Basketball On The Internet.

DISENFRANCHISED Adelaide 36ers fans can prepare for truly heady days ahead with Mike Wells stepping down as coach today and triple NBL championship winning coach Dean Vickerman earmarked as his successor to take the club to the promised land. Even if it fails to materialise, it is an exciting prospect.

Vickerman days ago stepped down as Melbourne United coach, a club he took to five championship series, winning two, after returning from New Zealand where he also led the Breakers to an NBL crown in 2015.

Arguably the top domestic coach in Australia, he was expected to head to Japan's burgeoning B-League, many believing it was to the club where five-time NBL championship-winning Trevor Gleeson currently resides.

Gleeson consistently was being linked to the 36ers' role, despite regular Adelaide denials it was unhappy with Wells, who still had another season on his current contract and had signed a further extension.

Adelaide insisting it was sticking with Wells - a career NBA assistant who repeatedly showed he lacked a genuine feel for the game and some of his players - might have been the straw that broke it for Gleeson, who re-upped in Japan. 

Wells today was quoted saying: “The players, staff and fans have made my family and me welcome. Adelaide is a special place, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to have been part of the 36ers.

“But having spent some time back home in Utah with my sons, seeing my dad who is getting older, realising I have been away from family for much of the past three decades, I know the decision to step down to be with my family is right.”

Ironically, Wells left for similar reasons to another former Adelaide 36ers' American coach, Mike Dunlap, who three decades back left his role prematurely due to an ailing father.

The 36ers won a championship within two years of his departure, and Dunlap could coach.

Vickerman already has coached 36ers starters Flynn Cameron and Isaac Humphries, and would be the ideal fit for Adelaide.

It also appears Sydney Kings assistant coach Andrew Bogut wasn't so far off the track when he tweeted on X a while back that Wells was under pressure in the city of churches.

PS

Remember last year when everyone believed Bryce Cotton was going to Japan? How'd that work out?

PPS

In other news, Tasmanian-born Melbourne United small forward Tanner Krebs has signed a new two-year deal with crosstown rival South East Melbourne Phoenix.