Hawks: 'Urgency', 'accountability', 'non-negotiables'

The Illawarra Hawks are one from one under interim head coach Justin Tatum, and star import Gary Clark has praised the accountability to the defensive end the new leader has brought the side.

The Hawks overcame New Zealand by four points in a defensive slugfest of a game. Illawarra’s 69 points were enough to register the lowest winning score of the season, while the Breakers’ 65 is the lowest team score of the season so far.

Only six players for the entire game – three from each team – scored more than five points.

“It started with coach being very clear and firm with our non-negotiables, telling guys what he expects and holding guys accountable all week,” Clark said post-game. “There’s a sense of urgency for guys to do the right thing defensively, so they can stay on the court.

“That’s why you see guys like Biwali (Bayles) getting minutes, because he’s a pest and one of our most active guys energy-wise and that fuels our defence ... our defence starting with coach and his intensity at the start of the week and then it rolled over the guys like ‘J-Rob’ (Justin Robinson) and Biwali guarding the ball, and then everybody else is attentive and ready.

“It was very obvious if you weren’t doing your job defensively. When we went down we got stops on our defence, when we went up it was because of our defence.

“Guys know ‘I have to play defence to stay on court. I have to box out, I have to rebound, I have to communicate’. That’s one of the biggest things, as loud as it was in there, I didn’t hear any of their (New Zealand's) guys all night because our guys were so loud starting with Sam (Froling), Biwali, Tyler (Harvey).

“There weren’t many moments where you didn’t hear two or three guys demanding what was going on the court and that comes from coach all week, with him being loud and what he’s demanding from us.”

The clash with the Breakers was the first time Tatum has ever coached men at a professional level, after he initially linked up with the Hawks as a scout and advisor to basketball operations.

Tatum has an extensive history as a high school and development coach, and says he enjoyed the challenge of coaching the Hawks for the first time in the win.

“It was fun for me, basketball is a fun game and coaching is fun, but this, for me, was a different speed, it was a different talent and pace. These guys are very good at what they do, but it was very fun for me to come out there and be with this group of guys I’ve been with for the past four months,” he said.

“Coaching professional men is very challenging, but it’s exciting because these guys are really, really good at what they do. My guys came out very well and I’m just happy to be able to enjoy this win.

“That we can be pretty good. We knew this in the beginning as we were recruiting these guys to play for the Hawks that we had a very talented team, we just had to find ways of putting it together, we had a really good practice this week coming into Auckland, and we expected to play better, play well and give ourselves the chance to win.”

Like the rest of the NBL, the Hawks will not play this weekend due to the FIBA international break. Their next fixture isn’t until Sunday, December 3, when they play Brisbane.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">THAT&#39;S HOW YOU PUT YOUR TEAM AHEAD IN THE LAST MINUTE GARY CLARK ??<br><br>Catch the action live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies | 10 Peach and 10 Play | Sky Sports in NZ ? <a href="https://t.co/l9yx5phelg">pic.twitter.com/l9yx5phelg</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1726099719347224685?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Clark says an extended training block during the fixture-less period will set the team up well for success over the rest of the season.

“We’ve got a week, two weeks of practice to really get our x’s and o’s down on offence and defence,” he said.

“On offence we weren’t in a place where we could really figure things out, but two weeks of that – we’re excited to get back to the ‘Gong and get some wins for Hawks fans.”