Simons played in three games for the Kookaburras, but he featured in the all important gold medal match against the Victorian Goldminers on Saturday. 

NSW proved to good, winning 89-65 and Simons providing 14 points, scoring six two-pointers and sinking two free throws.

Andrew Osborne, who has coached Simons at Goldminers for several years now, believes the talented basketballer from Blayney has a big future ahead of himself.

“The high level coaches are usually at all of these carnivals and given that his name is out there, I would expect he would be watched very carefully,” he said.

“In the right hands, he has a big future in front of him, simply because he's not one of those arrogant ‘I am better than you’ type of players. He’s very humble and he will always take on board any advice given to him.

“This is certainty another feather in his cap. The more you play at the higher level, in representative basketball, the more noticeable you become.”

The scores were close at the end of the first quarter in Simons’ final, NSW leading 23-18, before the Kookaburras built a strong lead at 47-31 heading into the half-time break. 

Victoria struggled throughout the third term, trailing by 27 points heading into the last quarter.

The Victorian battled hard and put up a fight in the last quarter but NSW and Simons proved too good for their rivals, claiming a 24-point lead.

In the other two games Simons featured in, he topped scored with 18 points against Victorian Bushrangers on Friday afternoon and he also scored another 18 points against New Zealand Kea on Friday morning.

His solid point scoring efforts meant he finished with the second highest average points of 15.75, behind fellow teammate Henry Johnson, who finished with 18.38.

Simons also finished with the second most points in the tournament, scoring 126, also behind Johnson who scored 147.

But Simons did top one state, the total two points made, with 59, 16 better than the next best. 

Osborne said the biggest thing he’s noticed Simons improve since he’s been coaching him is his level of maturity. 

“When he first started he was pretty raw in that he was big and reasonably solid,” he said.

“He had a pretty fair idea of what was required of him, but playing at the higher level, he's become a much smarter player.

“He’s far more confident playing in that [NSW] side because he’s got that skill level now.”