There was no one happier than Justin Schueller's wife Cody for him to return from Melbourne after the Brisbane Bullets getting their first win of NBL25, but in the bigger picture he was proud of the mindset adjustment from his group.

The Bullets had an honest look at everything they were doing early last week on the back of losing the first three games of the NBL season and ahead of Saturday night's match up in Melbourne against the also winless South East Melbourne Phoenix.

It always shaped as a make or break game for both teams, and unfortunately the Phoenix have since parted ways with coach Mike Kelly, but for the Bullets there was so much to like and not just because the result went their way.

The win is obviously the main thing, but it was the path to getting that victory that was most pleasing for Schueller and it all started with a mindset shift during the week, and then a terrific week on the practice floor.

That then led into the victory on Saturday night where the Bullets started 11-4 so fixed up that before ending the night with 21 offensive rebounds for 21 second chance points, scored 18 points off the Phoenix turnovers and it was all the effort and hustle plays that went up a level.

Schueller was proud of his team's performance and then to get to come home to a happy wife.

"I know there's no one happier right now than my wife because she's been going through hell and it has been tough," Schueller said.

"But I love this group and the resolve that's there, and no one ever pointed a finger at anyone. It was all about what do we have to do to get better and I'm proud of how we responded."

Everyone involved in the Bullets squad did some soul searching early last week and Schueller was especially impressed with how honest everyone was, and then how they responded on the practice floor and in the game.

"I checked myself in how I was leading this group and we looked at how we were operating each day, and we did a peer evaluation Monday and Tuesday," he said.

"It was just the honest conversations that were occurring that transferred to the floor, and that gives me outstanding hope of what the resilience can be in this group and how we can continue to grow.

"The successful teams I've been part of have been able to have those real conversations, and I thought this was the best week on the practice floor. That was more because we were real with each other on every possession."

After losing the first three games, it would be easy for everyone to feel a sense of desperation to try and get on the board, but Schueller recognised that wouldn’t be a healthy approach to take.

He instead rammed home the importance of being hungry to do all the right things to help the team, and that's why he was so pleased with the rebounding effort, the defensive plays his team made, and the way they looked to be the hungrier of the two teams.

"We spoke earlier in the week about how desperation forces you to make irrational decisions whereas hunger means you actually do your job as best as you can, and not getting caught up if something doesn’t go your way," Schueller said.

"A couple of times we got our heads cloudy but moved on, and helped each other move on. That's the biggest change in us because bad offence was leading to bad defence and vice versa over the first three games.

"But that wasn’t the case in this game and we might have had an error on defence, but still came down and got a good shot. That's a big change for us and I'm proud of how we went in there and attacked it."

There was a lot to like in the overall performance from the Bullets but ultimately Tyrell Harrison was the major difference between the two teams finishing with 21 points and 17 rebounds.

His 12 offensive rebounds is the most ever by a player in a 40-minute NBL game, and Schueller was glad to see him get back to the aggressive form on the glass he knows he's capable of.

"We wanted to continue to pick on the drop a bit and give Ty runways down the lane, but then also when they got to their aggressive coverage, we found him late off the short roll," he said.

"That's the advantage we've got with Banno back in is that he's had that time with Tyrell and the more we play together the more we'll get that continuity.

"I'm just excited for Ty to get that aggression back on the glass because that's what has been probably missing a little bit for him."

While Sam McDaniel is out for the season and Deng Adel missed Saturday night's win through illness, Josh Bannan is now settling back into the line-up and Schueller is glad to be able to get closer to having everyone available so the team can all settle into their roles.

"We will never make excuses but we had Josh and Sammy Mac pencilled in as starters for this year, and now Sammy Mac's season is done and now we've got Josh back so we can start looking closer to how we wanted to," Schueller said.

"That's with getting better role clarity and understanding how we can all best fit together. We didn’t have Deng Adel for this game either and that's a big out for us too, but hopefully we can get whole after this aside from Sammy.

"Banno is kind of like our engine room, though, and he's not afraid to call a spade a spade, and that's kind of what we were missing in the losses we took. It's good to have him back, feeling confident and being assertive."

Chris Pike

Schueller proud of Bullets for self-reflection