MELBOURNE (Paulo Kennedy’s View from Downunder) – One month from now the world and we will be into our first FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifying window, but Kevin Lisch won’t be making his way to Boomers training camp.
Sadly, last week while playing for the Sydney Kings, the 31-year-old suffered the ignominy of the “old man’s injury”, a serious grade two calf tear, making this a 2017 Series piece with a difference.
With an expected eight-week recovery he is no chance of suiting up for Australia for the pair of November qualifiers in Chinese Taipei and Adelaide against Japan. So how much of a loss is it? And will we see Lisch in green and gold in 2018?
Sydney Kings Kevin Lisch will miss 8 wks w torn calf, following scans. Management considering roster options, update in due course pic.twitter.com/nzVgko5fW3
— Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) October 16, 2017
Well, one thing we saw with Sydney’s meek dismissal by the New Zealand Breakers on Thursday night, the Kings certainly missed his never-say-die competitiveness and his international-level defence.
Now the Boomers have a much stronger culture than the ever-changing Kings, and have a far more accomplished coach in Andrej Lemanis, and won a gold medal at the FIBA Asia Cup without the feisty naturalised American.
However, that doesn’t mean Lisch’s absence won’t leave a hole. Lemanis and Dave Andersen have made it clear they see the qualifiers as a fantastic opportunity to hand the Boomers culture over to another group of emerging players.
The potential presence of players like Andersen, Lisch, Adam Gibson, Chris Goulding, Damian Martin and Brad Newley gives the opportunity for the new guys to see first-hand what made the Rio Olympics team click.
One of those things is intensity and workrate, no one played harder than the Boomers, that’s the way Aussies expect their national teams to be. While Lisch is a blow-in to these shores, he embodies those traits incredibly well.
“I just love his work ethic,” Lemanis said in the off-season.
“He’s so committed and he’s so committed to the team as well, I love the way that he plays defence and gets after it. For someone who’s a scorer he’s very good at the defensive end.”
Lemanis says Lisch leads by example on the training court and communicates well on game day, something that will be of high importance given the limited preparation time for the qualifying games.
“It’s one thing for coaches to sit there on the sideline and say stuff but when players are able to on-court connect with one another and make adjustments on the fly, that’s the most effective thing you can do, and I think Kevin is going to be good for us in that space,” he said.
Of course, the question many people ask is where does Lisch fit in the Boomers line-up? Listed at a generous 1.88m, the St Louis University product is a shooting guard in a point man’s body.
In Rio he was far more effective from a plus-minus perspective playing alongside Martin and Matthew Dellavedova than fellow two-man Patty Mills. Of course, both Martin and Delly can defend shooting guards without a trouble, restricting potential mismatches.
That said, there are few off-guards in Asia who Lisch wouldn’t back himself against, so maybe this isn’t an issue in the short term, or the sheer determination with which he takes on any defensive assignment.
Even though Lisch struggled somewhat in Rio after an excellent first game against France, Lemanis is backing him to find his feet in the FIBA format.
“Going into Rio he was the only one who was in his first year with me, and that’s tough,” Lemanis said.
“Understanding how do I fit, what does the coach want, how does this all work, what are the defensive and offensive frameworks, am I allowed to shoot this shot by what’s good for the team.
“He was working his way through that and he’ll obviously be in a much better position this time around having gone through that initial experience and now just having a comfort level in the Boomers environment, where he fits in it and having gone through the international basketball component.
“It’s a different game, and it just takes a little while to find your way in it.”
While Lisch won’t be there in November, the respect Lemanis has for his game suggests he has every chance of playing a key role from February onwards.
And as Gibson has shown over the years, along with many other players around the world, once you have shown you can fill a role for your national team, it can take a lot for someone to tip you out, even those with more decorated resumes.
Telling his @AdelLightning players he had cancer devastated Chris Lucas. His story of his coaching return inspires. https://t.co/94F076WUxR pic.twitter.com/rzLzFyxB6K
— Rob Greenwood (@robgreenwood1) October 19, 2017
Finally, fantastic news this week with Adelaide Lightning coach Chris Lucas cleared to return to coaching after having a cancerous tumour removed.
For those unfamiliar with the story, during the World University Games, where he led the Emerging Opals to gold, Lucas developed back pains that were found to be caused by the tumour upon an MRI.
The news stunned Australian basketball circles, but it’s a real relief to hear things have gone so well so quickly, and let’s hope it is well and truly beaten and this is the last we ever read about Chris’ battle with cancer.
Paulo Kennedy
FIBA
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