BIO: Mark Robert Dickel was born in Dunedin, Otago (NZ) and attended Logan Park High School in Dunedin, New Zealand.

In 1993, he joined the Otago Nuggets of the New Zealand National Basketball League and played there until 1996 when he left for college in the United States.

FAMILY: Dickel’s father, Carl, was a New Zealand women’s national basketball team head coach for 10 years and coached the Otago Nuggets for four years from 1994 to 1997.

Dickel’s brother, Richard, is a well known coach in and around Australia and New Zealand, having coached the Waikato Pistons, Otago Nuggets, Southland Sharks and Adelaide Lightning, as well as Southland Under 17, Under 19 and Under 21 team’s.

Dickel’s nephew, Luke Aston, also plays in the New Zealand NBL.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Mark Dickel made his NBL debut with the Victoria Titans at 23 years of age. He scored 12 points in his first game.

Rampton and Mark Dickel signed deals to play with Cairns and Victoria respectively as imports, with New Zealand players not being considered local players until 2003.

Dickel joined the Titans, who had just signed returning NBA star Chris Anstey Although Anstey’s signature was a major coup, Victoria also suffered a major loss with Frank Drmic signing with Brisbane. In a surprise move, however, Smith would exercise a European out clause before the start of the season and head overseas before backflipping, returning to Australia and inking a deal with the Sydney Kings. To fit Anstey in, Victoria released Nathan Taylor (to Melbourne), replaced David Smith with Jason Smith’s older brother Darren.

Dickel (13.2 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 5.1 assists) and Jason Smith (20.5 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists) formed quite a duo, with Smith leading the team in scoring while having a career-high scoring season himself.

Anstey (16.4 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.0 blocks) returned a vastly improved player from the NBA, but coach Goorjian surprised many by bringing Anstey off the bench this season, favouring Brett Wheeler (13 points and 8 rebounds) in the starting lineup as he looked to replicate the success of the double-headed centre that was Anstey and John Dorge during the Magic’s 1996 championship run.

Later, young players Marcus Wright and Pero Vasiljevic, originally signed as development players, were elevated into the roster during the season as a result of mid-season injuries to Ben Pepper, and the Titans finished the year in first place with a franchise-best record of 22-6. Anstey, who was named Titans MVP that season and the fact he did it all from the bench, made him a easy choice for the league’s Sixth Man of the Year.

This saw them face off against long-time rivals, the sixth-placed Adelaide 36ers and behind a season high scoring performance from Anstey (27 points and collected 16 rebounds) took out game one (101-96). The Sixers, behind star duo Darnell Mee and Kevin Brooks, would then rebound to win games two (96-83) and three (115-103). Mee (22 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists) and Brooks (25 points and 7 rebounds) put up big numbers over the three-game series.

As a result of finishing first, the Titans being the highest placed loser in the Qualifying Finals allowed them to proceed to the semi finals. There they would face the Townsville Crocodiles, led by 37 year old Robert Rose, who had just become the league’s oldest winner of the NBL’s MVP award. Thanks to veteran players Tony Ronaldson (22 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists) and Darryl McDonald (20 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists) stepped up and delivered a game one win for Victoria (106-97). a injury to Anstey in the early moments of game two saw him miss the remainder of the series, which saw the Titans lose both game two (98-82) and three (101-97). A major factor was Anstey suffering a injury in the early moments of game two which kept him out of both games.

In a twist of fate, the Crocodiles roster was made up of a number of players discarded by Brian Goorjian in recent years. In addition to Rose, both Pat Reidy and Mike Kelly were Titans cast-offs, both playing huge roles in eliminating the Titans. Reidy (19 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists) was a equal game high scorer (with Rose and Andrew Goodwin) in game two, while Kelly (17 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists) was the clear difference maker in the deciding game three.

The Titans falling short of the Grand Final was also the first time a Brian Goorjian team hadn’t reached a NBL Grand Final since 1996 (seven years).

2001/02
After the Titans failed to reach the Grand Final in 2001, the first time a Brian Goorjian team hadn’t reached a NBL Grand Final in seven years. It was decided the triple big man rotation of Chris Anstey, Brett Wheeler, and Ben Pepper wasn’t working, and as a result, Pepper was not re-signed. As a result of Darryl McDonald becoming a naturalised Australian, the team used its second import spot to sign power forward Jamahl Mosely as his replacement. Mark Dickel remained the team’s second import, as New Zealand players were not considered local players until 2003. The Titans’ next moves were replacing Glen Siegle with young guard Nathan Crosswell who had been playing for the Melbourne Tigers state league squad.

Anstey would move into the starting lineup this season, and alongside team captain Tony Ronaldson, Jason Smith, Brad Sheridan and McDonald guide the team to a first place regular season finish for the second year in a row.

The team featured six players scoring in double-figures that year with team captain Ronaldson (19.5 points and 4.5 rebounds) leading the team way. Anstey, who would fill the box score in multiple categories each game, averaging 16.8 points, 10.5 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.3 blocks per game resulting in him being awarded the Titans club MVP. Mosely, who averaged 11.5 points and 6.7 rebounds off the bench, become the first import player to win the league’s sixth man of the year award in the process. As well as Jason Smith (18.8 points and 5.4 rebounds), Darryl McDonald (12.0 points and 7.3 assists), Mark Dickel (11.6 points) to round out one of the most productive team rotations in NBL history.

The first stage of the playoffs saw Victoria take on sixth-placed Melbourne and, after winning game one (113-107), went on to lose games two (105–107) and three (103-97). As a result of finishing first, they progressed to the next stage as a result of being the highest-ranked losing team in the Qualifying Finals. This time, facing third-ranked Adelaide this time, the Titans lost game one in Melbourne 92-99, evened the series with a 86-81 win in Adelaide, then lost game three 103-92. The loss would become the last game for the Victoria Titans franchise, with the team falling into financial strife shortly after. The team would sell their licence to a group comprising a number of former North Melbourne Giants staff headed by Peter Fiddes and rebranding to the Victoria Giants.

SYDNEY KINGS
2010/11
In December 2010, Dickel signed with the Sydney Kings for the rest of the 2010/11 NBL season. His debut with the Kings was delayed until 8 January 2011 due to a calf injury. On 30 January 2011, he tore his calf in the final quarter of a 94–91 away loss to the Gold Coast Blaze. He returned on 6 March 2011 and played a further five games.

Mark Dickel played three seasons in the NBL, playing for both the Victoria Titans and the Sydney Kings. He averaged 11.2 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 5.4 assists in 71 NBL games.

CAREER RANKINGS:
– 44th in assists per game.

Dan Boyce (798 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.