Vickerman Apologises to Under-Fire Import

Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman has praised import forward Jordan Caroline’s response to his comments after Saturday night’s loss to the Sydney Kings, and has labelled Caroline as a “warrior” for his side this morning.

After the loss to the Kings – in which Caroline shot just 3/11 from the field – Vickerman compared the power forward to current Denver Nugget and former United star Jack White, while also saying the side was knee-deep in looking for a replacement for the Nevada College alum for the remainder of NBL23.

“People challenged me about my comments in the press conference the other day about Jordan Caroline, and I apologised to him for it. It wasn’t fair to compare his game to Jack White’s game,” Vickerman told RSN.

“When I first got hold of it I texted him and he responded, and then the next day when we got together as a group I apologised to him in front of the group.

“Any time you feel like you bring any type of disrespect to a person, which I certainly didn’t mean to, you need to make sure you’ve got that one covered off. He was great with it.

“We made it really clear to Jordan when Ariel went down that we may need a centre, and if we do find the right guy that could affect his ability to play with us. We’ve been really clear and open, and he’s been amazing.

“He just turned up, ‘yep coach, I understand’, and he’s given everything he’s got. He’s a warrior for us. We continue to look for that guy to replace Ariel and hopefully we can sort it out in a couple of weeks.”

After finishing the NBL22 regular season the top seeded team in the competition, the drastic change undertaken by United’s roster has seen them slump to a 2-4 record to open the new campaign. Only two sides currently sit below them on the ladder four rounds into NBL23.

The highlight of their season has undoubtedly been the three-point win over Perth in Round 3. Four of the team’s starters finished with double figures in the points column with Xavier Rathan-Mayes leading the way with a double-double.

Vickerman says that game is a strong indication of the level his team can reach – if they can find the consistency on a game-by-game basis.

“The Perth game, we built that one up and we went over there and played really well. For the group we had we played really well, and one of our new players turned to me and said ‘wow that was like a grand final’,” Vickerman said.

“We’ve had great patches – we were up 14 points on Cairns in the middle of the third quarter and weren’t able to sustain it, against Sydney the other day we had a great start and we weren’t able to sustain it.

“This is what it looks like when we’re Melbourne United, and this is what it looks like when it’s not. We need to get rid of this part that we’re seeing too much when we’re not in the correct space or we haven’t sprinted. There’s been some effort areas where we haven’t been great at.

“We’ve got four games until the FIBA window and we need to pick up a few wins, get this group absolutely healthy and have a real crack after that.”