Defending the Island already on show

The Tasmania JackJumpers have started the season without four, and now five, key players but still had a first up win and had a chance at a second with coach Scott Roth proud of how already they are Defending the Island.

There was rightfully great excitement coming into NBL27 with the roster that the JackJumpers had built, but all of a sudden being without Ben Ayre, Josh Bannan and Anthony Drmic to start the season put a dent in that.

Throw in that they already knew that they would be without Bryce Hamilton as he recovers from a knee reconstruction and then losing Majok Deng in the first up win against the South East Melbourne Phoenix, and from a personnel perspective, it could hardly have gone worse.

The JackJumpers then found themselves 20 points down to the Cairns Taipans last Wednesday night in Cairns but still managed to fire back and even hit the front in the second half before the eventual six-point defeat with a missed call on Dakota Mathias taking a three proving crucial.

Given all those circumstances, Roth couldn’t be prouder of the fight his team has shown over the first two games of NBL27.

"It's the grit and grind of the JackJumpers and I'm sure we'll get smacked around at times over the course of the season," Roth said.

"But the motto of Defending the Island and representing Tasmanians, and showing up to do our jobs as long as I'm the head coach is going to be the standard of the people that wear that green jersey.

"Our guys continue to just keep on fighting and those are really, really good signs for us and we just have to build off of it."

Given the circumstances the JackJumpers found themselves in of not having Ayre to help Taran Armstrong in the one spot, not having the experience and size of Bannan and Deng up front, missing the experience, shooting and energy of Drmic, and the class of Hamilton, and most teams would struggle to compete.

But what Roth sets as the base mark is going out to compete and give your all no matter how much talent you have, and that's exactly what the JackJumpers continue to do.

"Going into my sixth year, I'm always proud of my guys and I'm never here to do anything but make sure they are doing the best they can and doing the right things," Roth said.

"They always seem to show up and I love my guys to death, and this is another really good group.

"We had four guys out who are very valuable to us, and you add Hamilton to that and that's five of them out, and to come on a road trip like this and give yourself a chance in the fourth, that's all you can ask for."

Taran Armstrong has been among the shining lights for the first two games of the season with Tasmania with the Burnie born-and-raised point guard providing a total of 39 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds while playing 67 minutes.

Roth never doubted what he could bring to the JackJumpers and is proud to have the first Tasmanian local as part of the full roster as he finds his feet again after not playing much this past season with Dubai.

"I think he's just going to get better and better, and he's got a little bit of rust on him for a year of not playing as much as he'd like especially when he went to Dubai," Roth said.

"He was more in more of a bench and backup role which didn’t give him a lot of minutes so he's only going to get better as the season goes on for us. He's quite the competitor and we're super proud to have really our first full-roster Tasmanian."

Last season the front court trio of the JackJumpers with Will Magnay, Bannan and Deng was as good as any combination in the league when they were healthy.

However, when one of them was missing they were sorely missed and that's why it was crucial to get them some more help in NBL27. That's where Ben Gold comes in fresh off his college career at Marquette University.

The Kiwi has slotted in nicely helping out Magnay up front across the first two games combining for eight points, six rebounds and four blocks while playing 40 minutes.

"In hindsight I probably should have played him a little bit more but he's going to be extremely valuable to us obviously," Roth said.

"He's a hell of a player and he's also a kid that had a hell of a college career, and hasn’t got a lot of reps in since he's come back from his injury over the summer.

"I think he's got some rust on him also but he's a hard worker, he's got a great future ahead of him and we're obviously very, very excited to have him. He was a huge target for us when we were going through our signings."

Another JackJumpers player who continues to step up and play whatever role is asked of him is Nick Marshall in his second season in Tasmania.

He had a breakout NBL26 and now has started this new season even better including taking on the defensive role on Jack McVeigh last Wednesday night against the Taipans and helping to limit him to 17 points on 6/16 shooting.

"He thrives in our system and he's a worker, and we have a lot of workers, but he's quite diligent and is really turning into a great professional," Roth said.

"He just continues to build on his resume from last year with us where he kinda got thrown in the fire and not only did he get thrown in the fire, he thrived.

"So he's kinda taking over from what he did last year and we're expecting obviously good things from him, and he's a wonderful kid too so he fits the character of the JackJumpers."

Deng, Hamilton, Drmic and Ayre will all remain sidelined for the Round 3 double for the JackJumpers at home to Melbourne United on Thursday and away to the Brisbane Bullets on Saturday while Bannan will be a game time decision.

Some reinforcements have arrived in the form of Kody Stattmann to provide another scoring and shooting punch, and with Biwali Bayles to help with the ball handling and playmaking duties.

But whoever is out there, Roth just expects his players to continue to fight with pride.

"When or how we get them together I don't know, but I think the roster on paper, which is not what we're seeing, is good," Roth said.

"And I think a lot of teams are in some mode of that too of not quite having all their guys so hopefully our guys get healthy sooner or later, but our fight's not gonna change.

"Bannan is week-to-week now and he's very, very close so I don’t know if that's this game or not but he's close and unfortunate Majok Deng will be down for three or four weeks which is quite unfortunate.

"Ben Ayre's three or four weeks too and then Drmic is kinda week-to-week until his back resettles down so we have some important pieces that we're missing obviously, but the guys that we have will continue to fight as hard as we can."