For the past year Australian Institute of Sport basketballer Clint Steindl has been reading about his good friend and former teammate, Patrick Mills, and his rise to fame.
He watches him at the Beijing Olympic press conferences and dreams of being in the same position.
As Mills gets butterflies just seven days out from his Olympic debut, Steindl is starting to get nervous about joining Mills's United States college, St Mary's next month.
In just under three weeks Steindl will finish his two-year tenure in Canberra and start on his own journey towards a Boomers singlet.
''Now that I've made a college team, the national team is the next step,'' Steindl said. ''It's a very real prospect for me now, but I just want to wait and see what comes to me.''
Institute head coach Marty Clarke said Steindl entered his basketball program as an unknown quantity.
No one knew anything about him and no one was saying he was the next superstar of Australian basketball.
But Mills said after Steindl's development in Canberra, he was more than ready to make the transition to St Mary's.
''As long as he does what he does well, sprints his lanes, he's athletic and can defend and he's very long,'' Mills said before he left for Beijing.
''If he does those things ... he'll be fine. He's a very good mate and to be honest ... it's not a hard career choice for him.''
Steindl admits trying to emulate what Mills has done in his first year out of the institute program is impossible.
But the 19-year-old has his eyes set on achieving his own goals while enjoying his US experience.
''He [Mills] said it was pretty easy to get distracted by the American lifestyle,'' Steindl laughed at one of his final institute training sessions.
''But he said once you get through that, you're rolling.''
He walked into the institute as an unknown lanky guard who struggled in his two years to strengthen his long frame.
But after watching him grow, Clarke said Steindl had the potential to do ''great things for Australian basketball''.
''He's a super nice guy and he's turned into a super athlete,'' Clarke said. ''I think his best basketball is definitely ahead of him, probably two years ahead of him.
''All we've done here is given him a chance to see what he needs to do to get himself to a level.''
Steindl helped lift the institute to this season's South East Australian Basketball League finals.
His ability to shoot from beyond the three-point line and also play an inside role made him an attractive prospect for St Mary's.
Mills dominated his first season in the US and averaged almost 15 points per game.
''The [St Mary's] coach said they had been watching me for a while and saw I was continuing to improve,'' Steindl said.
''They just wanted an athletic long player who can get in there and mix it up with the Americans. In the past I've been a bit of a passive defender, but if I want to step up I've got to become more aggressive.''
Clarke agreed and said an aggressive nature would come with his physical maturity.
''We've just started to notice it now that he's started to get some shoulders and some arms, but he needs to play with a confidence in himself as much as anything else.
''He's a very good shooter and a good athlete and gets to the hoop. With that confidence will come the physical nature of play.
''Once he starts to use his wingspan and athleticism he is going to become a great defender.
''He'll be a great player in that league and hopefully he comes back and does great things for Australian basketball.''
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff