Covering Cotton a collective effort

Trevor Gleeson has called on his whole squad to step up in the absence of star guard Bryce Cotton.

On Sunday, Cotton underwent a surgical pressure on a heamotoma in his left leg following a collision in last week’s game against the Brisbane Bullets.

He will be unavailable for at least the remainder of the regular season, and coach Trevor Gleeson revealed he is preparing his team to be without him for the semi-finals as well.

“We’ll keep the door open for him and hope he has a speedy recovery but we’re certainly not planning on him joining us any time soon.”

Gleeson said covering the absence of the reigning NBL MVP will be a collective effort.

“We can’t replace Bryce, he’s one in a million, he’s the MVP multiple times, has led us to three championships, so it really is up to the team,” he said.

“We have a great team that plays the right way, plays unselfish and has each other’s back. It’s how we respond collectively and take up that slack. No one person is going to fill Bryce Cotton’s shoes.”

Fans can expect Luke Travers to retain his starting position with Cotton out.

“We’re still integrating Will Magnay in there, so hopefully we get a little bit of cohesion out there now. The good thing is we’ve got three games to build that, and we’ve had one already (without Cotton), so we’ll have had four games to build that rotation and see how we perform under pressure.”

The Wildcats next test will be on Thursday night against the Sydney Kings at RAC Arena.

“They’re going to be desperate. They’re really trying to get that fourth position, I think the top-three are sewn up now and I think if they lose another couple they might be out of the playoffs, so we’re expecting a desperate team.”

Tip-off is at 7.30pm and tickets are available here.