They say beware a wounded warrior and in the NBL world, there is nothing more scary than a motivated Bryce Cotton.
After losing his highly anticipated first match-up with his former side Perth last round, all signs point to a massive bounce-back game for the five-time MVP against Tasmania on Thursday.
One expert that agrees is four-time NBL champion Ricky Grace, who has watched Cotton closely over the past nine seasons, due to their Wildcats connection.
“Scott [Roth’s] game plan against Bryce has been fairly effective, making it tough on him in the past when I’ve seen him come here to Perth to play against Bryce,” Grace said via NBL Now.
“But beware of Bryce after a loss and beware of Bryce after a game where he hasn’t really scored up to where he’s accustomed to scoring. I’m a bit afraid for what’s about to happen to Tassie.”
In the same vein, Grace is excited to see how the JackJumpers execute their “scheme” to defend the three-time NBL champion, who is averaging a league-leading 27.6 points per game.
He scored 29 when the teams met in early October
“The Wildcats did have a great blueprint to defend against Bryce [last week] that made him work for every single shot that he got,” Grace said.
“It’s one thing to have the game plan and the blueprint, but you still got to have the players and the athleticism to be able to execute that game plan and that blueprint. Sometimes you can get paralysis from over analysis. And I think they just got to pin their ears back and play.
“This is another game that I’m really excited to see, because you’re going to see an angry Bryce Cotton going against a very good Bryce [Hamilton] that probably wants to show that he’s just as good or better than Bryce on the day.”
Thursday’s Round 9 clash between Tasmania and Adelaide at MyState Bank Arena tips off at 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.
