Two former Cats are teaming up down under. The Cairns Taipans in the NBL, the top professional league in Australia and New Zealand, announced their 2025-26 roster today; Marcus Lee and Ashton Hagans are on it, along with some other familiar names. Lee comes to the Taipans from Melbourne United. He’s been playing in the […]
Two former Cats are teaming up down under. The Cairns Taipans in the NBL, the top professional league in Australia and New Zealand, announced their 2025-26 roster today; Marcus Lee and Ashton Hagans are on it, along with some other familiar names.
Lee comes to the Taipans from Melbourne United. He’s been playing in the NBL since 2021 and won a championship with the Tasmania JackJumpers in 2024. Last season, he averaged 6.9 points and 5.8 rebounds for Melbourne United, helping lead them to the championship game, where they lost to the Illawarra Hawks. Lee played for Kentucky from 2013-16 and finished his college career at Cal. After going undrafted in 2018, he spent a few seasons in the G League before moving overseas, playing in Italy, Turkey, Puerto Rico, Spain, Poland, and ultimately, Australia.
This will be Hagans’ first season in the NBL. Last season, he played for the Xinjiang Flying Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association, his first overseas contract. After two seasons at Kentucky (2018-20), Hagans signed a two-way deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2020 and with the Portland Trail Blazers in February 2024, playing for the Raptors 905, Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Greensboro Swarm, and Rip City Remix in between. He’s expected to be the Taipans’ starting point guard.
Also on Cairns’ roster: former Tennessee star Admiral Schofield and former Louisville Cardinal Reyne Smith. Schofield also spent a lot of time after college on two-way deals and most recently played for LDLC ASVEL in France. Reyne Smith, a native of Australia, just graduated from Louisville. Between Lee, Hagans, Schofield, and Smith, I’m sure there will be plenty of friendly trash talk in the Taipans’ locker room this fall.
Former Cats playing overseas
Lee and Hagans are two of many former Cats showcasing their talents abroad. Last week, Hamidou Diallosigned a two-year deal with Baskonia, a Spanish pro team that competes in the Euroleague. The week before that, Ansley Almonor signed a deal with Vilpas Vikings of the Korisliiga league. After two years in Turkey, Derek Willis is taking his talents to France to play with Paris Basketball. Last month, Alex Poythress extended his deal with Zenit Saint Petersburg, and Kyle Wiljter renewed his deal with Umana Reyer Venezia in Italy.
I’m sure we’ll hear of more deals as training camps start up across Europe this month.
Category: Basketball
