The Canberra Capitals are closing in on rising point guard Maddison Rocci as the club looks to shore up a spot looming as critical in their WNBL title defence.
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The 20-year-old free agent is almost locked in to return to the reigning WNBL champions with the Capitals also desperate to re-sign starting five members Leilani Mitchell and Kelly Wilson.
Rocci has been dubbed an Opal-in-waiting following an impressive start to her WNBL career that saw her land the Capital on the Rise award in her sophomore season.
The signatures of Mitchell and Wilson would allow the Werribee product to serve her apprenticeship under two stars for another season with the Capitals looking for someone to steer the ship.
It comes after the club re-signed Canadian import Kia Nurse for another season, joining Kelsey Griffin, Marianna Tolo, Keely Froling and Kristy Wallace on the books for Canberra's championship defence.
Capitals coach Paul Goriss will give Mitchell and Wilson all the time they need to make a decision on their futures, adamant he will not rush into the free agency market.
"We need that leadership at the point guard spot and that is critical to our group moving forward," Goriss said.
"We’ve got some great parts with Kia, Kelsey and Tolo coming back, but we need someone to lead the ship from the point guard spot.
"That’s why it’s important we nail that spot down pretty quickly, but also we want to give Lei and Kelly the opportunity to make sure this is where they want to be and make sure they want to come back.
"We want to have them as our priority versus going to free agency to look for another point guard. We’re still in negotiations and talking with Lei and Kelly about those other two spots.
"Maddy Rocci, we’re in constant contact with her and hopefully we get a decision on that this week. The other two we are constantly talking to, but the other two we are still constantly talking to, so hopefully in another week or two we will have some more light on Lei and Kelly as well."
Goriss says Nurse's signature will send "shivers down the spines" of rival teams after she finished fourth in the league's points per game rankings and seventh in most valuable player voting.
Nurse quickly developed into a fan favourite in Canberra and will undoubtedly draw a few more through the doors when the 2019-20 season begins in October.
University of Canberra director of sport Carrie Graf is banking on full houses this season as the club considers splitting its time between the National Convention Centre and AIS Arena again.
"Our home court is the NCC, which is a great boutique venue. Our plan is we would like to see sellouts there week in, week out, which is certainly achievable," Graf said.
"It’s not always available, and certainly for big games, the Arena is the fit. We had two regular season games at the Arena so that, I imagine, will be a similar situation.
"There will be some dates that don’t fit at the NCC and there will be some big games for us that we will play at the Arena because of the crowd we expect."
