REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - Brose Bamberg have a storied recent history of winning German titles. They also have established a strong track record of developing players and sending them onto bigger things. Young Australian talent William McDowell-White hopes to become another player to go through the Bamberg system on to new heights.

Looking at past Bamberg teams that have won seven of the last eight German champions, you see a long list of players who jumped from the BBL powers to even bigger things.

Darius Miller, Brian Roberts, Daniel Theis and PJ Tucker all went directly to the NBA from Bamberg. Kyle Hines came to Bamberg from the second division in Italy and was snatched up after just one season in Germany and went on to win three EuroLeague titles with Olympiacos Piraeus and CSKA Moscow.

Fabien Causeur and Marcus Slaughter, for their part, both left Bamberg and landed at Real Madrid, while Janis Strelieks headed to Olympiacos from the southern German club; Brad Wanamaker left for Turkey and Darussafaka and is now with Fenerbahce, where he is joined by former Bamberg teammate Nicolo Melli.

McDowell-White is hoping to become another member of that list.

McDowell-White is playing for Bamberg’s second team Baunach Young Pikes in Germany's second division ProA. Through 12 games he is averaging 10.4 points, 6.4 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 2.5 steals. He is also practicing at times with the top team and even got to suit up and play in the EuroLeague this past week, hitting a three-pointer at the end of the game.

"It's an exciting time being called up to the EuroLeague team and even just suiting up is an accomplishment for me," McDowell-White told fiba.basketball. "Against CSKA coming in and being able to knock down a three-pointer was probably the highlight of my career so far. I'm just looking forward in the future to playing some more and contributing any way I can."

The 19-year-old's main contribution is coming with Baunach. And McDowell-White believes he has been developing pretty well thus far.

"I think I'm doing well. I could obviously do better," he said. "Offensively maybe be a little bit more selfish instead of looking for somebody else all the time. The biggest improvement for me has been defensively. In the pre-season with the first team I was absolutely horrendous defensively, which is unlike me. I was just getting blown by whenever. I have worked on it and now I have become a defensive asset for the second team. I'm just trying to help out the first team with my defense."

"We looked at the history of this club and what they've done with players that have been here and where players have gone after playing here. And a lot of them went on to the NBA and gone on to be EuroLeague champions with other teams. Once we saw that we thought this is an opportunity to go to the highest level or at least develop here and go to a big-time European club."William McDowell-White

Things are going about as well as could be expected for the South Brisbane native. But just the fact that McDowell-White is in the city of about 75,000 people is a surprise for many - even for himself at first.

"It kind of came out of nowhere, really," he admitted. "I was playing in the NBL back home and didn’t really know what I was going to do. I was looking at teams back home and fortunately an agent that we knew kind of explored options over here and found Bamberg and they needed another guard in the second team and it all worked out from there."

McDowell-White signed on a four-year contract with the nine-time German champions. And it was the club's history of bringing players to higher levels that attracted the 6ft 5in (1.95m) point guard and his family.

"We looked at the history of this club and what they've done with players that have been here and where players have gone after playing here. And a lot of them went on to the NBA and gone on to be EuroLeague champions with other teams. Once we saw that we thought this is an opportunity to go to the highest level or at least develop here and go to a big-time European club," McDowell-White said.

McDowell-White, the son of the former Australian rules football star Daryl McDowell-White, first popped up on international basketball fans' radars at the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2015, where he averaged 7.4 points, 3.7 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 2.1 steals for the Emus, who finished seventh in Crete.

He then popped up at the 2016 Nike Hoop Summit and picked up five points, three rebounds, two assists and one steal for the World Team.

McDowell-White had after that hoped to go to college in the United States and decided on Fresno State in California. But he ended up not getting academically eligible and was never able to start his collegiate career.

After much effort to try to get into college, McDowell-White decided in early 2017 to head back home to Australia and landed with the Sydney Kings, for whom he played seven games last season and averaged 2.1 points and 1.1 assists. He also averaged 17.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists playing for the Brisbane Spartans in the QBL.

The talent was still clearly there - as he flashed in his time with the Kings. But it was just not clear how his career would develop. Enter Bamberg, who have recently taken in talents from many other countries including Slovenia, Lithuania, Sweden and Estonia.

Now Australia can be added to that list. And McDowell-White has a club to work with while also knowing that there is a future if he develops the way that many believe.

"That's one of my main goals - to play for them. If the Boomers call, I will definitely be there."William McDowell-White

"As a point guard, I need to be a little more vocal and more of a leader. I'm more of a quiet guy and easy-going. So just being more aggressive and being the point guard that everybody wants me to be," McDowell-White added.

Another long-term goal would be to return to Australia and play for the senior national team - perhaps even if the Boomers come calling during the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Asian Qualifiers.

"That's one of my main goals - to play for them. If the Boomers call, I will definitely be there."

The road to the Boomers may come quicker than McDowell-White expected - thanks to an offer that really came out of nowhere.

David Hein

FIBA