Maitland's best chance for the championship

After reaching the past two Grand Finals in the NBL1 East, reigning conference MVP Will Cranston-Lown says this is Maitland’s season to win. 

The two Grand Final losses have been particularly painful, losing to the Canberra Gunners 76-73 in 2022, and to the Sutherland Sharks last season 83-80. 

Starting their pre-season very early in October, Cranston-Lown explained that his squad refuses to let a third chance at a title slip away.  

“We've been playing with each other longer than most other teams already, our practices have been really tough,” he said on the Love of the Game podcast. 

“We all have that edge right now, we can’t lose three in a row. We’ve just been trying to do anything we possibly can to avoid that situation again.

“It hurt the first year, let alone the second year, we are just fully focused on trying to get this one this year.” 

As they got over the hump in Round 3 with an 85-83 win over Sutherland on the road, Maitland now sits comfortably at the top of the ladder with a 7-0 record heading into Round 6. 

Cranston-Lown explained that the x-factor for his Mustangs is their depth. With eight players scoring seven points or more per game, the conference MVP stated his team has more depth than most would realise.  

“We go 12-13 players deep, we can pull youth leaguers up any time we have injuries,” he said.

“We roll with whoever is playing well that day, we really don’t focus on ‘I’m going to be top scorer every single game’, ‘James Hunter is going to be the best rebounder this game’, we don’t do any of that. It’s just whoever’s feeling good.” 

He particularly sang the praises of Dan Millburn, the 26-year-old and former youth league superstar coming off the bench. He acts as a spark plug for this Maitland team, rather than being a star for many other clubs around the East. 

“People sometimes sacrifice roles, he could, seven or eight of us who come off the bench could be starters on any other team in this league,” he said. 

The bigger picture has been Maitland’s focus all offseason, calculating their best chance at a title. Due to visa complications, their import from last season Kevin Warren could not return for 2024. But Cranston-Lown had an ace up his sleeve, former college teammate Christian Little. 

After two seasons of making the @NBL1East Grand Final, @RegisRangers alumni Christian Little thinks he is the missing piece for the Maitland Mustangs' championship hopes ?

Read more: https://t.co/tOdzTn6a21 pic.twitter.com/O0tuGlChFf

— NBL1 (@NBL1) November 29, 2023

The defensive superstar is exactly what Maitland needed, the MVP explained, raising the competitiveness at practices and complimenting the team’s culture of selfless basketball. 

“Finding an import is really hard… but just from when I was at college, I knew how much of a good teammate he is. He doesn’t care about stats, he cares about winning,” Cranston-Lown said. 

“I knew that’s exactly what we needed.” 

With a retooled roster, a new hunger and a perfect record so far, we will see if the Mustangs finally overcome the finals hump. 

The Mustangs will host the Hills Hornets on Saturday, streaming live from 7:00pm AEST live via NBL1.com.au or the NBL1 App.