Tara Murray
Keilor Thunder has received a massive boost with South Sudan captain Kuany Kuany finally arriving and ready to take to the court in the National Basketball League 1 South competition.
The Thunder announced the signing of the 2022 NBL1 South all-star five player on Friday ahead of his debut last Saturday.
Speaking before the announcement, coach Liam Glascott was pretty excited to finally have him available to play.
“He’s the one that we have been waiting on,” he said.
“He was really good last season in the NBL1 all star with Bendigo. He will add a lot of value to both ends of the court.
“He can play anywhere from one through to four and can average 20 points a game in this league.
“He will help us with the offence and the communication side of the defence.”
Glascott said they were hoping the arrival of Kuany would help take the side to the next level.
The club sat 4-6 after 10 matches.
“We know that we can beat anyone in the competition,” he said. “We have the ability to score 100 points a game.
“If we can execute on both ends of the court, follow the scout we can hopefully get some more wins.
“As a team we’ve taken some steps forward and there’s a lot of positivity out of the group.”
Glascott said the arrival of Kuany would help add some more experience to the side. He said a lack of experience proved costly in round seven.
“We let two games slip against Hobart and RIngwood. We led in the final three minutes of the game, but couldn’t close the game.
“We had a few niggling injuries as we;;. It was Evan Wardlow’s first game back after three weeks.”
Glascott said he had been happy with the additions of Oliver Hayes-Brown and Robbie Heath this season, both who have NBL experience.
But it’s youngster Zac Triplett that is leading the way. Triplett is averaging more than 21 points per game
Glascott said it was exciting to see what Triplett was doing, after he missed most of last year through injury.
“To see guys like Zac, who is a Keilor junior coming through the ranks,” he said.
“You like seeing what all the team has done, but I’ve known him since he was 10-years-old and I’ve seen him grow and develop and take his game to the next level.”
With 12 games left in the season, heading into last weekend’s matches, Glascott said their season was still alive but they needed to put some more wins on the board soon.
The Thunder were set to face Frankston and Waverley on the weekend, after deadline.
The Thunder split the two matches, losing to Frankston and beating Waverley.
