Despite blowout loss, American coach sees bright future for Vietnam

Vietnam coach Donte Hill. PBA IMAGES

Vietnam’s American head coach Donte Hill is charging his team’s blowout loss at the hands of Thailand to experience.

It was Vietnam’s debut in the 2017 Seaba Championship and the outcome wasn’t the kind of result Hill had imagined.

“I’m not looking that far ahead. I’m taking it one game at a time,” said Hill, who only had three practices with the team prior to the tournament. “We’re in a development. We don’t have the luxury to look past on where we are. I’m excited just to be here, grow this team, and look forward to the challenge ahead.”

“We started really slow. We didn’t really come up with the aggressiveness that we needed. We picked it up in the second quarter, but we got to play four quarters of basketball,” he said after his team’s 76-51 setback. “If we do that, that’s the key. A lot of these guys are still learning my style of just consistently focusing mentally and being prepared to make plays.”

Hill isn’t dwelling on what’s already done as he looks ahead to Vietnam’s coming games. He also sees early struggles as building blocks that would help his team in the long run.

“That’s my focus, the future of Vietnam basketball. The fact that the Vietnamese Basketball Association (VBA) took place and watch these guys play multiple times throughout the course of the season, that means they really mean business,” he said.

“I have seen growth since the VBA’s inaugural season and I am sure the next season, I’ll see a lot more growth and these players will all grow because of the experiences as well. I see some bright spots, I see something we can really work on throughout the course of the year. The future is bright.”