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Dean Vickerman

New man at helm of Saints

Vickerman resigned last week citing financial problems at the Wellington franchise and though he had second thoughts during the weekend his resignation has been accepted.

The man almost certain to be named the new coach today, Mike McHugh, has never seen the Saints play and till last night's practice had never met any of the players.

McHugh is a former Australian women's coach with 30 years of basketball coaching behind him. He has also coached at the Australian Institute of Sport and was head coach of the Canberra Capitals in the Australian national league. He shifted to New Zealand last November as national sports funding provider Sparc's coaching adviser.

Initially Saints only wanted him to help Vickerman temporarily, but things have taken off in the past couple of days.

"Saints rang on Monday and offered me the head coaching job. Till then I'd never thought about it," McHugh said yesterday.

The 52-year-old will coach the New Zealand junior women's team later in the year and has not yet signed a contract with Saints.

"We've got a handshake deal and that's good enough for me.

"As far as the Saints are concerned I'm their coach. I told them I wanted to meet the team and get a feel for the players, but I'm sure I'll coach them."

While McHugh only met the players for the first time last night, he had heard good things about the team.

"It's going to be a bit of an adventure for the next few weeks but I've been told the team has a lot of talent that was being built by Dean for the future."

And while McHugh had no plans beyond this year's NBL, he hinted his tenure may not be restricted to the one season. "If this is a team that is developing it would be foolish to keep changing the coaches around."

He has a busy week ahead – he is the key speaker at a Sparc coaching conference that kicks off in Wellington today.

Saints director Justin Toebes confirmed McHugh's likely role and would only say of Vickerman's second change of heart: "We've now both agreed that his resignation is in place."

Assistant coach Matt Ruscoe will be asked to take the Saints for Saturday night's match with Auckland Stars in Wellington.

Meanwhile, Toebes said Queens Wharf was Saints' confirmed home venue for the rest of the year and negotiations with potential sponsors were continuing.

Vickerman, who will leave the country for his home town Melbourne tomorrow, said it was time to put family first.

"Part of me had already left once I resigned. It was hard to go back on that."