Players left in the dark by Wells decision

The news that Mike Wells had decided to step down from his position as Adelaide 36ers coach came as a surprise to most in the basketball community.

Included in that is the playing group at the Sixers, which ESPN’s Olgun Uluc reports didn’t know this move was coming and found out via the club’s press release on Wednesday afternoon.

“The surprising thing about this is, we heard the whispers toward the end of the regular season, that Mike Wells' position would be reviewed,” Uluc said on The Marketplace, presented by Paywise.

“They did do exit meetings, and a player survey to get an idea of how everyone felt about Mike Wells. The position was being discussed, and we knew that.

“But over the past few weeks, it seemed, both publicly and privately, this team was full steam ahead with Mike Wells.

“If you spoke to Bryce Cotton, publicly and privately, he'd be talking about the fact that Mike Wells is staying on. Everyone was talking as though Mike Wells would be staying on.

“Mike was speaking to players as though he would be preparing for next season. Everyone would project as such, and then all of a sudden this happens.

“I'm told it came as a surprise to all of the players because when the 36ers dropped their press release on Mike on a Wednesday afternoon, I'm told that Bryce Cotton didn't know that was coming. Neither did any of the senior players know it was coming. No player knew this was coming.

“This has come as a surprise to a lot of people within that organisation, and that's why this will be an interesting pivot because this wasn't something that a lot of people in that team were preparing for.”

Uluc’s sentiments were echoed by fellow panellist Pete Hooley.

“My first thoughts [on this decision] is surprising and trying to figure out what had happened,” Hooley said.

“By all reports, it didn't just catch us by surprise. It caught everybody by surprise.

“A couple of months ago, you started to hear the rumours when Adelaide were struggling towards the end of the regular season. They lose the Ignite Cup Final and people were talking about how that was going to transpire and what they [Adelaide] were going to do next year.

“After that, after you take the emotion out of a disappointing season or those key points when you review it, everything that we saw was like they’re going to back Mike in, we signed him to an extension.

“We're going to move forward with Mike Wells as the head coach, which I think makes this announcement just so abrupt because as far as we all understood, that's the direction they were heading for NBL27.”

Since the news broke, Uluc has reported that five-time NBL championship-winning coach Trevor Gleeson has emerged as the “frontrunner” for the 36ers gig.

As it stands, the 36ers have Cotton, Zylan Cheatham, Flynn Cameron, Isaac Humphries, Bul Kuol, Isaac White, and Ben Griscti.