Mika Vukona
July 23, 2020
Rich Melzer
- Nationality: USA
- Date of Birth: 8/12/79
- Place of Birth: Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA)
- Position: FRD
- Height (CM): 203
- Weight (KG): 102
- Junior Assoc: None
- College: Wisconsin - River Falls (DIII)
- NBL DEBUT: 4/09/05
- AGE AT DEBUT: 25
- LAST NBL GAME: 13/02/10
- AGE AT LAST GAME: 30
- NBL History: New Zealand 2006 | Cairns 2010
- Championships: 0
- None
BIO: Rich Melzer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA) and attended River Falls High School.
NBL EXPERIENCE
Rich Melzer made his NBL debut with the New Zealand Breakers at 25 years of age. He scored 19 points in his first game.
With the Breakers still searching for their first winning season, they chose not to re-sign Mike Chappell, the Breakers’ leading scorer from the past two seasons and appointed a new head coach Andrej Lemanis. Lemanis had played in the NBL during the 1980s and 1990s and spent the previous five seasons as a assistant coach with the Townsville Crocodiles.
Lemanis inherited a Breakers squad who had seen both its national team players, Pero Cameron (Gold Coast) and Dillon Boucher (Perth), leave for better opportunities on other NBL team’s.
Lemanis looked to build around its young turning core group, which included Aaron Olsen, Ben Pepper, Lindsay Tait and Paul Henare, who was named team captain with the departure of co-captain Pero Cameron.
Rugged defender Ben Thompson and New Zealand born Adrian Majstrovich (both via Perth) were added to the roster, as was the import duo of Rich Melzer and Brant Bailey.
The Breakers started the season poorly (1-5) and quickly made the decision to replace Bailey (18.3 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.9 assists) with Brian Green (18.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1.5 steals).
Melzer (18.6 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.7 assists) would lead New Zealand in scoring while the Breakers continued to see strong development from young gun Aaron Olson (17.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.1 assists) and Ben Pepper (14.6 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks) was a force inside the paint.
Lemanis’ first season in charge was not particularly memorable. During the season, the Breakers endured a team-worst eleven straight losses, but after making the personnel changes, the team split their final twelve games of the season and finished the regular season tenth out of eleven team’s (9-23).
CAIRNS TAIPANS
2009/10
Melzer returned to Australia to play with Cairns during the 2009/10 season, but was a shadow of the player he was four years ago when he played with New Zealand. Melzer averaged 10.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.3 assists and was a part of the Taipans squad which finished in seventh place (11-17).
Rich Melzer played two seasons in the NBL, playing for both the New Zealand Breakers and the Cairns Taipans. He averaged 14.5 points, 6 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in 53 NBL games.
Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.
NBL TOTAL STATISTICS
| SEASON | AGE | TEAM | TEAM RECORD | GP | MINS | PTS | REB | AST | OR | DR | STL | BLK | TO | PF | FGM | FGA | FG% | 3PM | 3PA | 3P% | FTM | FTA | FT% | TS% | EFG% | HS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-10 | 30 | Cairns | 11-17 (7) | 28 | 676.0 | 304 | 135 | 35 | 41 | 94 | 14 | 18 | 74 | 84 | 103 | 289 | 36% | 27 | 100 | 27% | 71 | 97 | 73% | 45% | 40% | 23 |
| 2005-06 | 26 | New Zealand | 9-23 (10) | 25 | 839.0 | 465 | 184 | 43 | 81 | 103 | 37 | 35 | 81 | 72 | 194 | 418 | 46% | 15 | 49 | 31% | 62 | 94 | 66% | 50% | 48% | 34 | Totals | 53 | 1515 | 769 | 319 | 78 | 122 | 197 | 51 | 53 | 155 | 156 | 297 | 707 | 42.0% | 42 | 149 | 28.2% | 133 | 191 | 69.6% | 49% | 45% | 34 |
NBL PER GAME STATISTICS
| SEASON | AGE | TEAM | TEAM RECORD | GP | MINS | PTS | REB | AST | OR | DR | STL | BLK | TO | PF | FGM | FGA | FG% | 3PM | 3PA | 3P% | FTM | FTA | FT% | TS% | EFG% | HS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-10 | 30 | Cairns | 11-17 (7) | 28 | 24.1 | 10.9 | 4.8 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 3.4 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 2.6 | 3.0 | 3.7 | 10.3 | 36% | 1.0 | 3.6 | 27% | 2.5 | 3.5 | 73% | 45% | 40% | 23 |
| 2005-06 | 26 | New Zealand | 9-23 (10) | 25 | 33.6 | 18.6 | 7.4 | 1.7 | 3.2 | 4.1 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 3.2 | 2.9 | 7.8 | 16.7 | 46% | 0.6 | 2.0 | 31% | 2.5 | 3.8 | 66% | 50% | 48% | 34 | Total | 53 | 28.6 | 14.5 | 6.0 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 3.7 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.9 | 2.9 | 5.6 | 13.3 | 42.0% | 0.0 | 0.0 | 28.2% | 0.8 | 2.8 | 69.6% | 49% | 45% | 34 |
CAREER HIGHS
| POINTS | REBOUNDS | ASSISTS | STEALS | BLOCKS | TURNOVERS | TRIPLE DOUBLES | 34 | 15 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 0 |
|---|
INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
- Dominican Republic - San Carlos | USA (CBA) - Sioux Falls Skyfoce (2005)
COLLEGE
Melzer was a member of UW-River Falls' men's basketball team from 2001-04 and received National Association of Basketball Coaches NCAA Division III National Player of the Year honours, as well as D3hoops.com All-First Team status in 2004. He was a D3hoops.com All-America Second Team honoree in 2003.
He graduated from Wisconsin-River Falls as the schools all-time leader in points and blocks. A two-time conference Player of the Year (2003 and 2004), Melzer ranks second on the conference's all-time list with 2,363 points and 935 field goals made. He produced the fourth-highest scoring output in league history, with a 54-point performance against UW-La Crosse on Jan. 29, 2003.
In 2012, he was selected to the WIAC Men's Basketball All-Time Team in conjunction with the conference's Centennial Celebration.
Related
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