Hawks leadership speak on coach search

Illawarra may currently sit bottom of the NBL ladder and without a permanent head coach, but the Hawks’ General Manager of Basketball Mat Campbell has put the onus on the side to make a playoff push over the remainder of the season.

The Hawks will make their debut under interim coach Justin Tatum when they play the Breakers this weekend who, at the time of writing, currently sit ninth in the standings – but they play Tasmania on Thursday night.

Former head coach Jacob Jackomas left the club following its 2-7 start to the season, and won just six of his 38 total games in charge of the Hawks – including one win from one game as interim head coach while an assistant under Brian Goorjian.

“I’ve got a firm believe this roster is a competitive roster and it’s a group of guys who really do care about each other,” Campbell told The Illawarra Mercury.

“At the end of the day we are a professional basketball team that is assessed on wins and losses, and we wanted to make a change before the season was lost.

“We’ve still got a real belief in this group and we certainly haven’t given up on the opportunity to make finals but, at the end of the day, the players are the ones that can control it.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The <a href="https://twitter.com/illawarrahawks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@illawarrahawks</a> are on the hunt for their new permanent head coach ?<br><br>Who do you think should lead the side next? ?‍?? <a href="https://t.co/xSzskV7VIy">pic.twitter.com/xSzskV7VIy</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1724598283841208344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Former head coach and legend of Australian basketball Brian Goorjian has already ruled out a return to the Hawks, while five-time title winner Trevor Gleeson has revealed he is currently mulling over discussions he has already held with the club.

Club CEO Stu Taggart says a proven track record is paramount in the club’s ongoing search for Jackomas’ successor.

“The attribute we’re looking for is proven success,” Taggart said.

“I want to stress Jacob and the team have been working extremely hard on the training court, and in matches too, but as we now go through the process of identifying that next head coach proven success is something that we’ll definitely look at.

“We want to be able to have confidence that the [next] permanent head coach can hit the ground running with a program they believe in.”

Illawarra’s first game under Tatum will come against New Zealand on Sunday at 2pm AEDT.