Wells' faith in 36ers to learn lessons

Adelaide 36ers coach Mike Wells will be looking for his team to learn some tough lessons from Sunday's loss in Melbourne but he was impressed with the positive mindset and communication his team showed when things got away from them.

The 36ers arrived in Melbourne the hottest team in the NBL on the back of home victories against the South East Melbourne Phoenix and Sydney Kings, and being the only team so far to down the Illawarra Hawks.

However, Adelaide fell to Melbourne 106-79 and looked a tired outfit having played less than 48 hours earlier at home, while United was playing their first game in seven days.

The schedule is not something that coach Wells was interested in using as an excuse, but after the game he was pleased how his 36ers group didn’t let the scoreboard hurt their mindset.

"We just have to keep working and we're a work in progress, and we'll get better at being more organised," Wells said.

"I would say that I really did appreciate the effort from our group and the things that they were trying to do. Everyone feels that frustration during the flow of the game, but everyone was still talking and communicating, and that's a huge sign of growth for a young group.

"Unfortunately you didn’t see the best version of us today, but I think we have a group that is committed to winning and trying to do the right thing."

Wells took over the 36ers coaching job with an extensive and impressive career in the game, but not necessarily as a head coach so it's a learning process for him too, both in the job and in a new country and league.

What he can't fault is how coachable his Adelaide players have made themselves and he gives them a lot of credit for that.

"They've been absolutely fantastic to coach, very very coachable and willing, and we're trying to do some different things and implement different things," Wells said.

"We're trying to give them things in a language with terminology that they can rely on when things do get tough out there.

"That's what I was hearing in the timeouts and that's an absolute positive that we will take away from this as we move forward this week with our prep.

"We have the foundation to be good and we've won against Sydney at home and on the road against Illawarra, this is going to be a process as this group keeps changing and evolving."

Wells' focus for the 36ers is to begin recreating that winning culture given they had not made a finals series in six years.

While there will still be bumps in the road, Wells likes the direction they are heading in general.

"We're trying to change who the Sixers have been the last few years and we've got some different players coming in, and we're still trying to grow as a group and that includes me," Wells said.

"I'm still learning the group and some of our strengths, and what we try to do, but this is just another lesson for us to move the group forward.

"There's always positives in wins and losses, sometimes as a head coach it gets a little bit easier if you lose to go ahead and teach that, and keep their attention to the detail.

"We've had three very good wins and now we get to move the group forward, and teach and correct from a losing perspective."