Usher, Rillie’s full circle moment

Sunday, September 10, 2023

Perth Wildcats’ import forward Jordan Usher speaks on his full circle moment with head coach John Rillie.

As he joins the NBL with the Perth Wildcats, Jordan Usher reunited with a familiar face that he was moments away from playing under in his college days.

John Rillie was head coach at Boise State University when he made the call to Usher to recruit him over, but the small forward had plans to play at Georgia Tech.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/o5YCm8gWR7">pic.twitter.com/o5YCm8gWR7</a></p>— Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1699912045981045224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 7, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It was a case of sliding door in the off-season, as the 25-year-old made the decision to join the NBL, reporting in to Rillie at the Perth Wildcats.

“He’s [Rillie] a top-tier guy and a top-tier coach. He is the man. I’ll tell everybody he is the man,” Usher told Code Sports.

The American import spoke highly of Rillie’s coaching style, and appreciates the advice that comes with his impressive experience.

“It’s awesome to play for a coach that was a badass himself at basketball. He can talk the talk because he actually walked the walk," Usher said.

“A high-level player turned coach is the best sort of guy to play under, because they understand everything on and off the court. He gets the tenacity of the game. He’s one of the bright spots for me in Perth.”

Usher will take to the court with the Wildcats on Friday, September 29 against the Tasmania JackJumpers in their season-opener.

The 25-year-old looks liek he could have a big impact in NBL24, scoring a combined 46 points in two pre-season games against the NBA G League Ignite in the past week.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">That Sarr kid is real good!<br>Ben Henshall ?<br>Jordan Usher is going to be a really good two-way player in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL24?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL24</a></p>— Michael Randall (@MickRandallHS) <a href="https://twitter.com/MickRandallHS/status/1699626374297002097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 7, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>