When things are tough — and make no mistake, there’s been some particularly hard times of late — the softly-spoken star recruit of the Albury-Wodonga Bandits finds his inner peace on the hardwood.

Having suffered through the recent loss of a beloved family member to illness, it’s no wonder the 30-year-old has made — by his own lofty standards — a quiet start to the SEABL season.

But as hard as it is, George is trying to stay positive, using the time with his team-mates — his “second family” — to shield himself from the emotional pain, if only for a little while.

“I’ve been doing ok, considering the situation I’m in,” George said.

“I’m just happy to be playing again, it’s been a while.

“I’m just trying to get that monkey off my back, once that’s gone, I’m good.

“I’ve just eased back into things, I’m not quite 100 per cent looking forward yet.

“But I love getting out there, the court is a peaceful place for me.

“Throughout my life, no matter what happens, as soon as I step on the court, for two hours I’m out there and I’m at peace.

“I’m at ease and having fun with my team-mates.”

Confirming his desire to be more of a playmaker with the Bandits after several seasons of heavy scoring at Hobart, George sits fourth in the league in assists at five per game.

As far as he’s concerned, with the abundance of talent around him, it makes no sense for him to be hoisting 30 shots a night.

“I don’t think I’ve been playing that bad,” George said.

“But because people know me as a scorer and I haven’t been scoring it seems to be noticeable.

“But at the moment, I’m happy with what I’m doing.

“There’s no pressure, I just like to go out there and have fun, win or lose.”

Albury-Wodonga presently sits second in the East conference with a 3-1 win-loss record and although Geelong dealt the Border club its first loss of the season last week, the early signs look promising.

So promising that George was reluctant to forecast where the Bandits would finish for fear of cursing them.

“I don’t want to jinx us but I think we can go pretty far,” George said.

“Winning our first three games without us being 100 per cent together, we haven’t even clicked yet.

“It’s not quite there yet, but when we do, teams are going to have problems with us.”

The Bandits head to Canberra this weekend for a road double against the young guns of Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence tomorrow night and the Canberra Gunners on Sunday afternoon.

With the Border outfit having smacked the Gunners by 40 points in round one, George declared the Bandits were fully expecting to sweep both games.

“For sure, we need two wins, just to show the league the loss last week was just a minor glitch,” George said.

“We played badly and only lost by nine points and Geelong played well.

“It was good to lose in that we can see the things we need to work on.

“I think we can bounce back with two strong games, we just need to look forward and redeem ourselves.”