Melbourne United players continue to impress during extended off-season
There’s plenty to get excited about with the new NBL season rapidly approaching.
As the side continues their preparations ahead of next season, Assistant Coach Justin Schueller sang the praises of star guard Chris Goulding, saying he’s never seen him in greater shape.
Schueller says the improvements Goulding has made on the practise court individually will only aid the team ahead of tip off early next year.
“I don’t think I’ve seen Chris in a better way, to be honest, in my four years with him,” he told Melbourne United Media.
“He has had an outstanding World Cup last year and if you look at the comparison to now, I think his body is in great shape. The way he’s shooting the ball and just his movement as well (is impressive).
“If we can keep him going (and trending upwards), it will put him and the team in the best position they’ve been in for a while.”
Schueller is also very happy to see the positive progress that Mitch McCarron has been making in practice.
“What we’ve seen from Mitch McCarron is continual growth (during the off-season),” he said.
“I think the positive (of the current situation) is someone like Mitch has been able to benefit from that - through not just the strength and conditioning, but the skill work on what he can do on the floor.
“Especially in the direction (he wants to go to and) become our main point-guard, he’s been able to put some decent work in there.”
Japanese guard Yudai Baba has signed on for Melbourne United this season and Schueller, who has worked closely with him in recent weeks, said his ability to shoot the ball stood out during training.
“He’s been my guy this week,” he said.
“The way he shoots the ball is truly exceptional, his attention and the skill (he’s shown in practice) … he’s going to be an exciting player.
“The thing that has really stood out to me is how good he can shoot the ball.”
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High Performance Manager Nik Popovic admitted there were challenges when it comes to scheduling pre-season games due to the pandemic but was hoping sufficient restrictions between states would be eased so some matches could be held.
“I do hear that there could be some form of formal pre-season games played,” Popovic said.
“Whether it’s a blitz (competition) or something similar, there’s challenges with that so I’m not too sure where that’s going.
“But we would welcome playing those games at some point in time, whether it’s in November or December.
“In order to (play some pre-season games), we would need some restrictions eased where we could have some physical contact training because currently, we aren’t doing any contact training.
“Most of our drills are five versus zero and individual work and you can’t go five on five at the moment given the restrictions in place.”
The basketball world awaits further news from NBL HQ about NBL21, but one thing is for sure; Melbourne United is excited to get back onto Melbourne Arena and play in front of 10,000 screaming members and fans, as soon as possible.
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