Player Spotlight – Kenny Manigault

 

There is something entertaining and exciting about the duo of Kenny Manigault and Jacob Holmen for the Goldfields Giants. Even before the tip off, Holmen will go through a combination of individual handshakes that are specific to each of his teammates.

 

By no means is this new, but there is a lot less ‘cringe’ factor when they do it compared to other teams. When the Giants are announced pregame, and Holmen goes through the routine, it actually looks like a genuine display of affection and respect for his teammates. Compared to other groups, which tends to look more forced in a poor attempt to display comradery.

 

Of course the most complicated handshake in Holmen’s routine is reserved for Kenny Manigault. This I think is largely due to the fact that they possess more rhythm and coordination than the rest of the group. And this isn’t just my observation from the handshake, but from their performance on court too (apology in advance for the podcast).

 

Number 23 Kenny Manigault, the latest addition to the team. After an impressive season opener at home, in which they lost to Perry Lakes, he was huge in picking up two massive roads wins against East Perth and Kalamunda over the long weekend.

 

The South Carolina native from Charleston started his college career at Wichita State, which was made famous in Perth with the arrival of Cal ‘The Black Pearl’ Bruton in the late 80’s. But for Manigault it was short lived after he transferred to USC Aiken in his Sophmore year before finding a home in Pikeville. And not only did he find a home there, but also an Australian roommate from Perth named Jackson Hussey.

 

“Yeah he was my room mate in college, so he gave me all the rundown,” Manigault says. “He even had me try vegemite when I was in America. So that was the first thing I bought when I came out here.”

 

In his senior year, Kenny lead Pikeville in rebounding (7.4rpg) and was second in his team in scoring (19.8ppg). It was with these numbers that he helped guide his team to the NAIA Elite 8 in 2015.

 

Along with the team accomplishments, the NAIA recognized his individual efforts and Kenny was awarded All-MSC Player of the Year, as well as All-NAIA Player of the Year in that same season.

 

Now almost 19,000km away from his hometown, Kenny finds himself firmly planted in Western Australia for the first time and making a name for himself. When asked about his first impressions of Perth, Kenny said, “Love Perth. When we came out here for the blitz I feel in love with it.”

 

Then I asked him about his transition from Pikeville to Kalgoorlie, Kenny responded, “It’s a small town, but the college I went to was in the mountains and was a small town too. So it was easy for me to adjust being from a small town, so it wasn’t hard.”

 

For the Giants sake, lets hope it stays that way. The long SBL season can have a few stretches of boredom especially for first time imports coming straight from the college system. They can go from training 4-6 times a week in college, and then find themselves dropping back to twice a week.

 

But I think the Kalgoorlie faithful can rest easy for now knowing that their latest signing has no intention of slowing down.

 

“I just want to be able to play as long as I can. Into the top league if I can, if not, I’ll be fine playing in this league. Just want to play the game and have fun.”

 

After 3 games, Manigault has averaged 30 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3 assists. The only lose was to Perry Lakes, which he fouled out after 35 minutes of play. But was still able to record an impressive 6 steals.

 

However you have to admire his humbleness and acknowledging his teammates in a ‘good team win’, even though Holmen and Manigault carried the majority of the workload.

 

“It was a big win. We needed that win to stay in the win column throughout the league,” Manigault reflected after the game against East Perth Saturday night. “We didn’t want to start off 0-2 so it was a good team win.”

 

After going against the zone defense and winning against East Perth, Goldfields travelled up the hill to Kalamunda. There they faced a very different defense with the ‘run and jump’ style full court pressure of the Suns.

 

At one point Kalamunda had the Giants pinned up against the wall with the largest margin being 21 points with 2 minutes remaining in the second quarter.

From there however, it was Manigault and Holmen who tirelessly chipped away at the margin to record a 4-point win.

 

Manigault was able to work his way back into the game going to the foul line 21 times. He finished with an impressive 38 points, 14 rebounds and 6 assists, along with a tough defensive contribution of 6 steals and 2 blocks.

 

While I look forward to watching Kenny Manigault continue to improve during the season, if I could be critical of one thing, it is that I would like to see how good he would be from 3-point range. In his senior year, Manigault was shooting at 48.6% from deep. So far in the SBL, he has only attempted 7 shots for 2 makes.

 

While I am critical of Goldfields 3 point shooting and shot selection from some of their players, I would expect Kenny to do much better in this area. If he is serious about wanting to play up a level, then he’ll need to show he is capable of scoring in bunches from range.

 

I have no doubt however he’ll put this on display in the near future.

Article by Adam Forde
Photo by Mick Cronin