JackJumpers Happy to End Gruelling Travel Schedule

The Tasmania JackJumpers are happy the hard yards of a hectic road trip to start the season is over, as they head home for Saturday’s clash with the Brisbane Bullets.

The JackJumpers won in Perth against the Wildcats, 85-77, on Thursday night, after flying to Western Australia directly from New Zealand.

Six of Tasmania’s first nine games have been on the road including two trips to New Zealand, two to Melbourne and one each to Perth and Adelaide.

“The last five weeks, our travel has been quite unique, and I’m happy that parts over with,” coach Scott Roth said.

“This was quite a long road trip for us, and this is the finish of a really really difficult travel for the last five weeks for us, and we’re thankful to move on from here.

“The travel is what we’ve kind of gotten away, and now the next two months we don’t have as quite amounts of bouncing around.”

Despite the tough schedule, Tasmania is 5-4 and are in a comfortable position.

“When we’re consistent defensively and the ball moves offensively for us, we’re quite a handful at times, and I just love our guys. Just a pack of guys that just grind and grit and we defend the island the best we can,” Roth said.

“All this growth is ahead of us, and this is just a good bounce back game.

“We do quite a bit of drill work. My assistant coaches are incredible. Jacob Chance, Mark Radford and Jack Fleming are breaking down our offence and getting us to the second side and trusting that the ball will come back to you.”

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Star Jack McVeigh was the highest scorer for the JackJumpers on Thursday with 22 points, also producing six rebounds, two assists and one steal.

McVeigh and Roth are excited to see the back of the last five weeks of travel and the long-haul flights, providing some humour to constantly waiting around airports and planes.

“When you sit with the letter E with your seat name attached to it, you’re doomed. That means you’re in the middle of an aisle and you fly for hours and I’m 6’9 and fat, and that’s not a good deal for me, and so I’m happy that these longer trips are over with,” Roth laughed.

“We’ll get to the lounge and play some domino’s, Jet (Josh Magette) will probably win and then we’ll show up and play hard,” McVeigh said.

The JackJumpers host the Brisbane Bullets on Saturday at 5:30pm AEDT.