Hired as cover, he’s become Tasmania’s spark

When Scott Roth needed to replace Anthony Drmic, he was thrilled Kody Stattmann was available. When he then lost Nick Marshall, he handed Stattmann the challenge to step up, with full faith he could do exactly what he did on Sunday.

Stattmann produced the best game of his 71-match NBL career in Brisbane, pouring in 28 points on 6/11 from three-point range and 8/8 at the stripe, along with 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals in the Tasmania JackJumpers’ 104-92 win.

Roth will always empower his players once they’ve earned his trust, and it didn’t take Stattmann long to do that. He first joined the JackJumpers as an injury replacement player earlier in NBL27, then was upgraded to a full roster spot when Drmic was forced into retirement with a back injury.

When Marshall went down with an ankle injury last week, Roth had no qualms throwing Stattmann into the starting line-up for the road double. He responded with 11 points and 6 rebounds in 32 minutes in Thursday night’s loss in Perth before going to another level on Sunday.

Stattmann set the tone from the opening tip, scoring Tasmania’s first 11 points. Nick Stoddart then came off the bench and added the next 8 himself, so the pair combined for 19 of the JackJumpers’ 21 first-quarter points. Stoddart went on to equal his career-high of 14 points.

Afterwards, Roth was pleased to see both players embrace their opportunity.

“I mean it’s just like anything else, the more you’re on the floor, the more confidence you gain so that’s happened with Statt, and it’s the same thing with Stoddy (Nick Stoddart),” Roth said.

“The more minutes you get, the more comfortable you can become and unfortunately, when they’re coming off the bench, the leash is a little bit shorter for these guys to acclimatise themselves as quickly as possible.

“But in Statt’s situation, I’ve always believed he was an NBL legitimate player that would be in a rotation somewhere, and these are valuable minutes he’s getting and time on the floor for us as hopefully we slowly get Nick Marshall back and then David Johnson back soon.”

With five rostered players currently sidelined, Stoddart has relished both his increased role and the chance to play alongside Stattmann once more.

“Yeah, I mean it’s been really fun to reconnect with Kody,” Stoddart said.

“First of all, we played against each other growing up and it’s been fun to reconnect and to see him do his thing, and to be able to pitch myself against him has been really cool.

“And I’m definitely grateful for the opportunity to be able to get out there and do my thing.

“For me, it’s just being able to lock in, pay attention, do all the right things, pay attention to the scout and be able to execute on the offensive end.

“I was just trying to play my natural game and trying to be able to contribute to winning.”

The win lifts the JackJumpers to 9-4 and keeps them second on the ladder, and they return home to host the Illawarra Hawks at MyState Bank Arena on Saturday, with tip-off at 5:30pm (AEDT).