BIO: Todd Mundt was born in Iowa City, Iowa (USA).

NBL EXPERIENCE

Todd Mundt made his NBL debut with the Newcastle Falcons at 32 years of age. He scored seven points in his first game.

After losing up and coming talent Scott McGregor (to Sydney) and Ben Pepper (to North Melbourne), coach Shawn Dennis made several changes to the roster, including moving on from aging imports Dave Simmons and Butch Hays. Dennis chose to replace Hays with Terry Johnson (via Illawarra), who, after delivering a number of productive seasons as a shooting guard, believed he could also make a import at the point guard spot. After the Hawks told him that he wasn’t a ‘point guards bootlace’ he headed to Newcastle, who were willing to give him a season running the point.

Newcastle added Tonny Jensen (via Townsville) and Marc Brandon (via Illawarra) to replace their local talent and then rounded out the roster by adding former Sydney Kings fan favourite Isaac Burton and highly credentialled NBA big man Todd Mundt as imports.

Newcastle lost their opening game to South East Melbourne (73–93) and went on to suffer defeats to Illawarra (92-96), Sydney (90–105) and Brisbane (90-92) before they chalked up their first win against Townsville (110–96).

While the loses continued to rack up, the unearthed a future star with Newcastle local Ben Melmeth lifting his production from 12.3 points and 8.0 rebounds to 21.6 points and 12.4 rebounds. As a result, Melmeth was selected to the All-NBL First Team and named Most Improved Player at the end of the season.

Johnson (10.9 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 4.1 assists) fared well in his new role, his play gaining him a spot at this years Boomers selection camp and Burton (19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 2.2 steals), Todd Mundt (13.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.3 assists) and returning star Tonny Jensen (18.1 points, 3.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.3 steals) delivered quality numbers as well. The lack of production came from the team’s bench, who combined to deliver 12 points per game in total, with new recruit Brandon (3.1 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 0.7 assists) the highest scoring player off the bench. As a result, the Falcons struggled to stay in front during any game during times they rested their starting lineup and finished the season in tenth place (9-21).

1998/99
Entering the 1998/99 season, the Falcons were in dire financial trouble, but on the brink of the season starting, they secured funds from a group of investors from Albury. As a result, the Falcons were able to retain local talent Ben Melmeth, Terry Johnson and import Todd Mundt but were forced to build the rest of the team on a shoestring budget. Somewhat luckily, Newcastle benefitted from the merger of South East Melbourne and North Melbourne, which saw Pat Reidy and import Butch Hays both former Giants players, without a team. With few NBL team’s having any space on their rosters at this stage, the Falcons were able to sign both at budget prices. Dean Brogan (via Adelaide), Rod Johnson (via Canberra) and legendary shot blocker Willie Simmons was lured out of retirement to play another season.

While obvious favourites to finish on the bottom of the ladder, the Falcons surprised everyone by winning five of their first six games.

Shortly after, reports of players not being paid their salaries surfaced, and the focus, motivation and production among the players began to wane. Mundt exited the team as a result of not getting paid on time and was replaced with Simmons (14.4 points, 7.1 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.2 steals) who after a season playing with Sydney was sitting at home after being unable to find another new deal.

The remainder of the season then saw Newcastle record three wins from their next nineteen games before finally beating Perth (113–111) in their final game of the year.

Pat Reidy (17.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 1.1 steals) led the team in scoring, Ben Melmeth (17.5 points, 11.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.1 steals) led the team in rebounds while Terry Johnson (14.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 2.1 steals) delivered his best season at the point guard position and his brother Rod Johnson (11.4 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 3.2 assists) rounded out the team’s leading scorers.

After narrowly surviving the season before, this would prove to be the death knell for Newcastle, with the league stepping in to address their financial situation and its result being the removal of their NBL licence and the Falcons being forced out of the league.

ILLAWARRA HAWKS
1999/00
After a playoff campaign where the Hawks lost four playoff games in a row, Wollongong came into the season with a point to prove. Although promising big man David Andersen was lost to a deal in Europe, Wollongong was able to veteran players to the team in Mike McKay (via Canberra) and Darren Perry. Perry had spent the last five years playing in the state league, before being offered a lifeline by coach Brendan Joyce who encouraged Perry to return to the NBL and provide some leadership to his young, up and coming squad. The team chose not to re-sign imports Theron Wilson (to Europe) and Clayton Ritter (to Canberra) and instead looked for new imports to better complement the style of Bruton and signed former NBA lottery pick Todd Mundt (via Newcastle) as well as former Hawks MVP, Melvin Thomas, who had spent the past four seasons playing with Sydney and Canberra. Another change saw Mat Campbell (14.2 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.9 assists) take on the role of team captain, a role he maintained for more than a decade.

With high-scoring guard CJ Bruton (22.1 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 3.3 assists) settling into his second season with the team, many felt the Hawks would have one of the stronger rosters clubs, but the Hawks just couldn’t seem to get victories over any of the league’s top team’s. A key factor was the lack of production the team were able to get from Mundt (8.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 0.8 assists), who struggled to play big minutes and with nine games left in the season, he was released. Matt Garrison (17.2 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.7 steals) entered the team as his replacement, and although his presence delivered a immediate improvement, the move was too little too late. Wollongong limped home to a eighth-place finish (11-17) with the Hawk’s dismal season viewed to be a result of Bruton being tasked with too much.

Melvin Thomas (19.6 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.2 steals) and Glen Saville (14.0 points, 7.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 1.9 steals) both delivered great seasons and were voted as the Hawks co-MVP’s as a result.

Todd Mundt played three seasons in the NBL, playing for both the Newcastle Falcons and the Wollongong Hawks. He averaged 11.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1 assists in 55 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (815 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.