Star on rise says coach

By Paul Pickering
DEAN Kinsman, the man entrusted with the future of Australian women’s basketball, says there is no ceiling to the potential of 17-year-old Dandenong junior Elizabeth Cambage.
Kinsman, who coaches the Australian Institute of Sport’s WNBL side and the national under-19 team, lavished praise on some of the local talent after his team’s loss to Dandenong on Saturday night.
He said Cambage, who stands 203 centimetres and is in her second season at the AIS, could become an international star.
“She could clearly be a dominant player for Australian basketball for 10 years or more, and that would be internationally as well,” Kinsman said of his towering young centre.
Cambage, who joined fellow locals Rachel Jarry and Stephanie Cumming in their return to Stud Road on the weekend, has averaged 15 points and seven rebounds a game in the first month of the season.
She has played limited minutes due to fitness and foul trouble, but her size and skill-set has the country’s best judges touting her as a likely Opal.
Cambage has doubled her scoring and rebounding stats from last season, but Kinsman isn’t surprised.
“She hasn’t surprised me at all. It’s more about trying to get Lizzie to understand how dominant she can be,” he said.
“She’s come a long way in 12 months with us, but the next step for her is to find that durability so that she can keep churning it out week-in week-out like senior players do.”
Kinsman said Cambage’s stature made her a target for opposition teams, adding that she would have to learn to deal with the physical attention and double-teams as Opals star Lauren Jackson did in her time with the AIS.
Jarry, 16, is in her first year in Canberra, but has already made an impression.
She has averaged eight points and six rebounds a game, playing as an undersized power forward.
Kinsman loves her attitude. “For someone as young as Rachel is, she’s feisty and she loves to compete,” he said.
“I’ve been really impressed with her work-rate and her growth as a person and I hold really high aspirations for her.”
According to Kinsman, Jarry is likely to be a long-term WNBL player at worst, and a role-player on the national team at best.
The third of the Dandenong products at the AIS is Cumming, an athletic two-guard who averaged six points a game and shot the ball at 40 per cent from beyond the arc as a rookie last year.
Cumming’s numbers have stagnated early this season, but Kinsman is confident she will improve as she adjusts to the new group.
“Last year we had a really good balance for Steph to fit into,” Kinsman said, noting the presence of talls Cayla Francis and Marianna Tolo and perimeter stars Nicole Hunt and Mia Newley.
“This year she’s learning to adjust to being a target, because every time she steps on the court she’s being marked harder. So we’re trying to teach her how to handle that responsibility.”
Kinsman said Cumming’s energy on the court made her more valuable than the statistics suggest.
“She’ll be a great fit to come back in next year with some other seniors around her.
“I think she’ll just pick it up again,” he said.