BIO: Jeromie Hill was born in Cairns (QLD) and began playing basketball as a junior with the Cairns basketball program. Hill received a scholarship to attend the Australian Institute of Sport (Canberra) in 2009. He spent one year there and played for the program’s state league team.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Jeromie Hill made his NBL debut with the Sydney Kings at 24 years of age. He scored eight points in his first game.

Since re-entering the league in 2010, Sydney had never finished with a winning record, something they came narrowly close to last season, until a season-ending injury to star Josh Childress derailed things.

The Kings bounced back by loading up on talent to surround Childress and blossoming young stars like Jason Cadee, Tom Garlepp and reigning Rookie of the Year Angus Brandt. Veterans Julian Khazzouh, Steven Markovic and Rhys Carter were brought in, and NBA draftee Marcus Thornton was signed as the team’s second import.

Although Childress would miss the first four games of the season (1-3) with a foot injury, he returned to the court to face Adelaide (Oct 23) at home, only to break his right hand. Childress still managed to score 23 points and played out the Kings’ loss to the 36ers (91–80) before being ruled out for a further four to six games with a boxer’s fracture.

Childress returned in late November, but two games later, he suffered a fractured left hand back and was subsequently ruled out for three weeks. He was reactivated once again on December 29 and played out the rest of the season.

All in all, Childress (21.0 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.7 blocks) played in only 13 games for the Purple and Gold. Starting centre Khazzouh (13.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.0 steals, 1.8 blocks) delivered great numbers in his return before ripping his right quadriceps tendon off the bone in mid-December, missing a third of the season and Markovic (3.0 points, 1.1 rebounds, and 1.7 assists) played a grand total of 3 games for the season due to illness and subsequent recovery. With most of the team’s starting line-up missing, the Kings were so decimated at one stage that assistant coach Ben Knight suited up for four games.

In early January 2016, Craig Moller and Jordan Vandenberg were also brought in to help cover the loss of Khazzouh and backup forward Jeromie Hill (4.1 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 0.4 assists).

During the absence of Childress, the Kings brought in former NBA players Damion James (7.0 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 0.6 assists) for 5 games, Al Harrington (17.7 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 2.7 assists) for 6 games with James being a disappointment and Harrington becoming a fan favourite during their brief stints, but both failed to deliver team success and coach Damian Cotter was released mid-season.

Former Washington Wizards assistant Joe Connelly was brought in as a new head coach and helped youngsters Cadee (14.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.5 assists), Garlepp (14.0 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists) and Brandt (8.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks) continue to develop (Brandt earning a gig with the national team at year’s end), it wasn’t enough for the under-manned Kings to avoid finishing dead last (6-22) during the regular season.

2017/18
The Kings began the season searching for relevancy both on the court and amongst the Sydney public. The first move made to accomplish this was inking Australian basketball icon Andrew Gaze to a three-year deal as the team’s head coach.

Shortly after, the team convinced star import Kevin Lisch to turn down a contract extension from the Illawarra Hawks to sign a lucrative three-year that made him the highest-paid player in the NBL.

Gaze and Kings GM Jeff Van Groningen then looked to bolster the Kings roster with new talent after a listless season the year before which resulted in a 6–22 record and a last place finish.

More major signings were incoming when the team convinced two Australian Boomers to join the club on multi-year deals, first swingman Brad Newley (Spain) and shortly after Aleks Maric, whose nickname ‘Truck’ explains clearly the type of game he would bring to the Kings.

Lisch, Newley, and Maric would be added to the returning Aussie core of Tom Garlepp, Jason Cadee, Jeromie Hill and Julian Khazzouh.

An additional bonus for the Kings was that Lisch had become an Australian citizen in March 2016, giving them the option to sign three additional imports in addition to Lisch. The Kings had been carried by imports Josh Childress and Al Harrington the year prior but chose not to re-sign either player, replacing them with Michael Bryson, Greg Whittington and Josh Powell.

Powell’s signing proved critical as shortly after it became apparent that a quadriceps injury would keep Khazzouh off the court for the entire season.

In the weeks leading up to the start of the season, Lisch was appointed team captain and the team began the season. In the opening game of the season, Lisch (20 points) led the Kings in scoring but couldn’t get the win over a motivated Brisbane squad (73–77). Josh Powell would arrive in time to play in the Kings’ second game and racked up 14 points and six rebounds in an 88–84 win over the Illawarra Hawks. The win preceded a video of the team celebrating their first win, which went viral and had many picking the team to reach the playoffs for the first time since the Kings re-entered the league.

Import Michael Bryson (1.8 points, 1 rebound, and 0.8 assists) struggled to make an impact in his short stint with the Kings and was replaced with 13-year NBA veteran, Steve Blake. Despite Bryson’s lack of production, Lisch (16.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.9 steals), Newley (17.6 points, 5 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 1.2 steals), and Cadee (13 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 3.2 assists) were firing on all cylinders and the team were sitting in top spot on the ladder with a 3-1 record.

On November 12, 2016, when Kevin Lisch scored a season-high 30 points to deliver an 87–71 win over Melbourne, the team became title favourites. The play of Lisch led coach Gaze and new teammate Steve Blake to say Lisch was good enough to play in the NBA.

However, things began to deteriorate after that. The Kings’ ‘front-heavy’ home schedule began to catch up to them. Blake (5.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 2.2 assists) struggled to provide any of the ability he had shown during this NBA career, and after being granted indefinite leave on compassionate grounds to return home to be with a sick family member, it was clear he would not be returning.

Lisch saw his production decrease and seemingly started to burn out, and Powell (9.4 points and 4.8 rebounds), who would go on to deliver a couple of big games, finished the season coming off the bench.

At this stage, Sydney had lost five of their past eight games and, by Christmas, had fallen to third on the ladder (11-8). Instead of maintaining a search for a suitable replacement for Blake, signed forward Garrett Jackson, who had been playing in the state league and was also a training player for the Kings for several seasons.

An unfortunate season-ending ankle injury suffered by Tony Tolovae, who had appeared in only one game for the Kings, resulted in opening up an additional spot on the roster. Sydney would use it to William McDowell-White (2.1 points, 0.6 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in seven games) as a development player for the rest of the season. McDowell-White, had been heavily recruited by several NCAA programs, including powerhouses like Michigan State, Louisville and USC but McDowell-White but after committing to play with the University of Fresno State, he was unable to gain clearance to play in the NCAA.

Under first-year coach Gaze, the Kings tried and tested a number of different line-ups, but nothing saw them reclaim their early form. After an 8-3 start, they went 5-12, including losing nine of their final twelve games.

Sydney finished in seventh place (13-15) and missed the playoffs in disappointing fashion, while new additions Lisch and Newley earned All-NBL second team selection.

During his second NBL season, Hill would appear in 19 games, averaging 2.0 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 0.5 assists.

Jeromie Hill played two seasons the Sydney Kings. He averaged 3.1 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 0.4 assists in 42 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.