BACK TO MY ROOTS
He sounds as Aussie as Vegemite and Crocodile Dundee but Mike Vigor has vowed to prove he’s not lost touch with his Scottish side by helping our hoops stars put England to the sword.
The Bristol Flyers centre, 27, is set to have the biggest fan club in the house in Townsville on Thursday with Scottish mum Kathy and several members of his family flying in from Western Australia to cheer the Scots on.
Vigor lived in Aberdeen until five before becoming a globetrotter, with spel ls in Indonesia, Dubai and Singapore before his folks settled in Oz.
He said: “I don’t really remember back then but I was always proud to be Scottish. Even to my Year 12 Ball in Australia I wore a kilt.
“So it was something that was always there, and that my parents always reminded me and my brothers about so it was there all along.
“Thinking back it was always tough, we were sort of everywhere for two to three years and then we were moving on so it was hard to have friends or, you know, long-time friends.
“It would sort of be two years, make some new friends and get settled and set up a bit of a community and then you’d be off again.
“I went to international schools and I made a lot of nice, good friends along the way that I still sort of keep in contact with.” He’s made plenty in the Scottish squad after spending the past two years in the British Basketball League – squaring off against the six Glasgow Rocks aces who’ve gone from rivals to team-mates.
With a first round group that also includes Cameroon and India, Vigor believes Scotland have a real shot at making the second stage where the big guns await.
He said: “What we’re priding ourselves on going forward is that we’re going to have that team chemistry.
“We might not have the most talented group but our chemistry will affect it, guys that have been together and guys that want to play for each other and want to sacrifice for each other is always a massive advantage. That’s going to be our sort of pillar of our team.”
It could make sure we get off to a flyer against the English who – like the Scots – have been forced to rely mostly on home-based stars for the Games.
And Vigor could be the team’s secret weapon by spilling the beans on his boss at Bristol, Andreas Kapoulas, who’s coaching England here.
He said: “It’s going to be awkward as the whole of the last six or seven months, everything’s been about fighting for each other and trying to get wins together at Bristol.
“And now it’s going to be trying to get a win against each other. There’s been a bit of banter here and there.
“And I’ve already said to coach that if they beat us or we beat them we probably won’t want to see each other for the remainder of the trip, until we get back. So stay clear.”
Vigor reckons a few wins would make his family back in Inverurie proud and bagging a medal would be a dream come true for the Scots, who’ll be coached by Aussie Rob Beveridge.
And Mike said: ”Playing Australia in the final would be probably the best scenario but I was with a couple guys from the team back from when I played for Perth Wildcats.
“And obviously Rob also coached them so it would be another sort of bittersweet rivalry as well. To play them in any sort of group knock out stage as well would be great.” FIXTURES
Basketball group stage (Townsville). Thursday: Scotland v England; Saturday: Scotland v Cameroon; Sunday: Scotland v India.
Vigor’s Oz accent won’t hide joy at beating English