Vickerman blasts leaders: "Toughen up"

Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman has called on his leaders to “toughen up”, after a disappointing loss against Illawarra on Friday night.

Vickerman’s team was “smashed” on the offensive boards and has gone away from their identity in back-to-back home defeats.

United conceded 22 offensive rebounds and lost the rebound count overall by 23, allowing Tyler Harvey to dominate with his pace, and Sam Froling on the boards.

“I can handle losing a basketball game the right way … but we didn’t lose the right way,” Vickerman said post-game.

“They (the Hawks) really wanted it. There was an edge about them that was way different to what we had.”

Vickerman put the pressure on his leaders to step up, with United dropping to second off the back of their sixth loss of the season.

He called out his team’s “poor me” moments, claiming the final margin could easily have been closer to 30 points, rather than the eventual 13-point gap.

“Some of our leaders stopped tonight in different moments ... we were looking for excuses tonight, so just toughen up,” Vickerman said.

“In the first quarter we were just watching, either when the ball went through the net or watching on an o-board, and we weren’t ready for the next play.

“As the game wore on, they were just smashing the o-boards and just driving us under and there’s a physicality to say, if you can’t do that you’re not going to ready for Playoff basketball, you’re not going to make it if you can’t stand up to that physicality.

“Our identity ... it’s not even close to the identity when you give up 25 o-boards and we can’t get quite get our matchup in defensive transition.

“Some of our older guys were just a beat off and were just a little step slow tonight and certainly we got punished for it.”

Vickerman singled out youngster Tom Koppens, who earned a late call-up with Marcus Lee sidelined.

The 21-year-old had 9 rebounds and 2 steals to go with his 5 points, in just 11 minutes of court-time.

“Just the desire and want and energy that he played with, I’m hoping our starters saw that and say ‘God, if he’s going to do that as a young kid, I’ve got to do that as well’,” Vickerman added.

United will have to bounce back quickly, taking on South East Melbourne Phoenix in the Throwdown on Sunday.