Illawarra Hawks master coach Rob Beveridge in Bendigo Braves camp

Riding the pine with Braves coach Ben Harvey during the Braves clash against the Geelong Supercats will be Illawarra Hawks NBL mentor Rob Beveridge.

The 2009-10 NBL championship coach, who led the Hawks to the 2016-17 grand final series, is in Bendigo spending four days with local senior and junior players and coaches.

His first engagement was leading a two-hour seminar for coaches at Bendigo Stadium on Thursday night.

He also oversaw open training sessions for the Braves and Lady Braves alongside coaches Harvey and Jonathon Goodman.

Beveridge has links with Bendigo through the Braves 2016 championship point guard Kevin White, who will suit up for his third season with the Hawks later this year.

At the invite of Beveridge, coach Harvey spent time with the Hawks organisation during 2016-17. It was a favour the SEABL stalwart was keen to repay.

The Hawks coach said he had nothing but respect for the Braves organisation and its senior and junior programs.

"It's been one of the blue-chip programs for a long time in Australia," he said.

"I've been a coach a long time now and everyone recognises the SEABL as the number two competition in Australia.

"It's well respected and the Braves have had much success, great imports and stability."

"Bendigo and Ballarat are always known in the SEABL  as the blue-chip programs."

For a coach who has savoured success at all levels, including a stint in 2000 as an assistant coach of the national  senior women's wheelchair team, Beveridge, or 'Bevo' as he is known, has never forgotten his roots.

That's why he agreed to spend time meeting with association coaches in Bendigo - to give back to a sport that has given him so much.

"I've been a junior coach too .... and I love coach education," he said.

"I love giving back. I had some wonderful mentors in my junior days as a coach.

"I feel an obligation to give back. It was one of the things, yes come down to Bendigo for four days, but I want to be able to work with juniors."

If there were any doubts over the influence the SEABL could have on a basketballer's career, Beveridge said people needed to only look as far his Hawks point guard White to dispel them.

The 25-year-old produced his best season to date in the NBL and averaged 15.98 minutes per game for returns of 4.74ppg and 1.65 assists, while being one of the competition’s best defensive players.

It followed an impressive championship season with the Braves, in which he averaged 12.4 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.3 assists.

The pair have known each other for nearly 12 years, with the point guard being a part of the Institute of Sport program run in New South Wales by Beveridge as a junior.

He was also the captain of the NSW under-20 state team coached by Beveridge about seven years ago.

"Because the season has been shortened to five or six months, it's a great model to have our NBL players go play in another competition where they can go work on their game," he said.

"That started with Whitey coming down here. I wanted him to be with arguably the best program in the SEABL.

"He's just a tremendous leader but we wanted him to work on his game in certain areas.

"I knew Harves had the ability as a point guard to teach him that position.

"And it worked really well. I felt that our success this year had a lot to do with Whitey's leadership and improved court time."

So, how did his coach view White's NBL season?

"He is one of the hardest working players I have ever coached," was Beveridge's frank assessment.

"He is not a super-talented player, he doesn't have natural athleticism, he's not the best shooter out there, he's just solid at everything.

"What separates him from others is his attitude and his desire to hold everyone accountable, whether it's your superstar import, or your young rookie. He treats everyone equally.

"The way he leads by example, particularly defensively, is amazing.

"I ended up starting him which raised some eyebrows, but it was the tone and intensity that he would set that made everyone else in the team better.

"That was part of our success, we weren't the best team talent-wise, but I believe we were the best team in terms of unselfishness and playing hard for each other."

Beveridge expects he will appreciate the opportunity of a more relaxed role on the Braves bench during Saturday night's game against the Supercats.

He praised coach Harvey as having a "sharp basketball mind" and even admitted to adopting some of the SEABL championship coach's evaluation processes with the Hawks.

Beveridge's resume reads like a who's who of basketball.

His 24-years as a professional coach includes five years with the Perth Wildcats, underpinned by a championship and three other grand final appearances, four national junior championships and 10 grand final appearances, a stint in the Chinese Basketball League with the Shanghai Sharks, and assistant coaching duties with the Australian Boomers at the 2004 Athens Olympics, 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games and 2006 world championships in Japan.

Perhaps the only thing missing from his CV is the Boomers head-coaching job.

Beveridge did actively pursue the role after it was vacated by Brett Brown in 2012, but was eventually overlooked in favour of current Brisbane Bullets boss Andrej Lemanis.

While he would never say never, the Hawks coach doubted he would covet the Boomers job as he once had.

"It was something that I was so disappointed not to get, I have changed my view in the sense that if you get your expectations so high, you can only get disappointment," he said.

"Personally I've said I'm not going to put so much passion and so much desire and desperation into becoming the coach of the national team.

"If it happens I'd be over the moon - I couldn't be more happy and proud to do it.

"But it won't be all or nothing like last time."

That undoubtedly allows leave more time to devote to both mentoring the next generation of players and coaches, and masterminding an NBL title win for the Hawks.

And potentially a return trip to Bendigo and another stint on the Braves' bench.