36ers issue ‘scary’ warning to NBL27 rivals

It may have been his first game coaching in the NBL, but Marko Marinovic is no stranger to the role. Now with a perfect record, he gave the credit to his Adelaide 36ers players, from Bryce Cotton to Keanu Rasmussen.

The 36ers are already showing what they are capable of, and Bul Kuol, Flynn Cameron and Isaac Humphries are still to return. Marinovic has no doubt Adelaide will end up being quite a force in NBL27.

“We don’t want to talk about like that we miss some players and that we have injured players, and we know they are a really important part of our group, but it’s next man mentality,” Marinovic said.

“That’s how we came back and we won these last two really, really big games for us and truly, we know our quality and we didn’t panic at all and we believe in our system, and in Trev’s system.

“We will keep working, we’re working hard and I think late when we all come back we’ll be scary to play against.”

With Trevor Gleeson back in Perth for his son’s graduation, Marinovic was in charge of the Sixers as they took on the League-leading Tasmania JackJumpers in Hobart on Friday night.

Marinovic did an impressive job in the win. Adelaide came from 10 points down in the second quarter to open up its own 13-point edge in the third, then prevailed 94-88 thanks to 8 points in the last two minutes from Cotton.

The Sixers are now 4-4, having won their last two games in Sydney and Tasmania following a three-game losing run, and Marinovic praised the players for their response.

“It was a really, really big game for us after a slow start to the season to get these two away wins after being on the road for some time, it’s good to get these away wins early in the season,” Marinovic said.

“I wanna thank Trev and the organisation for believing in me first of all and then I want to thank the players, this is my third season being here and last season we had games like this right.

“So this is nothing new for us and this is how we’re going to build our champions habits actually, and we need these type of games especially for the bench guys who never have been in this situation before.

“It’s really good for them to win the game and also for us to stay in the spot to play playoffs, we don’t wanna be with the bottom teams.”