Broekhoff blossoms into an important Boomer

KRASNODAR (FIBA Asia Cup 2017) - Ryan Broekhoff doesn't believe that he'd be the terrific player he is today if he hadn't left home for the United States several years ago and played college basketball.

The sweet-shooting forward is one of many to have represented the Boomers after playing in America, and in the NCAA Tournament.

"I wasn't ready physically to step up to the national league in Australia," he said to FIBA.com.

Broekhoff was at the Australian Institute of Sport when he decided to enroll at Valparaiso University in northern Indiana. He turned out to be no ordinary player.

Broekhoff was the Horizon Player of the Year in 2012 and he was named to the First-Team All Horizon League in both 2012 and 2013.

As a senior, he led the team into the NCAA Tournament. He also got a degree in kinesiology and exercise science.

"To have the opportunity to go over to America and work on my game and earn my degree, to mature and grow and prepare myself for the next stage of my basketball career, I couldn't have asked for a better college and better group of people around the basketball team and university in general to let me have that opportunity to grow," he said.

"They pushed me to become better and the other things have taken care of themselves."

We are obviously very excited to be a part of the [FIBA] Asia Cup and sort of going in this new direction and hopefully it puts Australian basketball on the map and getting more games on Australian soil. That's only a good thing.
Ryan Broekhoff

Broekhoff has since established for himself a solid career in European basketball, one that has seen him play for Besiktas in Turkey and now Lokomotiv Kuban in Russia.

He has also made Australia's national team each year since 2013, when he competed at his first FIBA Oceania Championship. Broekhoff was in the Australia team at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

He also played at the 2015 FIBA Oceania Championship and the 2016 Olympics. Last year at the Rio Games, Australia came up just short of their first medal in the competition, falling to Spain by a single point in the battle for bronze.

The Boomers should be among the title favorites this summer when they compete at the FIBA Asia Cup for the first time. The event will be staged in Beirut, Lebanon.

"We are obviously very excited to be a part of the [FIBA] Asia Cup and sort of going in this new direction and hopefully it puts Australian basketball on the map and getting more games on Australian soil," he said. "That's only a good thing." 

It will help that Basketball Australia have decided to keep the reins of the men's team in the hands of Andrej Lemanis. One of the coach's strengths is his willingness to listen to his players. That was apparent at the Olympics.

"Lemanis has a lot of input from the players and sees how they read the game well," Broekhoff said. "Obviously we had a very experienced playing group (in Rio), NBA and high level in Europe and guys that had been around the national team for a long time and guys that had been through the ups and downs.

"Having big personalities that have that experience and being able to share that with the rest of the group and the coaches - it made everyone come together and be on the same page that we knew where we were going and what we were doing and that we had each other's back."

Broekhoff has good things to say about coach Lemanis

Broekhoff doesn't know yet if he'll be involved the FIBA Asia Cup. That decision will be made at a later date. 

"It's going to come down to scheduling and when the season finishes here, how the body feels physically after the season is done and when they announce it," he said. "The coach will also have his vision for the upcoming (World Cup 2019) qualifiers and it may depend more heavily on Australian-based players or bringing the European guys back-and-forth. I'm obviously excited and looking forward to taking part if things work out."

FIBA