The Pick and Roll

The Pick and Roll

Share this post

The Pick and Roll
The Pick and Roll
'Like a Disney movie': Mark Alabakov on the Bendigo Braves' perfect redemption story
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More

'Like a Disney movie': Mark Alabakov on the Bendigo Braves' perfect redemption story

The NBL1 South Coach of the Year has put his hand up for a WNBL head coach gig with a rare undefeated season

Daniel Herborn's avatar
Daniel Herborn
Sep 05, 2023
∙ Paid
2

Share this post

The Pick and Roll
The Pick and Roll
'Like a Disney movie': Mark Alabakov on the Bendigo Braves' perfect redemption story
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
1
Share

“In the back of our minds, we all knew of the heartbreaking loss,” Bendigo Braves coach Mark Alabakov tells The Pick and Roll of the team’s 2022 grand final defeat. “So, as much as the past month has been like a fairy tale Disney movie, it's very much a redemption story too.”

Credit: James Worsfold/Sports Imagery (NBL1)

Redemptions don’t get much more complete than the NBL1 season Alabakov’s team have just had. They went through the talent-laden South conference undefeated and then swept through the National Finals to complete a perfect season, making Alabakov the easy choice for Coach of the Year honours.

Alabakov says the foundations for this stunning success go back even further than last season’s near miss to the work he has put into the program since he joined back in 2019 and implemented a strong local focus. “Bendigo is such a basketball region, and having homegrown people that are a big part of the community was really the impetus for my recruiting,” he says.

He implemented a tiered recruitment approach, first looking to players from the Braves junior program. Only when there were no Braves juniors that were ready for a roster spot did he look to others from Country Victoria, and only when that tier was exhausted he expanded his search to players who had previously played for Bendigo.

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to The Pick and Roll to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 The Pick and Roll Pty Ltd
Publisher Privacy ∙ Publisher Terms
Substack
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More