Jesse Wagstaff is embracing his return to the Australian Boomers.
The Canberra native and long-time Perth Wildcats forward made his first appearance with the Boomers since 2013 during Thursday night’s FIBA World Cup qualifying win over the Philippines and he will again be in the green and gold against Chinese Taipei at Margaret Court Arena on Sunday.
Wagstaff thought he would be spending this past week preparing for the Wildcats’ bid for a third-straight NBL championship, but in late January he was named in the extended squad before being confirmed in the 12 a few weeks ago.
After enjoying some wrestles with former NBA big man Andray Blatche, plus scoring four points and grabbing three rebounds in his eight minutes on Thursday night, Wagstaff said he loved being back on the international scene.
“Any time you get to pull on the green and gold is an absolute privilege, especially for the games on home soil as they are pretty rare,” Wagstaff said.
“It’s been sporadic over the years and I’ve around a while now but, yeah, I’m not even sure when my last game was either?
“I went to that Gold Coast camp [before the Asia Cup last year] but didn’t make the final squad. With this fluid nature of the squad it was good to get back in.”
Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis said Wagstaff had done everything right on his return and he had attended camp and played in the NBL All-Australian tour of China last year.
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“One of the things I really appreciate about Jesse is his basketball IQ. He understands the game really well and, while he hasn’t played in this team before, I have coached him in other Australian team environments,” Lemanis said.
“For the Asia Cup, he was there for the whole camp but hurt his back and wasn’t available for selection but in terms of being around it and immersed in it he has certainty done that.”
A win over Chinese Taipei on Sunday will assure the Boomers of a place in the second round of qualifying with two games left to play, but it won’t be as easy as previous clashes between the two sides, which ended with sizeable Boomers wins.
Chinese Taipei upset Japan in Japan on Thursday night and Lemanis said they were a much stronger side after adding guard Ying-Chun Chen and forward Long-Mao Hu, who both play in the CBA in China.
They scored 15 points each against Japan and should ask some big questions of the Boomers at the defensive end.
“They will be a good challenge once again and perhaps people don’t appreciate the quality of international basketball – everybody around the world is pretty good at this sport,” Lemanis said.
“You can’t get fooled by that, because each game is played on its merits and teams make changes and develop over time.
“But nothing changes for us. We need to come out and play the way we believe will let us be successful in being great defensively, not giving up points in transition and sharing the ball offensively.”
As for Wagstaff, he will just take in another day with the national program as he can never be sure when the next chance will come.
Then he will head home to Perth to ramp up preparations for the NBL semi-finals starting this Friday night.
“Unlike most of the guys here I haven’t played these guys before, so there is a lot of scout work," Wagstaff said.
"But it’s great to be around these blokes and I’m super excited to play.”
The Boomers host Chinese Taipei at Margaret Court Arena on Sunday at 3pm with tickets still available for the game.
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