NBL Cup Preview v Perth Wildcats

The Adelaide 36ers close the NBL Cup on Sunday afternoon in Melbourne and the final game just happens to be the first meeting with the oldest and fiercest of rivals for the Sixers, the Perth Wildcats.

The 36ers and Wildcats will be playing the very last game at the NBL Cup at Melbourne's John Cain Arena on Sunday in what is the first meeting of the 2021 NBL season for the two fierce rivals.

There's plenty to look out for in the contest as well. The Wildcats have already secured the NBL Cup trophy and the winner's prizemoney having won six of their seven matches in Melbourne after beating the New Zealand Breakers on Friday.

Adelaide has won two of seven games at the NBL Cup but have been performing better than that suggests when you take out the losses to the Sydney Kings and Breakers. 

Narrow defeats to Melbourne, Illawarra and Brisbane could have gone the other way with a few things going in favour of the Sixers while they did defeat the South East Melbourne Phoenix and Cairns Taipans.

So while the Wildcats can't lose the NBL Cup from here, they will want to send a first message to the 36ers for this season while the Sixers will want to send a real statement to close the tournament within a season – and there's nobody better to do that against than Perth.

Add in the fact that both teams are also locked in to meet one another in Perth next Monday with the regular season in the NBL to resume, and this is a chance on Sunday to land an early blow to build some momentum for that contest too.

To top things off and you have 36ers coach Conner Henry coaching his first game against the Wildcats who he had his first NBL head coaching job with, and former Sixers captain Kevin White is playing his first game against his old team, and there is plenty to look forward to.

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Sixers coach Conner Henry will do something he might have never thought he'd do for a long time on Sunday when he coaches against the Wildcats in the NBL.

He first came to Australia for the 2007/08 season to reconnect with old college teammate Scott Fisher to be his assistant coach at the Wildcats.

Henry then took over as head coach for the 2008/09 season and there's a strong argument to be made that his tenure ended prematurely.

The end of his time in charge only ended after it took a once in a lifetime performance from John Rillie, Corey Williams and the rest of the Townsville Crocodiles to eliminate Henry's Wildcats with a win at Challenge Stadium in one of the most memorable games in NBL history.

Now 12 years later and Henry is in charge of the 36ers and Sunday will be the first time he's coached against the Wildcats – and that means coaching against Trevor Gleeson for the first time since that last game he was in charge at the 'Cats with Gleeson then the coach of the Crocs.

It's amazing how these things always come around full circle, but the last thing Henry will be thinking about on Sunday is his personal journey.

He remains focused on getting the 36ers to execute the best they can and really, the signs have been encouraging ever since that horror 44-point loss to the New Zealand Breakers.

The Sixers have been without Isaac Humphries since and haven’t had new import Brandon Paul available, but he will make his debut and play limited minutes on Sunday against the Wildcats.

Since that loss to New Zealand, Adelaide put in a much better showing a tight loss to Illawarra before beating the Cairns Taipans impressively last Saturday, and again on Thursday they had their chance in a strong performance against the Brisbane Bullets on Thursday.

There was still plenty to work on from Henry's perspective against the Bullets on Thursday, but there were good signs to build upon too.

"The template on offence is that we're still developing three different systems. We have a few pieces missing but there's encouraging signs and the guys are, I think, enjoying the system that we've got," Henry said. 

"Our offensive production is growing I think and improving. We've got to stay healthy, we have to get guys back and get Brandon situated and acclimated to the team. I think we'll have him for at least some minutes against Perth coming up. 

"We just have to get better on the offensive end and execute the scout on the defensive end. It starts at that defensive end and the focus coming into any game is there. 

"You can't let anybody make 15 threes or whatever on you and have a chance to win unless you're another elite three-point shooting team and you are going to run up and down. We haven’t proven to be that yet."

The game could feature a nice piece of symmetry as well with Adelaide's co-captains of last season Brendan Teys and Kevin White set to play their 250th NBL games when they hit the floor on Sunday.

Teys remains a captain of the 36ers this season while White is now at the Wildcats and this will be his first time playing against Adelaide since last season and subsequently signing with Perth.

HUNGRY JACK'S 2021 NBL SEASON – ROUND 9
NBL CUP WEEK 4

ADELAIDE 36ERS v PERTH WILDCATS
John Cain Arena, Sunday 4.00pm ACDT

Broadcast – SBS Viceland, SBS on Demand, NBL TV, Twitch