Cotton, Wildcats Ideal Return Challenge for Sunday Dech

Written for nbl.com.au by Chris Pike

Sunday Dech put in a power of work this off-season, was in the shape and form of his life a week out of #NBL22 starting and then an errant knee has derailed him until now, but he can't wait to return and help the Adelaide 36ers start their path to redemption.

It has been nothing but pure hard work and sheer dedication that has seen Dech go from a development player craving opportunities at the Perth Wildcats in his hometown to becoming a starter at the Illawarra Hawks, and now building his reputation further at the Adelaide 36ers.

While last season was a tough one overall for the Sixers, Dech reinforced his growth into a star of the NBL not only building his reputation as one of the league's standout defender, but his ball handling, playmaking, shooting and scoring were all at career-best levels.

However, being complacent is the last thing Dech has ever been accused of so this past off-season he worked even harder than ever before to improve every aspect of his physical strength and fitness, and his game with ball in hand.

Whether that was pushing his body to new limits or working hard on his shooting with 36ers legend Brett Maher, Dech left no stone unturned coming into the 2021/22 season.

He was looking good, as was his team, at the Blitz in Tasmania too until on the final day he ran into a screen from Brisbane Bullets big man Chuanxing Liu.

Nobody could have predicted that when that happened on November 28 that Dech would still be yet to make his first appearance of NBL22. What was first diagnosed as a cork turned into a hematoma of his quad and it's taken until this unexpected long break for him to get the all clear to return.

It's actually a similar injury that ended Bryce Cotton's season for Perth last year and ironically it is against the Wildcats and a match up with Cotton that Dech will return for.

"I'm really looking forward to it. You don't know you really love something until you can't do it and are forced out of it, and that's the case here," Dech said.

"Not being able to play has been one thing, but also knowing that I really want to be out there helping our team win and watching from the sidelines leaves you feeling a bit helpless. 

"I'm looking forward to getting out there and it was going to be against the Wildcats on Tuesday who I have a little bit of extra incentive against because I know a lot of those guys,"

Having been a teammate of Cotton's at Perth and now having been tasked with guarding him in his time with the Hawks and 36ers, Dech is looking forward to that task again on Tuesday night.

"It is what it is and Bryce is the best in the comp so you just go out there and do your best against him," Dech said.

"Especially with me just coming back, I'm sure it will take a little while for me to get adjusted to, but I have played against him for a lot of years now and kind of know his game. That doesn’t make him any easier to guard, but he's a good mate of mine and we'll have a laugh about it after the game I'm sure."

It's fair to say it's been a frustrating time for Dech to get to this position of being right to play again this Tuesday for the 36ers.

Initially when he thought it was a cork to his quad, he thought he might miss that season-opener in Perth and at worst the home game with the Illawarra Hawks a couple of days later, but then he'd be back.

However, that cork turned into a hematoma that Dech only narrowly missed requiring surgery on.

"Obviously as basketball players we get corks all the time and it's something that for a couple of days is sore, but you get it flushed out and you are good to go," he said.

"Initially I got hit and I felt it was a bigger hit than usual so I was down for a little bit and then went through the same process as we usually do by putting ice on it, wrapping it and elevating it, and doing all that. 

"We then had to fly to Perth that night so we literally went from the game in Tassie after playing at 1pm in the afternoon to go to the airport to fly at 6pm. I don’t think the flying was good for it at all and we got to Perth and I saw a physio and got it treated, and was just told that it was a pretty bad cork but that I should be back within a week. 

"I was told to rest it for a couple of days and we had a week in Perth to prepare for that first game of the season. I got some good rest in that week to try and get up for the game, which I didn’t do and it turned out it wasn’t a cork after all."

It's been quite the process to get ready to play again now this Tuesday at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre after a few unfortunate postponements have delayed his return.

"It still wasn’t feeling good and then when we got back to Adelaide, I got some scans and got back with our medical team which was really good after being on the road. They saw that it was severe and it was actually a haematoma and I had to be off legs for the next week," Dech said.

"So I stayed off legs and was working my way back from ground zero really because how do you tell an athlete how to run or walk. It was a little difficult at first but week by week it got a bit better and I saw the doctor and physio staff around the clock really. 

"I did what they told me and the lockdown kind of helped me a lot as well which was good and it meant I got to get it right, and didn't miss too many games. 

"That was helpful to me and now I trained a lot last week with the team, and this week I've been fully out there to prepare for this weekend and I'm passing all the tests, and everything that the doc and physio staff want me to pass. 

"It's been a long journey and one that we'd hope that didn't take this long, but at the end of the day it is what it is. All you can do is put one foot in front of the other and just do the best you can to get back."

As Dech makes his return for Adelaide on Tuesday, it's a 36ers team that now hasn’t played since a horror 26-point loss in Cairns to the Taipans way back on Saturday December 18.

Dech wasn’t there for that game, but he has been around the fallout within the group as their chance to begin making up for it has now stretched to a month.

The examination of what the 36ers needed to work on has been stern within the group and Dech has no doubt you will see a different outfit when they return to the court.

"It's a tough pill to swallow right. You always want to bounce back and basketball usually gives you that opportunity to play sometimes three games in one week, but that hasn’t been the case for us at the moment," Dech said.

"It wasn’t the ideal way obviously to go into this long, extended break we've ended up having but it did give us a chance to go back through our processes and get back to day one and focus on the things that we didn’t have a lot of chance to before. 

"Games were coming so quickly and were playing every three or four days so we didn’t get a chance to kind of train and drill into stuff that we hadn’t done so well the previous game. 

"It allowed us to work on getting our execution better so I think that as much as it wasn’t a good result in Cairns, it did give us a chance to reflect and look ourselves in the mirror to realise we aren’t exactly where we want to be. 

"We had a great pre-season and were 2-2 going into Cairns, and winning that would have been good going into the Christmas break. But we didn’t do that and it's about where we go from here. 

"We have focused on rehashing in our defence, working on what we want to execute on our offence and figuring out who we were rather than worrying about a scout which happens when you go game from game."

The biggest fallout from that loss in Cairns is that the effort levels of the 36ers have been called into question. That hasn’t happened anywhere more severely than inside the group itself and Dech is confident it won't be something questioned about this group again.

"Effort shouldn’t ever have to be coached, it should be a given. You do lose track of that at times when you get into the grindy part of the season or you are playing your third game in five or six days," Dech said.

"It's something that should never be coached and it is something that you do have to look within about, and you hone back in on. I think as a group we made an emphasis on that over this little break here so it's something that we will come out for our next game all guns blazing. 

"We are playing one of the top teams and we want to perform whether it's at home or on the road. There's no real excuse to not have the effort needed, but once again I think it's extra motivating because now we are fresh and are coming in off an extended break, and have refocused in on the stuff we needed to work on."

As for his own game, Dech is now looking forward to picking up seven rounds into the season where he thought he could contribute for the 36ers back ahead of the season opening, but above all else he just wants to contribute to a winning team.

"I think the work is always good and it's always good to put it out on show, but at the end of the day it's all about helping your team win," Dech said.

"That's No. 1 and that's the most frustrating part because we had a really good off-season which led into a great pre-season where we went undefeated in our campaign there in Tassie. 

"Then to get hurt right before our first game really sucked but at the end of the day you can't help that. All I did was threw myself into my recovery the best I could and knew I would do what I can to shorten the time I was out so I could come back and help my team win some games."