BIO: Mitchell Young was born in Coffs Harbour (NSW) and began playing basketball as a junior with the Logan basketball program. Young received a scholarship to attend the Australian Institute of Sport (Canberra) in 2007. He spent three years year there and played for the program’s state league team (2007, 2008, 2009).

NBL EXPERIENCE

Mitchell Young made his NBL debut with the Cairns Taipans at 23 years of age. He scored six points in his first game.

In 2013/14, Young averaged 4.5 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 0.7 assists as the Taipans finished in fifth place (12-16).

2014/15
In 2015, Cairns become the first regional team to finish the season in first place (21-7) since Geelong achieved the feat in 1984. Cairns also achieved a NBL first when Aaron Fearne utilised the same starting five of Scottie Wilbekin, Cameron Gliddon, Stephen Weigh, captain Alex Loughton and Matt Burston for all 28 games.

The roster did see some change during the season however, with training player Nathan Sobey (1.5 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 0.1 assists) being elevated into the squad mid-season after injuries to Corey Maynard (1.1 points, 1.2 rebounds, and 0.6 assists) and Shaun Bruce (3.7 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 1.7 assists).

in the semifinals, they faced off against 4th seeded Perth and behind the all-around brilliance of Wilbekin (28 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 assists), who was unstoppable in their game one win (71-64). Wilbekin (16 points, 11 rebounds, and 6 assists)then led Cairns to victory in game two (80-68), progressing to the Grand Final series.

Cairns would face the New Zealand Breakers and, despite having home-court advantage, lost the opening game 86–71. A buzzer-beating fade away from Breakers forward Ekene Ibekwe resulted in a game two loss (83–81) and the Taipans missing out on winning their first NBL championship.

Wilbekin (15.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 4.3 assists) would lead the team in scoring and assists, as well as take home the club’s MVP award as Young finished the season with 2.7 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 0.4 assists per game.

TOWNSVILLE CROCODILES
2015/16
Front office changes and financial limitations saw the Crocodiles struggling to gain clarity on their future in the competition, resulting in player recruitment becoming extremely challenging for Townsville. The first impact of this saw Todd Blanchfield, who earned the NBL Most Improved Player the season prior, relocate to Melbourne and sign with the re-branded Melbourne United. Coach Shawn Dennis would sign Nicholas Kay, who was returning home after four years at Metro State College of Denver and then rounded out the rest of the roster by signing players happy to play for near league minimum contracts, mostly young talent unable to latch on with other team’s or veteran players other team’s had given up on. Luke Schenscher (via Adelaide), Corey Maynard and Mitchell Young (both via Cairns) were clear examples of that.

NBL MVP Brian Conklin was re-signed and appointed team captain and paired with incoming import Jordair Jett.

The season began with two consecutive losses to Melbourne United (84-99) at home and New Zealand (81-89) in New Zealand. But then, in surprising fashion, Townsville, who had won a total of three away games the previous season, defeated Sydney (80-77) and Perth (66-63) on their home floor in back-to-back rounds.

Townsville’s season quickly turned sour after that, highlighted by their 31-point defeat at the hands of Melbourne in late October and having the worst record in the league (2-9) after the first few months of the season. Then, when the team faced the Perth Wildcats at home, Conklin was involved in a ugly on-court incident involving Perth Wildcats guard Damian Martin Martin. During the fourth quarter of the Crocodiles win over the Wildcat’s (89–77), Conklin’s errant elbow collided with and broke Martin’s jaw. Despite a call from Australian basketball legend Andrew Gaze for Conklin to be suspended for at least six weeks, the NBL cleared Conklin of any wrongdoing. A similar situation arose during a brutal loss to Adelaide (65-89) less than two weeks after the Martin encounter, where Conklin (21 points and 12 rebounds) was in the spotlight again for another elbow incident, this time for striking 36ers forward Mitch Creek in a similar manner. He subsequently received a three-match suspension, with two of those games suspended for the rest of the season.

By the end of November, sitting at the bottom of the ladder (4–10), Townsville terminated Conklin’s contract due to what the club claimed was a number of ‘sub-par performances’. Conklin (13.5 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game) later took to social media to share his version of the truth, which pointed the finger at Townsville wanting to reduce costs as the reason for his release. The Crocs would bring in a former college teammate of Patty Mills, Omar Samhan (13 points, 8.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.1 blocks), as Conklin’s replacement a week later.

Schenscher (4.1 points and 3.1 rebounds) also struggled with injuries and with nine games remaining, Townsville chose to add Harry Froling (1.6 points and 0.8 rebounds), a member of Townsville’s junior program, as an injury replacement player for him.

While Jett (15.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.1 steals) struggled in the team’s early games, he would explode during the second half of the season, leading the team in scoring with Mirko Djeric (5.3 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 0.9 assists) delivering his best season to date. With Townsville now firmly focused as a team, their work was rewarded in the second half of the season, winning half of their remaining games (7-7). This included a upset victory over Adelaide will go down in Townsville history as perhaps the most exciting finish to a game. The win showcased the fighting qualities instilled in the Crocs and even in the most unlikely circumstances, a team must play to the final buzzer.

Despite again finishing with a winning record at home (8-6) but only three road wins for the season, Townsville would finish second last on the ladder (11-17) with Jett being awarded the Kevin Sugars Medal (club MVP). Young would play in 27 games, and average 4.9 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 0.5 assists.

Despite the hardships Townsville was viewed as overachievers for the most part and coach Shawn Dennis was rewarded by the league with the NBL’s coach of the year trophy. The Croc’s cleaned up on awards night with Nicholas Kay (10.8 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 1.3 assists) also winning Rookie of the Year and Clint Steindl (12.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.1 assists) earning Most Improved Player.

Although Townsville had a verbal commitment from the league they would be able to continue playing with their support, the inability to raise enough money from the community saw their eventual demise. Kay and Norton both signed deals with Illawarra and while Young found a spot with Brisbane. Unable to find deals in Australia, Steindl and Djeric both ventured overseas, Luke Schenscher retired and coach Shawn Dennis would end up coaching in the Japanese national league.

BRISBANE BULLETS
2016/17
During the 2016/17 season Young averaged 5.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 0.3 assists and helped the Bullets finish the regular season in eighth place (10-18).

2017/18
During the 2017/18 season, Young averaged 4.5 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 0.3 assists and was a part of the Bullets squad which finished in eighth place (9-19).

2018/19
In 2018, Cairns chose to go in a new direction, parting ways with long-time coach Aaron Fearne after eight years of him patrolling the sidelines. Mike Kelly was brought in as his replacement and was tasked with rebuilding a roster that had already lost key players Cameron Gliddon (to Brisbane), Mitchell McCarron (to Melbourne), Jarrad Weeks (to New Zealand), and Stephen Weigh (retired).

With only a short time before the season kicked off, Kelly bolstered the roster by adding free agent Rob Loe (via New Zealand) and a new import trio consisting of Melo Trimble, Devon Hall, and DJ Newbill, while Nathan Jawai, Alex Loughton, and Jarrod Kenny were retained for their experience and leadership.

Cairns started the season with a dominant victory over Brisbane (88-70) in their opening game, but consistency soon became an issue. The team endured a six-game losing streak between 21 October and 9 November 2018. Despite these struggles, the Taipans managed some impressive wins later in the season, including a surprise victory over Perth (81-79) and a dominant win over Brisbane (109-80), but an inability to consistently win at home (3-11) or away (3-11) saw them finish the season dead last.

While wins were few and far between, Melo Trimble (21.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 1.2 steals) and DJ Newbill (14.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.1 steals) formed a powerful one-two punch this season. Trimble earned a spot on the All-NBL Second Team and was named the Taipans’ club MVP at the end of the season.

Alongside them, a healthy Nathan Jawai (10.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.9 assists), who saw his minutes and production nearly double compared to the previous season, and Devon Hall (8.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists) were also key contributors.

Mitchell Young (2.0 points, 1.8 rebounds) played limited minutes off the bench but provided a solid presence in the paint when called upon. He contributed defensively and on the boards, offering his hustle and physicality during key moments in games.

Young’s best game of the season came against the Adelaide 36ers (21 Oct 2018), where he recorded 7 points and 6 rebounds, showing his impact when given minutes. He followed this up with a 6-point, 3-rebound, 2-steal performance against Adelaide on 23 Nov 2018 and a 5-point, 2-rebound game against Brisbane (3 Jan 2019).

The lack of pre-season preparation and large roster turnover prevented the Taipans from building momentum, leading to one of the worst records in franchise history (6-22).

Mitchell Young played six seasons in the NBL. He averaged 4 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 0.3 assists in 163 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (811 Posts)

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.