No More Excuses For Hawks

Illawarra has some thinking to do because, right now, nothing seems to be working. The Hawks’ disastrous campaign continues to get worse and despite the recent introduction of new imports, they have no results to show for it.

Sunday’s 112-78 loss to the South East Melbourne Phoenix was another low point for the season, as Illawarra lost its ninth straight game to fall to 1-10.

New signing Michael Frazier II had a strong debut with 17 points off the bench, but Jacob Jackomas’ team still wasn’t able to put in a competitive effort.

With Frazier II on board, alongside fellow imports Peyton Siva and Tyler Harvey, the Hawks are as healthy as they have been all season, leading to Jackomas expecting more from his squad.

“No excuses,” was Jackomas’ response to losing on Sunday.

“When you go around the league and when you speak to people, they feel a bit sorry for us and what’s happened in regard to injuries and stuff. Now, I think what he gives us and what’s a great thing is no excuses.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Welcome back to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> Michael Frazier II ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live and free on 10 Peach and 10play | live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/TxhCKkZd6C">pic.twitter.com/TxhCKkZd6C</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1596735894232276993?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 27, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Frazier II impressed his teammates in his debut and has knowledge of the NBL after playing for the Perth Wildcats last season.

“What the great thing about him right now is he is a talented American, he doesn’t really give us a whole lot of excuses,” Jackomas said.

“(Frazier II) was probably our best output player today, and he has just got here so it’s hard to lean on him. I thought everyone else just battled.

“Obviously it’s his first game and there’s chemistry stuff that we need to deal with, and that’s things people don’t understand.

“It now put us in the forefront where what we did tonight is totally unacceptable.”

Star guard Harvey carries a portion of responsibility in helping the team get back on track and keeping the faith.

“This team is not one that will give up, obviously tonight we didn’t give Jake anything to coach tonight, we didn’t have that effort out there. We have to take care of that, that’s on me to do that,” Harvey said.

“We’ve had our challenges, we’ve had some good stretches this year but we can’t compound them.

“Obviously there is no excuses but yes it is tough but nobody cares if it’s tough, we have to go on and do our job at the end of the day.

“We’re building character right now but we will get through this, I am certain of that but we just have to keep going.”

The Hawks have another chance to turn it around when they play Melbourne United next Monday.