As the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers prepare for Game 3 of the 2016 NBA Finals Wednesday night in Cleveland, BradleyBraves.com takes a look a common bond between the Bradley men's basketball team and the two teams competing for the Larry O'Brien Trophy: the Australian Connection.
While LeBron James dominates the headlines for the Cleveland Cavaliers and the nation is awash in the long-range shooting of Golden State's Splash Brothers, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, two Australia natives play key roles for each team: third-year Cleveland guard Matthew Dellavedova and Warriors veteran center Andrew Bogut. Bradley's 2016-17 roster will have a similar connection from Down Under: 6-foot-3 freshman guard Jayden Hodgson (Gosford, Australia) and 6-foot-9 sophomore post player Callum Barker (Hobart, Tasmania).
Bogut and Dellavedova are two of the players that have led the Austalian pipeline to basketball in the United States, paving a pathway that helped lead Barker and Hodgson to The Hilltop.
A native of Melbourne, Bogut starred collegiately at Utah from 2003-05, earning college basketball national player-of-the-year honors as a sophomore in 2004-05, when he led the nation with 26 double-doubles and averaged 20.4 points and 12.2 rebounds per game. A starter for Austalian's national team in the 2004 Athens Olympics, Bogut was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks. Now an 11-year NBA veteran, he played his first seven seasons in Milwaukee, before joining the Warriors in 2012-13.
From Marybourough, Victoria, Dellavedova starred at Saint Mary's (CA) from 2009-13 and ended his college career as the all-time leading scorer for the Gaels with 1,933 career points (the previous record of 1,868 points was set by another Australian, 6-foot-10 center Daniel Kickert of Melbourne). In addition to the scoring record, Dellavedova set SMC marks for career assists (778), 3-point field goals (288), free throw percentage (.860), games started (133) and games played (136), while leading the Gaels to a 105-28 record in his four seasons.
A member of the Australian team that reached the quarterfinals of the 2012 London Olympics, Dellavedova went undrafted out of college, but excelled as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA Summer League team before signing a 2-year contract with the Cavs in September 2013. He broke into the national consciousness with his all-out playing style during the 2015 NBA Finals and has helped the Cavs earn a repeat matchup against Bogut and the Warriors.
Ironically, Dellavedova's entry on the basketball-reference.com website compares him to former Bradley stars Roger Phegley and Jim Les for NBA career Similarity Scores.
Barker and Hodgson have become the second and third Australian nationals to suit up for the Braves. Cameron Rigby (Melbourne) played his freshman season for the Braves in 1996-97, averaging 6.6 points and 3.3 rebounds in his lone season on The Hilltop.
Barker played a prominent role for the Braves last season as the starting center for the youngest team in college basketball. Averaging 22.6 minutes per game, Barker contributed 5.1 points per game on 46.1 percent field goal shooting and 4.5 rebounds per game. He ended the 2015-16 season seventh among Missouri Valley Conference freshmen in minutes played, third in rebounding and 10th in scoring. Not counting his own Bradley teammates, however, Barker's averages would have ranked third among Valley freshmen in minutes, second in rebounding and sixth in scoring.
Hodgson was a member of the Australian U17 national team in 2014 and continued to develop his skills at Australia's prestigious Centre for Excellence in 2014-15. He made the trek across the Pacific and to the Atlantic coast this past year by playing his senior high school season at Arlington Country Day School in Jacksonville, FL. While teaming with fellow Bradley freshman Koch Bar, Hodgson averaged 15.1 points and six assists per game at ACD, earning all-conference honors in the tough Sunshine Independent Athletic Association.
While Bogut and Dellavedova close out the 2015-16 NBA season chasing the NBA title, both Barker and Hodgson are on campus this summer preparing for Bradley's 2016-17 campaign, working hard to follow in the footsteps of their famous countrymen.
