Doolittle explains practice storm-out

Kristian Doolittle has tempered concerns about a revelation he stormed out of Wildcats practice last week, and believes the competitive environment that is being fostered within the side has been key to Perth turning its season around.

The Wildcats entered the mid-season break on an NBL-best five-game winning run, and face a stern challenge in Round 9 in the form of back-to-back reigning champions and second-placed side Sydney.

Rillie was spotted calming Doolittle down after the incident, which the forward insists isn’t anything to do with attitude.

“I hate losing more than I like winning,” Doolittle said.

“I was pretty frustrated that we lost our last game [at practice]. I was frustrated with myself. He (Rillie) talked to me in the hallway but it wasn’t anything other than he was telling me he’s happy with the strides I’m making.

“We take pride in being able to win those games with the little bit of smack talk we have within the team, so those wins definitely matter. Any time you lose one you wish you can get that one back.

“It’s not like I was pouting or had a bad attitude, it was just I was mad I’d lost.”

While some teams in the NBL will have approached the mid-season break as a circuit-breaker to pull them out of poor or indifferent form, the Wildcats have had to do everything in their power to try and ensure their current momentum doesn’t falter.

They dropped as low as eighth on the ladder in the early stages of the season but have since climbed to sit behind the Kings and JackJumpers on percentage alone.

“We tried to keep the same intensity we had going into those five games. With the break we had, it’s easy to fall out of that,” Doolittle continued.

“We do a combination of competitive drills with game-like scenarios rather than full-length games. Chopping it up the way we do makes us have to be more precise.

“We’ve been able to maintain that or even grow.”

Perth will battle the Kings on Friday night at 9:30pm AEDT.