Perth Wildcats forward Jesse Wagstaff had the best month of his NBL career to date in January and was recognised with NBL Player of the Month honours during the 'Cats undefeated run, but he is just happy to fly under the radar as much as possible behind the likes of Shawn Redhage, Matt Knight and Luke Nevill.
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Wagstaff already has a championship, NBL Rookie of the Year award and Boomers representation, on his CV as he nears the end of his third season in the league with the Wildcats', and he continues to grow all the time and that was highlighted by his run of form through January.
It started with 10 points and three rebounds in the January 6 win over Melbourne, then he had 25 points and five boards against Gold Coast, 15 and four in Sydney and 13, four and four assists against Townsville to close out the month.
He averaged 15.8 points and four rebounds over those four victories for the Wildcats as well to earn the Player of the Month honours, which he sees as a huge honour.
"It is a huge honour. I think there have been a lot of great names who have come before me this year and it's a huge honour to receive the award. As I said when I got the Player of the Week award, though, it kind of means nothing this week," Wagstaff said.
"If anything it brings more attention to yourself and makes it harder in future games. Myself and the rest of the team will certainly have our work cut out up in Cairns on Friday."
Wagstaff has been pleased with the form he has shown and it also included him shooting 58 per cent from the field over those four games and going 12-of-12 from the free-throw line, but he feels a big part of it is having Redhage, Knight and Nevill in the frontcourt with him.
"It has been good. I've been happy with how I have been playing and I have been fortunate with the other guys on the team. I think I am extremely fortunate coming off the bench behind guys like Shawny, Matt and Nev," he said.
"They are such a threat offensively that I think teams kind of put so much focus on them that I fly under the radar a bit. I think I am fortunate in that respect and I can thank those guys a lot.
"From day one that has been our strength, our depth. This year we are legitimately 11 deep so on any given night if one guy doesn’t perform there is a handful of other guys waiting to step up."
Wagstaff was also happy to see coach Rob Beveridge be rewarded with Coach of the Month honours for January as well.
"It was a good month and I think that is testament to all the hard work he has put in as coach," Wagstaff said.
"He has kept a core group together and we had a really good record for January and that's a testament to his hard work and the hard work of all the guys."
The Wildcats' focus now is on Cairns this Friday night and despite having won up there earlier in this season for the first time since 2008, the 'Cats and Wagstaff certainly know they will have to play well to get a win against a team with a good home court advantage and who is fighting for a playoff spot.
"We are both different teams from then when we played them earlier in the season. They were missing Dusty at the time and it was early on, and both teams have evolved a lot since then," Wagstaff said.
"Last week we had a little drought in the third quarter going 16 possessions without scoring, and when you do that you have to find another way to score. I think we bombed away from the outside a bit too much, so if we can get the ball inside and maybe get to the free-throw line a bit more to score a few cheap buckets that will help us get some momentum going.
"They are a good team. They have been packing it up in Cairns with sell out crowds the last five home games and they obviously have got Dusty Rychart back, and he's a huge piece to their puzzle. They are playing some good basketball. They have a great import point guard and they are definitely tough at home."
