THE Albury-Wodonga Bandits have targeted heart attack victim Eric Smith as their No.1 recruiting priority for next year — provided the US import can obtain a medical clearance.
If the high-flying forward is cleared to play, he would make a sensational return to the Border 12 months on from suffering a heart attack that threatened to derail his promising basketball career and ruined the Bandits’ high hopes for the 2009 season.
After a drama-filled campaign that resulted in yet another wooden spoon for the Border club, a post-season player exodus and the resignation of coach James Madigan, vice-president of basketball operations Matt Morgan said the Bandits had committed to a three-year plan that would hopefully identify and allow young local players to thrive at SEABL level.
“Our first option for the group is Eric Smith,” Morgan said.
“We’ve spoken with Eric about returning, he’s emailed us back and is keen to come and it’s just a matter now of getting the proper medical clearance and his paperwork authorised out here.
“He can guard the perimeter, he can guard centres, he can shoot the three, he’s got an NBA body and we’re going to be relying heavily on our imports for scoring.”
Morgan admitted the Bandits were almost certainly not going to be a play-off team in 2010 but stressed the view was to develop local players for the future, rather than “treading water” like they had been for the past three seasons.
“We’re going with two imports; a young Australian player from out of town, like a SEABL D-League player, and just the local young kids,” Morgan said.
“We’re going to throw the young kids in there, the Jack Ducks and the Matty Asquiths, to see if they can step up.
“They’re going to play and we’re going to find out if they can play at this level.
“Yeah, we might cop an ass-kicking but guess what? We’ve won five games in the past two years so not much is going to change is it?
“So we need to get the locals up to speed so we can bring through the next lot of Grylewiczes, Blacks, Goodings, Chalmers and Paynes.”
The Bandits suffered a blow to their vision with the resignation of Madigan on Thursday but Morgan was hopeful the Border outfit would be able to find an improvement-minded replacement.
“What we’re looking for is a development coach who is, believe it or not, willing to lose some games for the betterment of the team,” he said.
“Next weekend we’ve got a training camp for all local players, hopefully we’ll have some good numbers there.
“So we’re going to back to basics, time trials, skinfold tests, we’ll get them fit and then see if they can play.”
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