NBL’s Wollongong Hawks/South Philly’s Tywain McKee out for remainder of season

The Wollongong Hawks are committed to nursing injured guard Tywain McKee back to full health. Ruled out for the remainder of the season with two stress fractures in his lower back, McKee is expected to stay in Wollongong in the off-season and undergo an extensive rehabilitation process. The Coppin State University graduate has been instrumental in the Hawks' quest for NBL supremacy and the club is keen to foster a good relationship with the skilful playmaker and re-sign him for the 2010-11 season.

"Tywain is a great talent and we want to make sure he receives the best medical attention and is able to recover fully," Wollongong coach Gordie McLeod said. There's no chance Ty will be back this season, so it's about getting him on the road to recovery so he can play down the track. "It's definitely a big loss for the club, no doubt about it. But this is professional sports and it's the game we play. Injuries happen and you just have to work through the adversity and continue to move forward as a team."



McKee was on the Wollongong bench when the Hawks came from behind to beat New Zealand 83-78 on Wednesday night. The 23-year-old said he was devastated by the news and would work hard to overcome his injury. McKee's replacement Luke Martin debuted for the Hawks against the Breakers and will remain with the club until the end of the season. McLeod said McKee's warm personality endeared him to his coaches and team-mates as much as his playing ability.

"It's a killer blow for Ty and it's a setback for the club, because Ty brought some characteristics that really complemented the rest of the group," he said.

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New recruit, Darryl Hudson hopes for a smooth transition

Darryl Hudson, 24, has played at the professional level in Finland and Hungary after completing his education at Howard University. This flick is a game from this first professional season in Finland. Hudson is #5 in orange uniform.

A self-described "military baby", new Wellington Saints import Darryl Hudson hopes to carve out a career Down Under shooting hoops, not guns. The 24-year-old American guard has fashioned a solid basketball resume, playing in the top German and Finnish leagues after graduating from Howard University. And when his American-based trainer, former Australian NBL player Phil Handy, discovered Pero Cameron would be coaching the Saints this season, an unlikely connection was made. "When I had this opportunity, I had to take it," Hudson said.

"My goal is to play in this league and then get to the Australian league. [Handy] knows Pero pretty well and he wanted Pero to check me out. Pero liked me so he brought me here." Hudson seems genuinely excited to be in Wellington and is full of questions about Cameron. "I heard he was kind of a legend, he's like big time around here. Is that right? That's a good thing for our team right there and then he's also playing too. I know he's like the Michael Jordan of New Zealand/Australia, that's what I heard." Hudson hopes to bring his girlfriend out from America to live with him and explains why playing ball on the other side of the world appeals.

"Europe basketball is cool but to play in Australia, man, that's something that a lot of people don't get to do. It's far away, it's far as hell, but it's a good league and I have a couple of friends, like Tywain McKee from Coppin State University [Wollongong Hawks import] that play in that league." Just laidback man, that's my type of lifestyle. People embrace you when you meet them, instead of people just being standoff-ish in Europe, because they don't understand the language."

Hudson chuckles when told Saints chief executive Nick Mills has identified a touch of Boston Celtics superstar Ray Allen in his play. "I would say I'm a smooth player, but I'm not Ray Allen. I like players like Ray Allen, Joe Johnson, the smooth guys, Penny Hardaway, those type of players. I'll try my hardest to be him but ... "

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THE GOOD FIGHT

Photo: Tywain Mckee, 6-2 senior point guard/shooting guard, Philadelphia, PA/Bartram H.S., major: Criminal Justice.

Forgotten and ignored, Tywain McKee was an unlikely college hoops prospect. Then a basketball legend tapped him on the shoulder.

There are some kids you just want to protect. It would be great to say that about all of them, but the truth is some wear trouble like a too-big pair of jeans, uncomfortable unless they're pretty much engulfed by it. Tywain McKee, back when he was a hunch-shouldered, woolly haired teenager, could have been one of those kids.

"He was swallowed up by strife, living in a hotbed of violence," says former Temple coach John Chaney, who recruited McKee as a Philly high school senior four years ago. Chaney discovered McKee when the Bartram High guard dropped 13 fourth-quarter points in a city-league semis loss to Philly power Simon Gratz. But McKee, who battled a stutter and had always felt uncomfortable in school, fell well short of Temple's academic requirements.

Still, the Hall of Fame coach liked the fight he saw in McKee. He liked that the kid had learned the game from his mom. He liked that McKee kept playing, even after his mother's drug abuse meant she was around less and less. And he liked that McKee didn't lose focus, even while his younger brother, Robert, was skipping school. Chaney wanted to see McKee play at the next level, for him or someone else. "If no one puts a kid like that in a position to succeed, his self-esteem keeps dropping," Chaney says. "I called Fang Mitchell because I knew he would be good for Tywain."

Ron "Fang" Mitchell has spent 21 seasons at Baltimore's Coppin State University, one of 103 historically black colleges and universities in the U.S.

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