Tasmania’s Shift in Behaviour

Jack McVeigh recently labelled his Tasmania JackJumpers as too nice but their 87-60 win against the Illawarra Hawks sparked a flame to shift their demeanour.

After a slow start saw them down by six at quarter time, the JackJumpers flipped the switch and focused on changing their on court attitude, something which coach Scott Roth has stressed with the team.

“Some teams got a little comfortable playing us and that’s something we continue to talk about and improve upon,” Roth said.

“It was definitely a focus tonight of just making sure that we’re up the floor and being who we’re supposed to be.

“I think that we need to continue to work on being the aggressor and the chips will fall where they may.

“These guys did a really good job of responding and when they came off the bench they were just right into their jobs for the most part. We obviously made some mistakes along the way but for the most part we got after them pretty well.”

Isaac White played a vital role in Thursday night’s game with 11 points and six rebounds for his side. A win at MyState Bank Arena was also a goal for the JackJumpers, with White iterating the satisfaction of showing up for their home crowd.

“It’s something we all take to heart when we let the crowd down and let Tasmania down, it’s something we don’t take lightly,” White said.

“It was a focus going into today’s game, let’s represent Tasmania well and let’s put it on for the crowd…there was a lot more to cheer about tonight.”

The JackJumpers host the New Zealand Breakers on Boxing Day, a test Roth is looking forward to.

“They’re a really good team, they’re well coached and I think we’ll have our hands full with them,” Roth said.

Tasmania and New Zealand will play on Monday night at 7:30pm AEDT.