The Perth Wildcats have appointed former Townsville Crocodiles star John Rilllie as the club's new NBL head coach on a three-year deal following the sudden departure of Scott Morrison.
Morrison stunned the Wildcats last month when the Canadian announced he was leaving after just one season so he could return home for family reasons.
Rillie, who was an assistant at the Boomers at the Tokyo Olympics, is currently on a scouting mission at the NBA summer league, and he met Wildcats officials in Las Vegas on Monday to sign on as coach.
"For my first head coaching position, I wanted to pick a situation that was right for me," Rillie said.
"With Perth's history and reputation, not just in the NBL, but in the Australian sporting landscape - it was like a magnet to me.
"I want to play an attractive, opportunistic style offensively, but to play that way we're going to have to be an aggressive defensive team.
"The mindset I had as a player, I'll be looking to adopt that as a coach on the offensive end, but I'll be striving to make us one of the top one or two defensive teams statistically in the NBL."
As a player, Rillie notched 481 NBL games from 1995 to 2010 across stints with the Brisbane Bullets, Adelaide 36ers, West Sydney Razorbacks, Townsville Crocodiles, and NZ Breakers.
Known for his three-point shooting and prolific scoring, Rillie had two 45-point games and broke the hearts of Wildcats fans with 10 triples to end Perth's 2009 finals campaign while playing under Trevor Gleeson at Townsville.
He was a part of the Boomers program from 1997 to 2004, representing Australia at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Since retiring in 2010, Rillie has spent more than a decade developing his coaching craft in the US college system.
He joins the Wildcats from UC Santa Barbara, where he's held the position of associate head coach of their men's program since 2018.
In that time, he's helped lead the Guachos to the Big West Conference championship, the Big West Tournament championship and an NCAA Tournament appearance.
Prior to arriving in California, Rillie spent six years at Boise State University as an assistant coach, where he helped lead BSU to six 20-plus win seasons and NCAA Tournament berths in 2012 and 2014.
Meanwhile, Melbourne United guard Matthew Dellavedova is reportedly working out with the Sacramento Kings in Las Vegas in the hope of returning to the NBA.
Dellavedova's second stint at the Cleveland Cavaliers came to an end last year, but the 31-year-old is keen to rekindle his NBA dream.
Fellow Boomer Dante Exum, who was the fifth pick in the 2014 NBA draft, has signed with Serbian club Partizan Belgrade.
