16-05-2025
Bardsley bringing up 100th game
Matthew Bardsley is a hustler.
The Otago Nuggets bring him on when they need some energy.
It is his role to disrupt, spoil, agitate and just generally do whatever it takes to force a turnover, create a mistake and change the momentum of the match.
The 29-year-old guard is perfectly cast in that role.
He is quick, he has great reactions, and he is tenacious.
They are all attributes that do not always show up on the stats sheet.
But he has made a huge contribution since the Nuggets re-entered the league in 2020 following a five-year absence.
He added energy from the bench during the championship runs in 2020 and 2022. And tomorrow evening, he will bring up his 100th game for the franchise when they head south to play the Southland Sharks in Invercargill.
"It has been a pretty cool journey since 2020, and to reach 100 games is something I'm pretty proud of," Bardsley said.
Bardsley is the second player to reach the milestone this season. Josh Aitcheson brought up his 100th game late last month and point guard Darcy Knox is poised on 97 games and will also reach the mark, all going well.
The trio has played a lot of basketball together, and just that simple joy has been one of Bardsley's highlights.
He moved south from Palmerston North in 2017 and linked up with Aitcheson and Knox in the University of Otago basketball team.
"We won a couple of national championships with Otago University, and then it kind of went from there. Our basketball journeys have been pretty aligned since then."
The 2020 National Basketball League Showdown was a huge highlight in his career.
The league was reworked that season because of Covid, and the entire tournament was played in Auckland.
All the players stayed at the same hotel and formed their own Covid bubble.
The Nuggets got lucky in the player draft. They were able to secure the services of the likes of Jordan Ngatai and Jarrod Kenny.
"As a kick start to my Nuggets' career, it was quite an intense seven weeks up in Auckland.
"But it was such a great experience for me and to play alongside some of New Zealand's best basketball players in JK and Jordan Ngatai ... was pretty cool.
"And the championship in 2022 was special as well."
It has been an unusual week for Bardsley. He has been in Christchurch for work and has not been around the team.
But he was not expecting to be any more nervous than usual for the milestone match.
"I'll be just treating it like another game.
"In the context of our season, we probably need to get a win. Well, not probably, we definitely need to get a win, so that will be the main focus, not the 100th game per se."
His wife, Sophie, and her family will travel to Invercargill to watch him play.
His 100th was supposed to be against the beleaguered Indian Panthers in Dunedin last night, but that game has been postponed.
The other major distraction this week has been the departure of Jose Perez. The American small forward and the Nuggets parted ways.
"I don't think it has been a distraction. The club has made moves that it has to make, and we are just continuing to try and build together and make a late playoff push, I suppose.
"The group is still very connected despite what has been going on."
