Inside Anthony Dell'Orso's Perth Wildcats signing

• John Rillie first contacted Dell'Orso three years ago, during his freshman season at Campbell
• UConn coach Dan Hurley called him maybe the best bench player in the country in 2026
• Dell'Orso made his Boomers debut in Manila, scoring 19 points against Jordan

Freshly minted Australian Boomers shooting guard Anthony Dell’Orso joining the Perth Wildcats was three years in the making – but then it happened “pretty quick”.

Dell’Orso had just come off the back of a 2026 NCAA March Madness run with the Arizona Wildcats and was suiting up for the Sacramento Kings at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

The 23-year-old Victorian made his Boomers debut in the 2027 FIBA Men’s World Cup qualifiers at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines, pouring in a silky 19 points against Jordan on August 31.

“Yeah, pretty quick,” Dell’Orso answered on SportsDay WA about how his arrival in Perth happened.

“Obviously, it’s been close with (John Rillie) for a while. I’ve been in contact with him. (Danny Mills) has been good to me – really, the whole club as a whole.

“They came out seriously in Vegas when I was at Summer League, and we just kind of kept it going from then on. We were able to make something work.”

Dell’Orso revealed he was in his first season with NCAA Division 1 school Campbell when he first heard from Rillie, who was entering his first season as the Wildcats' head coach.

“He reached out to me probably three-and-a-bit years ago now,” Dell’Orso said.

“I’d just finished my first year in college, and I don’t quite remember how he got in contact with me, but he did.

“He then became a mentor to me and helped me with decisions about college, the NBA and what I was thinking at the time. He hasn’t really had any kind of personal agenda; he’s just always put my best interests first, I thought.

“We built that relationship over time, and when the time came, it was obviously a no-brainer for me to pick him.”

Dell'Orso came off the bench in every game of his senior year for a side ranked No. 1 in the country, and after Arizona beat UConn 71-67 on November 20, 2025, Huskies championship-winning coach Dan Hurley offered the endorsement that has followed him since. "

I think [he's] going to make an NBA team, just because he's got size and he shoots it with the way the new NBA plays," Hurley said.

"I know he wasn't good tonight, but that guy is maybe the best bench player in the country."

Growing up in Victoria, Dell’Orso said he played Australian Rules Football but was a small 1.7m ruck-rover. An extraordinary growth spurt in high school changed his trajectory – both literally and figuratively.

“I grew up playing all sports,” he said.

“I picked up basketball pretty late, but obviously I’ve been in it a decent while now.

“I played footy, cricket, basketball – pretty much everything you can think of.

“I was playing ruck-rover at the time because I was only probably about 170cm. But now I’ve grown, so I don’t know. If I went back, I’d love to play centre half-forward. That’d be my dream.

"I just kind of picked (up basketball) up late. I really got into it probably around COVID. I had a huge growth spurt around the Year 9-Year 10 range.

“I went from probably about five-foot-seven or five-foot-eight to about six-foot-four in a matter of, I’d say, half a year.

“That really stuck me with basketball and made the game a lot more fun and enjoyable. I was able to do things, being taller and stuff.

Then I kind of got pushed out of footy and pushed out of cricket, and just found a love of basketball, really.”

The Wildcats play their first NBL27 Blitz pre-season game against Melbourne United on Friday, September 4, 2026 at 8pm (AEST) – brutally for fans, overlapping the Australian Opals' first FIBA Women’s World Cup clash against Puerto Rico at 7.30pm (AEST).

Perth’s first clash on NBL27 is against South East Melbourne Phoenix at RAC Arena on Saturday, September 19, 2026 at 9.30pm (AEST).