Adelaide sharpshooter gunning for Sixers spot

Friday, April 26, 2024

Jacob Rigoni spent NBL24 as Adelaide's nominated replacement player. Now, the Sturt product believes he's ready to take the leap and land a full roster spot with his hometown club.

New Adelaide signing Lat Mayen has aired his hopes that he is not the last South Australian to be signed for the 36ers this season, and with free agency continuing to play out at a rapid pace, could the club’s next local star already be right under their noses?

Jacob Rigoni signed on as Adelaide’s nominated replacement player in NBL24 following five seasons at Quinnipiac University, and 17 games with German second division side ART Giants Dusseldorf.

Rigoni ended his five-year collegiate career as his school’s all-time leader in three-point makes, and such was his impact on Quinnipiac that head coach Baker Dunleavy stated he wanted a "whole roster" of Jacob Rigoni following his final game in 2022.

He also shot 45 per cent from the field and 36.7 per cent from the arc during his time in Germany. They say when building a roster you can never have enough shooting, and this 6’6” swingman has that in spades.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Jacob Rigoni is the <a href="https://twitter.com/Nbl1Central?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Nbl1Central</a> Foot Locker Player of the Week! 👟 <br><br>He caught fire with 8️⃣ triples over the Panthers, and will win a $200 Foot Locker voucher 🛍️ <a href="https://t.co/UresPQKEPH">pic.twitter.com/UresPQKEPH</a></p>— NBL1 (@NBL1) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL1/status/1780803540606394760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

He’s currently dominating for Sturt in NBL1 Central, where he’s averaging over 25 points per game and flirting with 50/40/90 shooting splits, and he told NBL Media he’s hoping his journey with the 36ers continues into next season.

“I’m in conversations now with Adelaide about going forward. I’ve had positive conversations with Scotty and Matt Weston and they believe in me, and I’m grateful for the opportunities,” Rigoni said.

“At the end of the day I’m taking it day by day myself, and I think that’s got me to the point I’m at now to have some of this success. I just want to keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep improving as a player.

“I feel like I still have a lot of room to grow and being in that NBL environment was the best place for me this past season, and I’d be ecstatic if I had an opportunity to do that again.

“To play at that level every single day against those guys is a level I had never experienced before. I played in college and professionally in a second division but this was another level, having 10 guys on a court at NBL level who have represented Australia, played in Europe and across the world at a high level.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">🏀🔊 "We'd like a whole roster full of Jacob Rigoni, Kevin Marfo, and Brendan Martin."<br><br>Quinnipiac men's basketball's season came to an end on Friday in the MAAC semifinals, and so did the careers of the team's three seniors.<br><br>(<a href="https://twitter.com/RossMeglin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RossMeglin</a>) <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/maAChoops22?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#maAChoops22</a> <a href="https://t.co/E8VwE6JGb3">pic.twitter.com/E8VwE6JGb3</a></p>— Q30 Sports (@Q30Sports) <a href="https://twitter.com/Q30Sports/status/1502645699975991308?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“It was awesome to be a part of and you learn a lot of things through conversation, and that’s one of the biggest takeaways, just minor areas I can improve my game that expand your game and the bigger picture.”

Adelaide’s desire to inject its roster with high-level, local talent has been apparent across the bulk of its history, and the near three-decade tenure of head coach Scott Ninnis at the club is a testament to the benefits of promoting a strong, local pathway.

Ninnis is the only person to have been involved in all three of the club’s titles – twice as a player and once as an assistant – and was coaching at NBL1 level before his return to the club.

Rigoni says it was Ninnis who initially showed faith in him by inviting him to training on the eve of the NBL24 season.

“Scott was the one who approached me after the season last year to train with the Sixers when he was starting as an assistant coach,” Rigoni continued.

“I’d been to Europe the year before and was still deciding between a few options and just wanted to have good training sessions while I was here, and I ended up doing alright up there. They really pushed to sign me up in that spot, I was too old to be a development player and missed some of those opportunities but was stoked to get that opportunity to be with the team for the full year.

“I would love to be back in Adelaide and feel like I’m a better player for it. I would be really excited to keep that journey going, play under Scotty and keep developing my career.”