Four-time NBL MVP Cotton's off-season grind

Four NBL MVP awards don’t come easily, and Wildcats assistant coach Keegan Crawford has offered an insight into the work Bryce Cotton is doing in the off-season to continue to elevate his game heading into NBL25.

Cotton is one of a handful of Wildcats who has not taken his talents elsewhere this off-season. A raft of his NBL teammates are playing in the New Zealand Basketball League, including Hyrum Harris, Tai Webster and Ben Henshall, while David Okwera and Michael Harris have stayed locally to play NBL1 West.

That lack of competition in the off-season doesn’t mean Cotton is not putting the work in ahead of the new campaign.

“Someone like Bryce that isn’t currently playing in a league right now, he’s coming in five days a week, getting his workouts in, he’s doing the extra stuff, his physio stuff, he's about to start Pilates so we’ll see how that goes. Crawford told Wildcats Media. 

“The other guys are more three to four times a week whilst they’re also practicing with their NBL1 teams and staying dedicated in the gym. 

“Bryce’s work ethic is at a higher level. He has specific things he wants to do and try to improve on or maintain each off-season. 

“We have to Bryce-proof drills a little bit to make things tougher to get him to work at a smart intensity so he can maintain it over a long period of time, especially when he’s here, then goes back to the States and then comes back for pre-season.

“We try to change things on him a little bit to put him in a position where he has to make decisions, but he’s a high-level player.”

Crawford has also been running sessions for Michael Harris and Okwera, who are at Bendat Basketball Centre multiple times per week around the NBL1 commitments for Warwick and East Perth respectively.