Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]

We've moved! www.whatsbev.com for the new board
Have you signed up yet? See the post in the BBL board for assistance

Welcome to What's Bev Got To Do With It?. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Asylum Seeker Archives; www.badaball.com
Topic Started: Jun 11 2007, 12:30 PM (2,293 Views)
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
13.08.06
I don’t really know where to start, and to be honest, if this diary turns out to be a bag of soggy pants, it’s Bada’s fault for asking me to do it. I will do my best to shed some light on the lunacy of British basketball, but obviously there are things I can’t mention at all, and others I can only hint at. Let me know if you’re using it as a sleeping aid at hersey427@hotmail.com and I’ll try to spice it up with the naked Roger Lloyd story, though I have serious doubts the world’s ready for it - 18 months later and I’m still in therapy.
Anyway, by some strange chain of events, I’ve ended up running the club that I used to simply make a nuisance of myself at (and edit the programme). I guess many people have compared it to putting the lunatic in charge of the asylum, but it’s all my own fault, so I shouldn’t whine too much. My biggest regret will always be that we had a year off between the old and the new Leopards, and while reading the interview on here with Mike Davies I found myself gnashing my teeth when he revealed how he and his group had two years to put some plans together to run TVT, giving them a massive head-start when it came to setting up Heat. We had two weeks, and when that failed, we lost a massive amount of momentum; and when we spent the six-eight months trying to get it going again in the BBL, we encountered Mike Smith. If I was bitter man, I would suggest that the world would be a better place if he drowned in his own puss, so we’d better move on.
If it wasn’t for time-zones, I’d be trying to sign a centre at the moment. Trying to sign a centre has become this summer’s bug-bear “we haven’t got anywhere for the players to live, or any kit for them to play in” but life would be easier if we just had a bloody centre. The theory that the BBL has loads of Americans because it’s easy is a myth - it’s a pain in the rear end. After two weeks of trying to sign one particular centre, we gave up and moved onto centre #2, #3 is in the background waiting for the call, and who knows, by Christmas we might have the vaguest idea of what’s going on. I eventually gave up on #1 when it became apparent he had the brains of rocking horse. He had played in the Big East Conference (one of power-house conference in the US college game), and in Portugal, but still didn’t realise that there was time difference between Miami and Bishops Stortford, so I received a 4.54am phone call, and another one at 7am. Perhaps I should have answered the phone, and that situation could have ended a lot quicker. Shame really, he looked like a bloody monster, I’m not sure there would have been any room left in the paint with him and Errol in there.
So, today’s job is to sign a centre, which probably rules me out watching the Charity Shield in the pub as (apparently) you have to be sober to negotiate contracts. Tomorrow I need to find a house for the lump and his three team-mates to live in, persuade a few players that they want to spend the morning of Bank Holiday Monday promoting the club at a carnival, working on some posters for games and go to a Board meeting. Oh yeah, and I’ve got a real job
Readers of my Whatsbev diary will remember my bizarre dreams so here’s Bizarre dream #1
We’ve signed a 6ft 10in kid with a British passport straight from college (don’t get smart and say that we now don’t need a centre).
Anyway, in my dream I pick him from the airport, but we get lost on the way home we get lost and end up at Reed Cricket Club (who recently gained TV fame on Sky’s Cricket AM). Naturally they ask the kid to play, and he goes on to hit a century and take a few wickets. He then announces that he’s decided to become a professional cricketer, and is moving to Australia. The sad thing is, it wouldn’t even surprise me.
Now where have you heard that before ?


18.08.06
I guess I'm a fully fledged (part) owner/general manager now; I hate players. Not just American centres, but the whole bloody lot.
We STILL don't have a centre. We're about as close to one as we were on Sunday - except it's a different one. Then there's the 4/5 weeks of getting work permit and visa. It was easier prior to 9/11 since all the player needed was a work permit. You could literally cut someone on a Sunday evening, and have a reasonable chance of getting the replacement into the country for the following weekend. Now, if you want them with you longer than six months (ie you sign them before November) the player needs to apply for a visa in the States - this can take four weeks. Basically it's a bloody nightmare.
Not that it's any easier to get British players. I understand their frustration with the amount of foreign players in the British game, but it's never occurred to most of them to actually commit to a team more than a week before the season starts. We could fill our starting and five, and key bench spots, with Americans and EU players; two imports, two blokes called Mario (seriously) who want to sign for us, a Spanish bug guy, a Polish centre and the duel British/US centre we have joining us in September. But we don't want to do that, we want to have a British base to the side - the trouble is that as we continue to be messed around, the option to sign people who are very keen to be part of the lunacy that is Leopards Basketball Club gets more appealing. Jack Majewski at LU has said that his club intend to work with a Turkish and a Latvian club to bring players over. I see no benefit for British players (and I can't see Tony G being overly happy with it), but when those players want to play for you, and are willing to commit, I can see why it's more appealing. Of course, a week before the season starts, those British players who are currently waiting for the seven-year NBA contract will remember they are EBL players and will want to sign, but will wonder why there's no longer any money available - it'll be because we've signed a team of bloke called Mario......
I was going to say "rant over" but my microwave curry has, for the fifth successive Wednesday, just exploded.

This week saw the official announcement that Leopards would no longer be playing at Brentwood. We got our first front page in the Brentwood Gazette since August 2003 when it was announced that the old Leopards were dead - pretty much summing up basketball's coverage in the Press; win the national cup, only get the back page. It's sad in many ways, but inevitable since we were told in May 2005 that they would put the rent up from £1,400 a game (huge by EBL standards, anyway) to £4,000 a game. So Goresbrook's home now, and I'm happy with that - it's a decent venue by EBL standards and (arguably) better than Chester, MK, Worcester and LU. I'm told it's better than Leicester - we'll find out on October 14 - and is certainly better than the toilet Bullets played at last year. Time will tell how it work out, but when I drive past an empty Brentwood Centre on a Saturday evening, it will piss me off.
Anyway, we have a house to put up our starting five of Mario, Mario, Calvin, Mario & Mario up in, which is a result - but I still have a feeling that I really haven't achieved much so far this week, other than do a good impression of a headless chicken. Still we've got a game in ten days, that should concentrate the mind.
I'll try to be funny next time.

EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
22.08.06
Well, even if we still don't have a centre, at least my lunch didn't explode. I'm putting this down to eating my 88p Sainsbury's curry on a Tuesday rather than a Wednesday. That's the lunch bit, not the lack of centre, I put the latter down to lazy Americans who don't seem to realise that the EBL season won't be put on hold because they can't be bothered to answer calls or emails. If I could use the head-banging icon on here, I'd probably wear it out. I have nothing against dwarves - unlike a bloke I used to work with who was truly terrified of them - which is good as we could be starting the season with one at centre.
Mind you, we still have Roger Lloyd - the world's oldest player. Despite nearly pension age, Roger won MVP at Ballers at Brighton and looks likely to start on Saturday when we play AS Cherbourg. Rumours that we only keep Roger around 'cause he makes me & Jon feel young may be only partially true, but we don't keep him for his timekeeping. He once missed the start of the SECOND half at London United as he went to the wrong venue (mind you, they do change every year) and he never got to Birmingham last year as he missed his flight back from holiday.

To be honest it's hard to concentrate on basketball when I'm still in shock from a visit to Royston town centre. It's been claimed that Royston Vasey (of League of Gentleman fame) was named after Roy Chubby Brown (ie it's his real name). This can't be true, it must have been named after Royston - a place that has more freaks per square metre than any town in the Fens. I truly believe that someone is driving round south east England and the south midlands, kidnapping freaks and dropping them outside Market One - a shop which specialises in selling out of date food (I'm not kidding). I was walking (quickly) back to the office when I witnessed a bloke get into a car, start it and then drive into the wall in front of him. I only work here to feel normal.


26.08.06
I guess the season starts here, our first game. We're playing French side AS Cherbourg at Wodson Park this evening. The game has probably come a couple of weeks too early. None of the imports are here though one of the 427 Marios will be trying out and a couple of the English players are on holiday. For all that, though, we had 17 players at one stage this week. It's down to a more manageable 13 or 14 now, but even then I wouldn't fancy trying to give everyone some minutes. Hell, it was hard enough getting eight some time in the 32-minute summer league games.
To be honest, I'm not exactly filled with enthusiasm for tonight, the American centre saga continues to drag on. We're waiting on one to make his mind up, while other who appeared to have fallen off the face of the earth has resurfaced as has now decided he's desperate to sign. Whether we want someone who went AWOL for three weeks is open to question. One day, near Christmas I guess, it'll all be sorted out, but when I started this nonsense I never thought that signing an American could cause so much grief. There's thousands of players coming out of college every year, we only want two of them.
I even dreamed about it last night. We arrived at Wodson only to find that it had been double booked, and we were forced to take part in a judo tournament. Strange.
Even writing this is depressing me. I'm going down the pub.



30 AUGUST 2006
I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry.
The good news was provided by the official study that suggests that a glass of cider a day could be more beneficial to your health than an apple. There's a strong possibility that I might just be the healthiest man alive. The bad news was that, as I sat at work actually working (it happens, sometimes I let it get in the way of basketball), I noticed the bloke next to me was writing a headline "Asylum seeker to be deported". I felt wronged, I haven't even been chucked out of a pub this century.
Anyway, talking of drink, and in a desperate attempt to bring this basketball, reading Bada's Spanish blog reminded me of the time when I went up on the roof. Unfortunately it was the roof of a hotel in the Dominican Republic, and I was stark-bollock naked. Normal spirits have an alcohol content of 35-40%, 50% and generally make your eyes go curly. It turns out that a certain brand of Dominican Republic rum is 75% - and causes sleep walking. It didn't mention the last bit on the label (though, to be fair, I was well aware I appeared to be drinking meths), so when I went to be I didn't expect to wake up on the roof, tackle out. The only real relief (and apparently I was white as a sheet when I made it back to the room, and slept with a chair against the door for the rest of the holiday) was that I headed up when I left my room rather than down. I think the receptionist's face may have been a picture...

Anyway, I'm sure both of you who read this do so because it's about basketball, so: We played our first game on Saturday, going down by five points against French N2 (that's their fourth division) side Cherbourg. It was a decent run-out considering the side we had. We could feasibly begin the season with a starting five who didn't play in that game, but we still have fourteen players - and one in the stand 'cause we'd run out of kit (the professionalism of the EBL).
We got to witness a monster dunk from Roger Lloyd plus a half-court buzzer-beater from Lee McCarthy. We also tried out Mario II, and I doubt we'll see him again despite the fact he top-scored. Ultimately the game was lost due to too many turn-overs while is only to be expected when the three players who ran the point at varying times were all trying out. I would expect a decent EBL team to beat Cherbourg comfortably in a regular season game.
We travelled down to Reading to watch Cherbourg to play Reading next morning, and it was another good tight game until the final period when the French ran out of steam, eventually losing 88-75. There is a school of thought that says we only went there to see Cherbourg's #5 Maxime Bégards, as Tracy fancied him. He'd spent the previous night chatting her up (sorry, "practicing his English"). Obviously I take some responsibility for this, obviously I've neglected her to concentrate on basketball. I guess this will mean return trips to Cherbourg and the chance to buy duty free cider, and the chance to live longer. It's almost like I planned that link.
PS notice what I didn't discuss


05 SEPTEMBER 2006
THERE are times when I wonder if there's some kind of international plot to ensure I'm not happy.
Take Friday. I spoke to Errol Seaman mid-afternoon, and he confirmed that he was staying with us. I was really pleased, it makes the centre situation less of a crisis, hes a decent bloke, and a good player at our level.
I considered not going to watch Cambridge United v Exeter City in case it spoilt my good mood. And the beer fridge was crying out to me.
But I went anyway, figuring I don't get the chance to watch them often, and it went steadily downhill for there on. I've watched United for about 25 years, and have supported them for 19. And this is the pits. I saw them lose out in the play-offs for the inaugural Premier League, on Friday I watched the worst team in the Conference.
I phoned one of my mates to see if he wanted a lift to the game, and he said that having watched them the previous Saturday he was in no mood to repeat the trick in the foreseeable future. Having watched Friday's debacle, I can understand his sentiments.
Anyway, just when it seemed it couldn't get any worse and ironically while the Cambridge manager and assistant manager were getting fired, my car proceeded to overheat on the way home. After blagging some water from an AA man preparing to tow another car away, one mile later it overheated again. I'd taken some more water from the AA man, but a mile later it overheated again. After an hour wait for a (different) AA man, and having taught him how to spell Bishop's Stortford, I was towed to a garage in Stortford, followed by a cab home.

Just think, I could have spent the night continuing my love-affair with the beer fridge celebrating the re-signing of Errol. I swear someone's out to get me.
That someone could well be an agent. The search for a centre goes on, though it's less imminent now, and when I received an email on Sunday morning telling me about a 6ft7in English players who could play the 2.3 or 4 spot, I really thought we might have cracked it, or it was worth having a look at. Sadly it turns out that the player concerned has already trained with us this, spent much of last season on the bench in EBL2, and would struggle to get on our bench. Having basically laughed at the agent when I heard the name, he then tried to sell a player to us (presumably sniffing some commission) who is already practicing with us.
I'm not paranoid, they (whoever they are) are out to get me.


EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
17 SEPTEMBER 2006
They say a week's a long time in politics. Well a fortnight's a bloody long time in September if you run a basketball club. That's my excuse for not writing this last fortnight. Actually my other excuse is that I was halfway through it last week when my PC crashed and lost it all. I wasn't happy.
When people moan about their club not doing things properly, whether it's sorting their season ticket application out properly, arranging pre-season games or announcing signings/re-signings, it might be worth remembering that it's mental this time of year. You can't staff your club to cope with September because it would be a financial impossibility (not to mention a waste of money between October and August), so the only other option is rush around like a headless chicken. Well, that's what I've been doing.
Anyway, a fortnight ago we didn't have a house, or a car (well we did, but it didn't work any more), any import players or any new kit. After 14 mental days we have the first three, and I'm hoping that the kit will show up before Saturday. Especially as all of the shorts from last season are knackered and keep falling down. Some of the girls reading this may want to see Roger Lloyd's tackle - I can live without it.
The most frightening part of the fortnight was undoubtedly giving driving lessons to Americans. The world's least patient man teaches people to drive - could it ever work ? Against my advice (and when they crash it, I'll be first to day "I told you so") the club purchased a manual car. It's in good condition and it was bargain. The trouble is, it has a gear stick, which seems to trouble our friends from over the pond. To say it was traumatic would be an understatement, we kangarooed down the road, stalled about here times every mile, either drove down the middle of the road and generally drove in a truly frightening manner. The worst bit was roundabouts. When I say go straight over the roundabout, I didn't literally mean go STRAIGHT over the roundabout. And when you see all the cars coming from the left and there are signs telling you to go left, that suggests that you should NOT GO RIGHT.

Anyway, I'm still in therapy, both players have been pulled over by the police (one of whom then phoned me up to admonish me 'cause the DVLA aren't dynamic are licensing cars that have just changed ownership) and I truly believe it's only a matter of time before one of them crashes the damn thing.
So, in spite of all that, we are three days away from the big tip-off. I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it, dreading it, or just plain knackered. We may have the deepest squad in the league - 12 players capable of playing EBL 1 basketball (some better than others, obviously) and that's even after our captain decided to join West Herts as he couldn't see where he was going to get his minutes from. It's a shame to lose Matt, the bloke who lifted the National Cup (I'm one of the many to have dropped it !). he's the kind of person you need at a club - dependable, likeable and he can actually play a bit too. He was going to struggle to get minutes, we did everything we could to keep him, but I also understand his reasoning. I guess it's part of taking the club to the next level.
We are STILL looking for that big American import - maybe Jon's being picky, but he made the mistake last year of just grabbing Skye Buck because he was available, but I guess somewhere before the year 2427 we'll get around to signing one. It's not for the want of trying, and I'm sick to death of dealing with agents who either don't the difference between a centre and a small forward, or think we don't.
We've played six pre-season games (more than ever before), but to be honest I still have no idea how it will work out. Last night's practice was the first time we've had all 12 players together, which is far from ideal. We SHOULD beat Nottingham on Saturday, the talent's there and we have plenty of options. Sunday's game at Guildford will be a good test, and gives us another game to work things out.
Maybe some time I'll get around to telling you how it all went

23 SEPTEMBER 2006
I may not be Martin Luther King (in fact, I’m pretty sure I’m not), but I had a dream.

I signed for Milton Keynes. Not as general manager or as team manager or programme editor“ but as a player. Everyone was shocked. I explained it by saying I might never have the chance to play at the top level again, and having been on the bench twice at the NIA (team manager in the National Cup final and coach, I use the term loosly in the pre-championship coaches game), I wanted the chance to go there as a player.
People asked why I hadn’t signed for Leopards, and I explained that they already had enough depth. Which is true, but then when we were down to six senior players we still had enough depth if the next option was me.
Anyway, I turned up for my first game, only to find that I’d brought the wrong kit with me, and had a Leopards vest rather than an MK one. Tom Hancock said don’tt worry, I wasn’t going to play you anyway. I was really disappointed so I woke up.
I used to dream about sex. Now I dream about being benched by Tom Hancock. Not sure what to make of that.
More importantly (possibly), today’s the big day. - the start of the EBL season. In theory it’s the day when you find out if your team’s any good or not. Having watched six pre-season game and bits of practice I pretty much know what to expect.
We have plenty of depth (arguably too much), with 12 players able to do a job in EBL 1, and eight of them capable of starting. Plus there’s still one more to come (allegedly), so we should be good to go. I’m not sure how much playing Nottingham will tell us. I stand to look a complete idiot here, but we should beat them comfortably. They finished bottom of Division One last year, and were definitely the weakest team. They don’t appear to have added any imports although you could definitely do it on the quiet in the EBL, and according to our scout, who watched them last week, they look set for another season of struggle. We, of course, on a hiding to nothing; if we win its no more than we should do, if we lose the rest of the EBL piss themselves at our expense…..
Tomorrow’s game actually excites me more; a trip to Guildford for a pre-season friendly. You probably shouldn’t finish your pres-season AFTER you’ve started the season, but it should be a good test of how good we are. I don’t expect to win, but I’d be disappointed if we were stuffed.
Right, I’m off for a kip. I might a place in the Dallas starting line-up.


27 SEPTEMBER 2006
IT'S all gone weird. We win a game by 11, and I have the hump, we lose by 35 the following day and I'm reasonably happy. That can't be right.
A win's a win, but the victory against Nottingham on Saturday evening really wasn't satisfying. Basically, for long periods we stunk, and despite having played four pre-season games (I'm not counting the August game against Cherbourg - it wasn't close to being our current team), it looked like we'd never set eyes on each other. The crowd was disappointing, and the people who run the venue acted like it was the first time we'd ever been there. Basically it was crap.
So, with some trepidation, we travelled to Guildford. And we played so much better. I know in a crazy way it's easier to play against a better, properly structured side, who don't list two of their players as guard/centres (!), but you've got to wonder why we did so much better. We were up by ten at the first break, down by ten at the half, and still in the game midway through the third period. Having played the previous night, and against people who spend three times as much time per week training as us, we tired after that, but it was a good work out and (almost) worth the tortuous journey home on the M25.
It also reminded why I'd sooner be in the BBL travelling to Guildford, than facing an outfit like Nottingham who - for the second season running - turned up late.
The rest of the week has been spent tearing around like a whirring dervish - and with my laptop blowing up (bang goes £600), I'm afraid I don't have time for any more words of wisdom - or even the usual tripe I write,



02 OCTOBER 2006 THE DAY I BECAME VINCE MACAULEY
It all came as a bit of a shock really. Even when I dreamt that I signed for Milton Keynes Lions (as a player), I never thought that I'd arrive at the Theatre of Dreams (sorry, Bletchley Leisure Centre), and discover I'd turned into Vince MaCauley.
However as I read the opening page in the Lions' new-look programme (lots of gloss & colour, little else), I discovered that "Vince's View" was exactly what I'd written when putting together the BBL News & Preview on Tuesday (obviously, I've now blown my cover on that one). I don't believe that even twins could write EXACTLY the same thing, so the only logical conclusion is that I have turned into the owner of MK Lions. It's somewhat surreal. I do, at least get along with Vince these days - and the row where I ended up breaking my big toe is long forgotten, but I fear it will be bloody hard work running both Leopards and Lions, especially when we play each other in the BBL Trophy.
Still it could be worse. And I am scared that if I go to Lions' game against Newcastle on Friday I may discover that I've turned into Robert Youngblood. At that point I won't even be able to talk to myself....
Anyway, enough crap. Leopards travelled to London Capitals on Saturday and we STUNK. We were terrible. We probably missed 15-20 lay-ups, boxing out seemed to be an alien concept, and at one time-out I was tempted to but-in and remind the players that we were playing black and it might be a good idea to pass to other players who are also wearing black. We should add another starting-quality player this week, hopefully Roger Lloyd will be back after his car accident (I know, you shouldn't need to rely on pensioners to get you rebounds) and the search for a quality big man to compliment Errol has been stepped up. I'm still fuming as I write this.
But our problems aren't as big at Worcester's. They looked totally out of their depth at Milton Keynes. They are no more than a good EBL team, and they'd have to leave out on of their three Americans to play in that competitions. We tried to sign their Spanish forward during the summer, but although he could do a decent job in the EBL, I didn't leave Bletchley gutted that we didn't. It could be a long and painful winter for a club that has never known a losing season - and after a difficult weekend it did leave me relieved that we didn't make the jump to the BBL just because we were flattered to be asked.
Anyway, must go, I think I'm turning into Shawn Jamison. Frightening.

EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
07 OCTOBER 2006 STOLEN IDENTITITES
Having discovered that I'd turned into Vince Macauley, I suppose I should have known that it would leave a vacancy for someone to fill in as Dave Ryan.
Up step Mr Charles Donald who is apparently operating as an agent for London Leopards and offering players $7,000 per month, accommodation and a car. Bearing in mind that $7,000 a year would be closer to the mark, and that Id never heard of Charles Donald, this came as something of a surprise. He's gone as far as opening an email address in my name and has forwarded emails to prospective players from me. noticeably I've become less anal regarding the use of punctuation in my new guise.
Obviously I've sent him an email threatening to reorganise his body parts if I ever get hold of him, and have told the players who have contacted me directly that they probably shouldn't send him the cheque for $250 that he requires.
I guess this is the price of fame.

Hersey's current collection. A fondness for re-arranging body parts sometimes results in leftovers
Anyway, as the owner of Milton Keynes Lions I travelled to Bletchley last night to see how my team were getting on. And they kicked Eagles butts. Obviously Newcastle still have two import spots to fill, and one of them had better be big man even if Fab doesn't like going with a true centre, but I dont think anyone would have predicted the level of the hammering Lions handed out.
TJ looked out of shape, far too many turnovers and general sloppyness. Babalola obviously did something to give Fab the hump as the spent the final 18 minutes of the game sitting on the bench. Whether signing Jeremy Hyatt is the answer, I'm not sure, but the red tape that is now (post 9/11) associated with bringing American players over means there are no longer quick easy fixes.
I really don't know what to make of Lions. They aren't noticeably different to last year. Brown's probably a touch better than Benjamin, Santa as a replacement for Junior Williams wont lead to much of a difference. Obviously New in place of Fontaine changes the look of the team, but if they do end up finishing in the top half I guess it'll say more about the coaching than anything else.
Today sees us play Reading Rocket at Goresbrook in the Trophy. Even at this stage of the competition it's a must-win game. A loss would leave us needing a mathematical miracle. We normally have decent games against Reading, and they will at least bring a few with them, turn up on time, and not withdraw from the competition if we win. In the EBL, what more could you ask for ? Well, other than being able to retain your own identity.


20 OCTOBER MISERABLE SOD

I'm not happy. The post NBA Live spring in my step as been replaced, and now I'm living up to the description Iolaire put on the moderators board of whatsbev, saying I was a miserable sod. Bearing in mind that I didn't run a basketball club at that point, I thought that was bit harsh.
We had to cut our dual national centre this week. He really wasn't up to Division One standard, the truth is 41-year-old Roger Lloyd was actually more use to us. Well that is when hes not launching unprovoked attacks on Rob Paternostro in the final second of a blow-out.
So we're now rowing with Kyle about the terms of his contract - and the fact that we aren't going to give him loads of money for not being good enough. Basically there is a 45 day period in the standard contract that allows you to cancel the contract within that period. We did that, and he's not a happy bunny. It won't get him anywhere, but it's more work with no sign of any reward.
And then there's Goresbrook Leisure Centre who, not content with £6,000+ rent to play home games there (we train elsewhere), want to sting us for holding pre-game coaching. There seems to be a myth out there that we're made on money. We're not, we're as poor as everyone else, probably poorer.
All this comes after a weekend where we stunk the place out on occasions. Against Riders we showed that we can match BBL teams for periods of the game, but not for the whole 40 minutes. We ran our bench for most of the fourth period (considerably longer than Riders in fact) in order to rest players for the following day, and the final score wasn't a true reflection of a game - we were only two down three minutes into the second half.
Not that resting players seemed to make a blind bit of difference next day. We stunk for the first 28 minutes. I predicted we would win midway through the third period when we were still down by double digits, purely on the grounds that it simply had to get better. It did, but if we play like that at Worthing tonight we'll get murdered.
The trip to Worthing sees my first attempt at driving the mini bus this season. We'll get to play the Golden C Word Game. The record for how quickly I could say is unlikely to be beaten, as we hadn't even left the car park at Wodson Park, but to beat the record for slowness in saying it, Id have to go the whole return journey without muttering the magic word. Can't see that happening, cause I'm a miserable sod!
Tomorrow sees us on a hiding to nothing when we start our defence of the National Cup with a home game against Wellingborough. Anything less than a big victory would leave us open to ridicule, so I'm not really looking forward to it but that might because I'm a miserable sod!


25 OCTOBER STIR CRAZY

Maybe you don't think the world's going mad. But then you probably didn't see your team lose by 45 on Saturday and then win by 73 on Sunday.
Hopefully I don't whine too much about the job I do with Leopards. It was, clearly, my choice to get this nonsense going again (admittedly I never knew just how much time it would take up), and I have the free will to give it up if I want to. But when you've worked you arse off all week on behalf of Leopards, to watch the utter capitulation of the players at Worthing, wouldn't cheer you up.
I've seen every game when we started, and that was definitely the worst we've ever been.
Obviously there's always the temptation to look back through rose-tinted specs, and there were times, particularly in the first year, when we were bloody awful. But during that opening year we were trying to feel our way, trying to work out what the hell we were supposed to be doing - because we knew a lot less than we thought we did. What's this year's excuse ?
Sure, we only have import player, but short of getting MJ to make a stop in Worthing on the way home, I don't think a second one would have made a lot of difference. Besides, British players always bang on about not being given the chance in British basketball, well four of our starting unit were born here, four of our second unit were born here and so were the remaining two players. Most of them would claim to be Div One standard players who joined us because they believed both they and we were good enough to win things.
So how the f@@@ did we just roll over and die against Worthing ?
Thunder are a good team, but that kind of result puts us down with the sides who are fighting relegation. Sides who don't pay their starting British players money, sides who ask for training subs from their bench players. Both of the last two options can be introduced if we are in that class of team.
But we're not, and we found out the next day just how big the gulf between Division One and Division Four is.
People often say a game is over by the end of the first quarter. Our first game in defence of the National Cup truly was. We led 32-4 at the first break, Wellingborough finished with 29. In the meantime we'd scored another 70. Obviously it was better than watching the previous night's debacle, but as waste of times go - it was up there with the best of them.
I've always had doubts about the need for the national league to go below two regional division threes, nothing on Sunday changed my mind. Wellingborough are nice blokes, they didn't get ####ty about being hammered by, basically, a Leopards B team, and judging by the amount of sandwiches they stuffed in the second half, they'd worked up an apettite, but it was all pretty pointless.

More importantly, judging by the amount of times I've been asked (twice) was the result of the Golden C Word Game. Considering that the bus left Brentwood 30 minutes late because one of the players who was with us last couldn't find Brentwood (seriously.. I'm not naming names but if you look at the two squads, there's not many candidates), I thought I was quite good on the way down. And I lasted 30 miles on the way back before uttering the magic word.
However, once through Dartford Tunnel I managed a new record for repeated utterances of it after having a row with an off duty copper who believed he owned the middle lane of the M25. Whatever he may have thought of my driving or my old fashioned belief that the centre lane is for overtaking, I'm not sure leaning over to the passenger side window to show me his badge as I undertook him at 75mph really is sensible, but then maybe the world's going mad.


28 OCTOBER LIKE A HEADLESS CHICKEN
Well another week over. Another week of rowing with Goresbrook, going to meetings I can't discuss on here (how annoying is me saying that ?) and generally running around like a headless chicken.

I spent approximately four hours on motorways on Thursday (averaging under 40MPH), without a single incident with a suicidal off-duty copper. Speaking of which, back-up PG Joe Matthews has left Leopards after admitting he was too scared to get back on the mini-bus as he fears for his life. Actually, he's left because it's a bloody long way to travel from Colchester just to be third choice PG. So he returns to Colchester United Tigers, and we genuinely wish him well.
So today we face Solent at Goresbrook. This should be a no-brainer, they appear to be a one-man team in an American guard called Earl Moore who's averaging 40+ per game - so we should be able to put last week's mess behind us (because beating Wellingborough by 73 didn't).
I'm told we had a good week's practice (I only go when necessary, it's boring) and if being gubbed by 45 at Worthing doesn't provide the necessary kick up the backside, I'm not sure what will.
The real battle will probably be getting the staff at Goresbrook to get their fingers out and actually set the place up for a basketball game.
Apparently we're nasty to them on game days, and it's probably true that the tone of voice used when asking for the court to be swept for the SIXTH time is somewhat harsh, but here's an idea: When you're asked to do something in a reasonable tone, do it, the first time. But will such lunacy ever catch on ?
Still, at least we only have to deal with two referees, as the third one doesn't seem to be improving things in the BBL. Refs have campaigned long and hard for three-man crews. They've got their wish, and now they are being held accountable - that's only reasonable. Players get benched/cut when they screw up, coaches get fired, refs should also have to accept that they answerable for their answers. I'm sure we're not talking about isolated calls. here.
They have had three in the BBL Trophy and the National Cup for years, plus most pre-season games were done by three man crews so it shouldn't have come as a major shock to the system. If it proves that there's no real improvement, then we should return to two - but you have to give it the season before making a proper judgment.
This will be a relatively quiet weekend basketball-wise. After going to three games last weekend - and that's without going to MK vs Worcester on the Friday (I went to Cambridge United vs Oxford - I couldn't write about that and Worthing without slitting my wrists) it's just the one game this week.
No trips to watch Harlow Hawks vs Bedford Bulls, instead I'm going to a wine fare tomorrow. (Ed are you sure that isn't a WHINE fair?) Obviously I'm no connoisseur, but by 3pm when I'm blotto and I think my name's Bernard, I will have forgotten all about this
EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
07 NOVEMBER JUST LIKE KYLIE
Fresh from the news that Britney has seen the light, and will be around my house to watch the tape of ACB & ELEB Cup basketball I have for tonight, I've raised the energy to write this drivel again. And the boss's boss is in the office, so I can't bunk off early - though as I get in 90 minutes early, leaving 20 minutes ahead of schedule shouldn't be a big ask.

It's been 11 days since I last bored you all with this nonsense, and in that time we've played and won three games.
None of those wins have been particularly spectacular, and we've hard work of all them despite being - allegedly - the favourites in each game. Still, it's three wins, and we're sitting joint third in the table, and are still in both cup competition, so mustn't grumble.
It's still all mental, and with two home games coming up this weekend, that won't change, but we haven't lost any players and we've only been a bit messed around by a prospective signing. Maybe I'm mellowing, but a couple of years back I'd have been really pissed off if a player said he'd sign, and then three days later sad his wife wouldn't let him.
Or maybe I'm just too tired to care.
I made the mistake of sitting on the bench at King's Lynn on Saturday. It didn't stop us stinking for a large part of the game, it didn't stop Jon getting a T (I was just going to suggest he should shut the F up when that magic hand signal arrived), but I haven't been able to speak properly since. Some may say that's an improvement,.
I did, however, manage to set a new record for the Golden C Word game, and we made it to King's Lynn and back without a single expletive aimed at other drivers, the bus, players, the coach or Sam Salter when we realised he can't go 50 miles in a min bus without needing a P stop.
As I said, I'm either mellowing or just too tired to care. I think it's the latter - that's all folks. Just like Kylie, short and sweet.


12 NOVEMBER NORFOLK INBREDS?

This could be a rare occurrence. We lost, and I'm still happy.
This could, of course, be down to the fact that Youngblood got ejected for two intentional fouls and I had the pleasure of reminding the referees that he shouldn't be allowed to sit on the bench having been chucked.
Revenge is a dish best served cold, they tell me, but then he didn't have to give us the finger when he played for Towers. And yes, I'm sad and embittered.
Anyway, old has-beens apart, we played well, and although we never looked like winning, we did ourselves credit. I'll accept that Lions probably only played at 90%, but we mixed things up with today's cup game in mind, and the way we played should give us some confidence for the rest of the season. I still don't think we've played as well as we can for 40 minutes, and there have been times when we've been really poor,even in the wins.
I guess last night did prove two things, though.
The first was that I should have checked the dates of the National Cup before arranging the game, though when we'd have played it if it hadn't been last night is anyone's guess.
The second is that the myth often spouted by people in the EBL that there isn't much of a gap between the EBL and BBL is just that - a myth. I haven't made myself popular at EBL meetings when I've said that it isn't just a case of the BBL sides having an extra American, they could have sat one down last night and still comfortably won the game.
Worcester certainly fell into the trap of thinking there wasn't much difference, whereas United knew there was and recruited accordingly. Frankly I still wonder why they joined the BBL, they never showed any signs of wanting to be a genuinely professional basketball club.
Obviously this has been discussed on Whatsbev, but there seems to have been no adjustment from being an EBL club with links to a university (not uncommon, though not many Division One clubs have gone to the extreme of running the whole club based around a uni) to a BBL one. To go into the BBL without a single player with experience at that level is madness, and even their recruiting since has suggested that none of the lessons have been learnt. I just hope it doesn't all end in tears and another club collapsing.
Anyway, rant over.

Before yesterday's game I watched Stortford getting knocked out of the FA Cup by King's Lynn. Disappointing performance in front of a big crowd. It genuinely felt like the real thing, though the old stereotype of inbred Norfolk certainly proved true. You could just tell that it would have kicked off if Stortford had won. I don't miss that crap any more.
The rest of my week has been spent watching basketball on telly.
I think I'm up to seven games now, three NBA, three Euroleague and a Spanish game. With the amount of games now available, the temptation is to not bother lining Sentantass pockets until after Christmas.
I'm still miffed with their attitude when they kindly gave us (ie basketball fans) the great chance to watch Scottish Premier League basketball in return for extra money. Mind you as I drove the mini bus home from King's Lynn last week, they gave the minor sports results out on Radio Five, and announced that Sheffield's win against Worcester had sent them up to second place in the SPL. So perhaps I'm missing something¦

15 NOVEMBER THE ASHES OF A SEASON ALREADY?
If I'd written this on Sunday, or even Monday or Tuesday for that matter, Bada wouldn't be able to print it. We went out of the National Cup - our cup - with a 123-85 home loss against London Capitals. 38 points ! We conceded 123 against a side who didn't even have a genuine three-point threat. The refereeing was abysmal and they got us in early foul trouble, but that's no excuse.
Because there is no excuse.
We tried to think of the 45-point loss at Worthing as a blip. Clearly is wasn't. basically we have been hammered in two of the last three games against decent sides. Seeing as we lost the other such game (v's Lions the previous), maybe the players aren't nearly as good as they think they are.
We thought we had recruited - and paid for - a team that was good enough to challenge for honours. Obviously we were wrong. Because teams who win stuff don't lose by 45 and 38 points. They may have one really bad day per season, they don't have one a month.
It was made (much) worse by the fact that it was the National Cup. That solid silver trophy we won at the NIA in December. That will probably be my best ever day in basketball - knowing that in 18 months we'd brought Leopards back to life and won the cup.
We don't have any right to repeat that, you have to earn success, and we did have the toughest draw in the third round (ie the top two Division One sides to face each other). But I think we do have a right to expect the players to show up. And they clearly didn't.
It's basically heartbreaking.
A huge amount of work goes into Leopards - and a far from insignificant amount of money - and the performance was unforgivable. We seem incapable of playing two games in a weekend, certainly against the top team.
Admittedly Capitals had an easy win at King's Lynn the previous day, but they'd still had to play - and sit on a mini bus from London to Norfolk. There's really no excuse., and frankly I'm tired of excuses anyway..
The time, effort and money that goes into running Leopards is huge. I could blame anyone who decided that Sunday was the final straw and packed it in. I could certainly question the need to pay expenses to players for that kind of performance. We have one of the best junior teams in the country, I'm not sure they would have lost by 38 on Sunday, and if they did at certain people's least bank balances would be bigger. It's a genuine option if it happens again.
Rant over. The shrink on the radio this morning said that it relieves stress to get these things off your chest.
So I'm off to Australia to join the England cricket team.

19 NOVEMBER .... AND A DEMENTED CHINCHILLA
So it turns out that all we have to do to get the players to produce a decent performance is threaten to cut them all and play the under-18s. Perhaps we should have done it earlier.
We lost by seven against Manchester, but the performance was a country mile better than that shambles against Capitals. Not sure about the defensive intensity from either team (the score was 114-107), but it was a good performance and an entertaining game. We almost had a crowd !
In a perverse way it makes last week even worse, because knowing that we can play like that makes the cup result even worse. If we'd played like that against Capitals, we'd still be in the National Cup. Going out of it has led to a depressing week. It was the kind of result that makes you wonder if it is worth it, and bearing in mind we are working with a very small group of people who either put time or money into the club, it would only need a couple of people to say sod this, I'm not doing it any more and then we would be in serious trouble.
The one bright spot on the horizon is that we might finally have got an American centre. I've learnt not to count my chickens (I haven't actually got any, just eight guinea pigs and a demented chinchilla) and until he's in the house in Harlow and has signed everything, and all the paperwork's clear, I won't be doing cartwheels. Mind you, I can't do cartwheels anyway.
I was going to write a diary on Friday, but I was still so pissed off with the Capitals game that I figured that anyone reading it (and I'm assuming both of you still do) would probably have to phone the Samaritans after reading it. The truth is, even after yesterday, I still have raving hump (I presume if we'd won, I'd be ok), so I'm giving Lions vs Sharks a miss and I'm going on the piss. It seems the sensible thing to do.
EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
23 NOVEMBER THE LONGEST WAIT

Ed - I can only guess what the B & C stand for
Strangely enough, Kylie STILL hasn't shown up. Hard to believe really, but I'm sitting here listening to The Bill (I dont have time to watch such tripe but I'm an avid listener) waiting for our new centre to show up at Stansted Airport. Yes, that's right, we might actually have an American centre signing for us - only about ten weeks late. He's here on trial, but it looks promising, and he's flying in from the Continent, he's cheap. And we like cheap.
Naturally, like London buses, just as one centre arrives so does a second one. Another potential American big-man already in the country phoned me this week. So we now even have a back-up plan. Frightening really, next thing we'll impersonating people who know what they are doing.
The defeat against Capitals is out of my system now. Ten days sulking should be enough. Winning the Cup 51 weeks ago was only the best day I've ever had in basketball, why would I want to do that again? Bugger, I'm sulking again.
Anyway, two weeks without a home game will be a nice rest, especially as we have just one away game during that fortnight. And it's West Herts, which is just about the easiest away trip of the season for me. So I'm calm. SO WHERE'S THE BLOODY CENTRE ?????


24 NOVEMBER BLACKOUTS
If there is a God (and the jury's out in my view), he certainly doesn't support Leopards. In fact I'm beginning to believe he's a Towers fan and is seriously pissed off that we're two leagues higher than them.
The centre turned up, and I always thought he would (honest). Within an hour of him getting off the plane, he was in the house in Harlow, and everything looked rosy. He wasn't quite the 6ft 9in he claimed to be, but Americans shrink when they are onboard planes or it's the exchange rate, or something.
Anyway he's here and we had the chance to look at him in practice last night, with the aim of making the decision and getting the paperwork moving today.
Great plan. Except we hadn't bargained on the whole Wodson Park complex where we train (two floodlit football grounds, athletics rack, floodlit rugby pitch, two sports halls and three function rooms) had a power failure. We've trained there about 150 times since we started, played games there and staged countless youth team games there, and this has never happened until the night that we REALLY needed to be practicing there.

If God does exist he's having a bloody good laugh at us.
Anyway, Saturday sees us in derby action when we travel to West Herts Warriors. Being greedy we have two kinds of derbies. London ones (obviously) and Hertfordshire ones. Ware Rebels actually played four games at Warriors current home at Hatfield University in their final season, and Warriors have been known to occasionally use Wodson Park, so it's not stretching things to call it a derby.
If the pre-season œfriendly is anything to go by, there's also a good chance it will go off.
Warriors actually threatened to go home during the third period following the ejection of their coach. Six players fouled out, and Roger Lloyd had a massive row with one of their female fans, and she went on to have a massive row with me when “ having told Roger to shut the hell up “ I asked he to stop winding him up. Bearing in mind this the second memorial game for Frank Empson, it's not hard to see the potential for a row tomorrow. I doubt there will be a third memorial game if it goes off, which would be sad.
Warriors problem seems to be that we always beat them. We've played them nine times since the summer of 2004 (ie when we formed), and won all nine. National Cup, frindlies, summer league, B team friendlies (and that must really have hurt, we don't run a B team !) and memorial games, we've won the lot. They should actually be happy with that, the law of averages state it must end at some point – and bearing mind God hates us, it'll probably be tomorrow that the run ends.


01 DECEMBER ADDING FUEL TO THE FIRE

So the theory was that West Herts would be the easiest away game of the season. Not in the sense that we'd hammer them clearly unless you're a poor Division Four side, you don't get pissed on by Leopards, but merely on the grounds it should be easy to get to, and should be a relatively relaxed evening.
Nice idea.
The football match I was due to cover for work was called off and it turned out that I was lucky there so I went to watch Stortford with the plan being I'd stay till 4.30pm then blag the rest of the report off the internet. At 4.20pm our point guard, James "Technical Foul" Nicholson rang me to say that the car wouldn't start. Bearing in mind that Calvin is the only one who can drive, and until three months ago he'D never driven a manual car (and I still wake sweating in the night at the thought of those driving lessons), there wasn't a lot of point telling them to bump start the car. So I hammered over to Harlow, and taught them how to start it. I did notice and comment on the fact that there appeared to be about half a teaspoonful of petrol in the car. However the fact that the battery would need time to charge, we couldn't stop at the nearest garage, so we arranged to meet at Hertford about nine miles away.
Nice idea.
We got about five miles before their car ground to a halt. After much cursing, and bearing in mind there was a total of five people in our group, together with all the kit & water bottles so we couldn't just jump into one car, I found a garage. After calling the bloke in the garage a tight git for not lending me a petrol can, I bought one and put four quids worth of unleaded into it. I found the prone car about two miles away, poured most of the petrol in the tank, with the remains ending up on my hand and foot, and then told the players that their new training regime would continue with some more car pushing, then we could go to the game.
Nice idea.
It just wouldn't start. I guess they pushed it about half a mile, and having driven a succession of heaps when I was young I do know how to bump start a car. So, in what proved to be the only piece of good fortune, I called Tracy who was table officiating at Wodson Park and only had a car with her cause my original game was off, and she picked some of the group up and we drove to Hatfield.
After a row with the receptionist at Hatfield Sports Village over complimentary tickets (yes, I'm aware that James 'girlfriend isn't really called Keith, but he isn't coming and she CAN have his ticket), during which I pointed out if we didn't actually get in the bloody venue there wouldn't be a game for anyone with complimentary tickets to watch, we finally got in the dressing room with 25 minutes to spare before tip.
I needed a beer at that point, but the trend with new sportscentres seems to be not to allow people the opportunity to taste alcohol. I like health fascists, and I'm quite happy to drink their share of beer, just let me live my life.
Anyway, we did play a game. Not particularly well in the first half, and we struggled a bit with their size, partly due to Roger Lloyd being injury. After the first serious row in the locker room for 12 months (and this one didn't end with Steve Ogunjimi decking Laurent Irish - they are now London United team-mates, of course), we were a lot better in the second half. Once we went ahead, I couldn't see us losing, and a Sam Salter free throw gave us a four-point lead with five seconds remaining, and their buzzer beating trey just gave the score an unbalance look.
Still, a win's a win. Ten on the bounce vs West Herts in all games, and there was no aggro. Maybe a few people learnt from the pre-season barney.
So, next morning myself and Calvin went back to the now-dumped car. Called the AA, having bottled jump starting it in the pouring rain, and after 40 minutes a very nice man arrived. Surely he'd start the car ?
Nice idea.
He tried everything, and it just wouldn't kick into life. He asked plenty of questions that I had to blag my way through, as it isn't my car, but the bloody thing just would not start. Then he took out the petrol cap, smelt it, and asked what proved to be the most pertinent question of the weekend: has someone put unleaded in this - ####, it's a diesel, and I've put four quid's worth of unleaded in it.
I felt a bit of a prat at this point.
So we stuck 10 litres of the correct fuel in, drove the nearest garage and filled it up properly, and considered the lesions (painfully) learnt from this farce. A) don't run the car down to 20ps worth of fuel B) put the correct fuel in.
So I went home, bolted down some lunch, and then went back to West Herts to watch them in the National Cup against Worthing. Finally, it was easy.

08 DECEMBER AWAY DAZE
I haven't been ignoring you lot, especially in light of Bada's appeal for more contributors - a piece that bore a stunning resemblance to a couple of T'd Off editorials - I've been off on my travels.
With Leopards without a game last weekend, thanks to Worcester deciding in mid-summer that they'd like to stink it up in the BBL, myself and "She Who Must be Obeyed" disappeared to the States for four days where we managed to go to three NBA and three college games.
Assuming the esteemed Mr Bing will let me, I'll bore you all with the details next week.
While I was away, the club house didn't burn down, the car is still going (which suggests that they've put petrol (or in fact diesel) into it, and we've only lost two players. So perhaps I'm not needed anyway.
Those two players we've lost are Roger Lloyd (temporarily) and Mario Lapiedra (permanently). Roger's done his back in, and is likely to be missing till after Christmas, and we are struggling big man-wise without him.
Mario went home last Friday, didn't bother telling anyone and still hasn't actually let us know he's gone. He'll have surprise if he comes back, though.

He has turned out to be a big disappointment.
When we signed a player who had played for the same Spain under-20 side that provided many of their World Championship winning team this summer, we really thought that we'd unearthed a diamond. The cost of getting a bigger house and registering an EU player (ten times the cost of a British one - how legal is that ?) meant that he worked out at about £100 a week - that would have been a bargain if he'd been nearly as good as we thought he be.
As it was, he stunk, and our current GB U-20 international Joe Ikhnimwin has proved to be far more useful.
Oh, well, you move on.
And we move to Middlesbrough tomorrow where we face a Teesside team who've lost their first nine games of the season. It's a long trip and we're down to seven fit players, so I'm not overly confident.
Having spent the week jetting from Stansted to New York to Washington to New York to Stansted, I could do without driving a bloody mini bus to the north east, but such is life. Then on Sunday we face London United at home, an hour later than normal so I can get some kip, which should prove interesting given their in your face attitude. I'm not sure how much we've got out of the BBL Trophy this season, to be honest, but it would be good to finish it off with a decent performance.
Finally, as he's been mentioned in a headline for this drivel, Leo the chinchilla would respectively request that anyone who has bought a Madonna album as a Christmas present takes it back to the shop and asks that the old slapper sticks it where the sun doesn't shine.
(Bada - I would be at the game against Mohawks - if it wasn't the Zorba Xmas Party - bloody typical!)

EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
15 DECEMBER STILL ALIVE BUT BRUISED AND HURT

Contrary to rumours, I am still alive.
Which will probably come as a disappointment to some, and a further drain on the NHS.
You see, I went to get my haircut, which as usual Iâ'd put off for a couple of weeks until I began to resemble a cross between Brian Dux and a yeti.
I was late (which I hate, and we'd probably leave at least one player at each away game if I had my way), and I'm convinced that the door was open as I rushed through it. Or rather, into it.
Apparently it made a bit of a crash. One person in the shop thought there' been a car crash, two strangers came in off the street with tissues to mop up what they thought would be pools of blood, and the owner of the shop offered to call an ambulance.
Anyway, the upshot of it all is, I've got a broken nose, I can't breath through it, apparently I sound like Concord when sleeping, and as I already had a small polyp farm up my nose I now face a fourth nose operation.
Oh, joy.
It was a pretty weird 27 hour period all round, really.
The following morning I found the LeBron the guinea pig had gone to meet his maker.
It was sad, we'd reared him and his brother Carmello from the age of four weeks, and I thought he had another season in him before retirement. We're now left with a lonely, and slightly demented ginger pig living on his own. Bearing in mind he's been snipped due to repeated rape attempts on Dirk the rabbit, I can foresee a girl pig called Kylie coming to stay!
The general crapaness continued with Cambridge United being dumped out of the FA Trophy 5-0 by the mighty Histon. I used to support a club who were the first team from the lower two divisions to reach back-to-back FA Cup quarter-finals, a club who went damned close to qualifying for the inaugural Premier League having been promoted the previous two seasons.
Now I support a club who aren't even the best side in Cambridge.
That sucks.
Big time.
And I still went to watch them lose on Boxing Day.
And then we played Reading. I can live with losing close games against decent teams. W
hat does piss me off however is the double standards applied between coaches who are perceived as mere mortals and the likes of Dave Titmuss.
Just because it was Christmas, and he looks like Santa Claus, does not mean he should be afforded special privileges.

Having spent the entire game whining about everything (apparently he was going to appeal the result if they lost - I never found out what imaginary sleight had been afforded to Rockets), including asking the table if Simon Appleby (the second ref) was connected to Leopards, he proceeded to tell John Letzia - the other ref - that he should T our coach Jon Burnell with about 10 seconds remaining.
So he did.
To effectively end the game as a contest.
Nice move, on the part of both the protagonists, and if anyone feels tempted to forward this to EB - don't worry it's on its way. It wasn't an isolated incident , either, the previous blatant no-call on a Leopards player who had been hammered in the paint had been greeted by a T on the players fouled - Duncan Ogilvie, who'd managed to go six years without a tech before then. Not that Titmuss is the first coach to get away with murder at Goresbrook, at least he wasn't banned while continuing to coach¦.
Having had the worst day ever as far as getting the cretins at Goresbrook to actually do their job, and the fact that I was still groggy from the hair-cut incident, it was the perfect end to a poxy week.
Since then I've been laying in the sun most of the time. But you don't want to hear about that.
Especially as I'm led to believe it's gale-force winds and rain back home in Blighty.
So have a Happy New Year.
My resolution is to get an American centre


06 JANUARY REVIVAL
?)
I still can't breath through my nose, but hey, basketball starts against today. It could have started last night for me, but I didnt' fancy the trip to Milton Keynes, so I'll content myself with Leopards vs King's Lynn tomorrow and the finals at Birmingham tomorrow.
It'll be survival of the fittest at Wodson Park today. Fury have lost Steve Pilkington whose returned to Aus, and have Mike Williamson cup-tied, while we are without our first three players off the bench for a variety of reasons.
The fact that we still have our normal starting five, and that Pilkington who dropped 40 points up there is gone, means we should win. I'm a bit concerned about the guard situation, our only cover there is a 16-year-old (who can certainly play, but.....) unless Jon celebrates being 40 years and two days old by kitting up, but then I don't do over-confidence. It's a must-win game, they've already lost their first three in it, and defeat would end our chances of a first National Trophy semi-final.
And I badly want another to be in another final. Basically it's addictive. I'll be a Birmingham, but I can't promise to enjoy watching someone else lift the National Cup. Don't get me wrong, we have no God-given right to it, but it was brilliant winning that pot. And I want to do it again.
'I've probably said it before, when things are crap and I wonder why the hell Im doing this, I look at THE picture of us with the cup, and I remember. The Trophy and play-offs are our best chance of replicating that magical day. We're two losses behind Reading, Manchester and Worthing, and given the size of the defeat against the later it's effectively three losses as we're screwed on the head-to-head so I'll take a trip to Newcastle in either March or April. If fact I'll take a trip to Newcastle in both March and April. As I said, it's addictive.
I've enjoyed the break over Christmas, but I'm looking forward to getting back into it. I watched my first basketball on TV for three weeks yesterday (which could be a record during the season), and it's left me ready to go. I sold my soul to the devil today and re-subscribed to NASN. It's not that I object to paying money to watch games on TV, I object to the steady increase in price, decrease in games, and the fact that you now have to subscribe for a 12-month period now. All to fund coverage of football. Still, it was good to sit and watch a game with my lunch, and I can see a DD being cancelled in three months time, maybe by then I'll have that trip to Newcastle to look forward to!¦.




08 JANUARY HOME COMFORTS
The return to Wodson Park proved to be triumphant - if a little easy.
I couldn't say anything in the last diary, but we left Goresbrook last week, and we'Ll finish the season at Wodson. What the future holds, and where or indeed if we play next year is completely up in the air.
Goresbrook had become a massive pain in the rear end. It wasn't cheap by any means (in the top three in EBL 1), and the service we received from them was abysmal.
Basically, from the moment the manager we did the original deal with moved on ten months ago, it all went downhill. Ultimately we didn't leave Goresbrook because they were physically incapable of opening the locker rooms at half-time or at the end of the game (and that's just one example) it just made it easy.
So we'll finish the season at Wodson, and if its a success we'Ll look to play at least some games there next season. Saturday was only the second time that we've covered the cost of a home game this season and the first was against Lions at the same venue.
Part of that is down to the fact that Wodson is considerably cheaper, but we also took more money on the door than we did at the majority of Goresbrook games. It was also nice not to have a crowd that was rattling around in the venue. And the bar sells Stella.
We actually do more community work in the east Herts area than in east London, so there is potential to get more bums on seats. Whether Wodson can work with regular, rather than occasional, games is open to question. We have seven games there in 12 weeks and then hopefully the play-offs so only time will tell.
What I do know is that if we'd stayed at Goresbrook there wouldn't be a Year Four. It just never worked there, we did a massive amount of work to publicise the club, but we struggled to get a decent crowd. Once we left Brentwood, we didn't attract anyone from there to watch us (we had a reasonable amount travel last season), and we were clearly going nowhere there.
Anyway, my worries about the lack of a bench for us proved to be unfounded. We scraped home by 46 points. All of our eight players were on the scoresheet by half-time, and we never looked in any trouble. Calvin hit 34 and Duncan Ogilvie finished with a double-double of 23 points and 21 rebounds.
Those two could have finished with any numbers they wanted, but what was good was the fact that the role players all got decent minutes. Dave Peacock, who struggles to get any court time, hit three straight threes against his old club and finished with 13 points, while 16-year-old Michael Jarvis did a good job at the point, finishing with nine points in 16 minutes.



09 JANUARY TRAPPED IN THE NIA
I don't make this stuff up. Though I wouldn't blame you if you thought otherwise. After all, it was only a couple of diaries ago that I explained how I smashed my nose and gave myself concussion by walking into a door - a scene re-enacted in the first episode of Ugly Betty (I wanted to watch basketball, incidentally), though it didn't appear to hurt her quite as much.

Anyway, we drove to the NIA on Sunday morning to watch Manchester and Worthing compete for the cup which lived in my bedroom for several months. The cup which I named Steve (Nash-ional Cup - get it?), the cup which appeared to get dropped every time we took it anywhere. After parking in our secret (free) spot, we discovered the downside of not paying through the nose to park, in that by the time we'd completed the five minute walk, I was soaked.
Still, we collected out tickets without any problems, though it would have been nice if they (the NIA) had set up the queue at the box office inside the NIA rather than outside in the rain. I then went in search of the press room to get a copy of the programme, which I'd written most of (that's my excuse for not buying it), and to get Tracy a coffee because she was apparently wet and cold.
And that's where I made the mistake. I believed the stewards. I know technically they were correct, the press room is on the third floor, but the BBL don't use it, they use a room near the locker rooms. I know this, but I believed the three stewards who told me to go to third floor, so I went up there, found the room and entered, letting the door shut behind me. The door which then locked itself. The door to the empty room. The gently shoulder-to-door routine didn't work, and by the time I'd found the third locked door, I was starting to panic. I'd left my phone with Andy Webb's number in at home, and visions of having to ring security from the internal phone in the room and explain that, yes I was locked in the otherwise empty third floor and, no I didn't have a press pass on me because I was trying to find the bloody press room to get one.
Well, the fourth door opened. And I made my way, quickly, downstairs to where the press room was. The same place it always is. I was left to wonder how these things happen to me.
All that nonsense did at least take my mind off the fact that either Manchester or Worthing were about to nick my beloved cup. It wasn't the greatest game, but at least it was close. The depth of Manchester's team was shown by the fact that none of their big men played more than 20 minutes, but Thunder should still have had it wrapped it up in the fourth. If you were to watch the game tape, you could probably find four occasions when the Worthing coach (who goes by the name of Chicken for some reason) should have halted Magic's run with a time-out - but then it's easy coaching from the stand.
I couldn't bring myself to watch the post-game celebrations, the pub beckoned, and there had been one moment when the Magic bench were standing up geeing their fans on when I thought "that was me last year" - so a Stella seemed a necessity.
We were back in time to see the BBL final. I'm pleased Guildford won it - what they've achieved in under two years is outstanding. They had advantages we didn't - not having to deal with Mike Smith being a main one - but they've done everything we aimed for, so it was great to see them win a cup. Rocks made a bigger fight of it than I thought they would, but watching Leibenath was a painful experience as he hobbled around.
So we watched another team celebrating another cup, and the resolve to do it again is still there. But before then, it's another trip to sunny Sheffield. What joy.


12 JANUARY SIGNED, SEALED AND ALMOST DELIVERED
You might want to sit down, and brace yourself. If it's not too early, maybe get a stiff drink.
We've signed a second American..............

He's here, in the house, and the paperwork is virtually complete. It's almost hard to believe, but we have two import players. Like the rest of the league.
It's partly down to some negotiating, and partly down to some of our fans putting their hands in the pockets. Naturally, like London busses, two came along at once, and were left with a decision to make. Naturally Jon chose the more difficult/more expensive one to sign - but he's the coach, so we backed him and hopefully it'll work out.
It would be a big ask to win the league. The top three are all on one loss, while we have three against each of the top three. We can't possibly beat Worthing on the head-to-head thanks to THAT loss in Sussex, so we're effectively three losses behind them. What it does give us is a realistic chance of lifting one of the two knockout cups (Trophy and play-offs), and getting a top four spot, with the home quarter-final in the play-offs. I won't judge him n Saturday, but it should allow Jon a lot more flexibility, and we now have an inside presence.
I celebrated by spending three hours sorting out the club car which has sat motionless in Wodson Park car park. This involved telling a few porkies to the AA man and praying as I drove it to the garage to be fixed.
I only do this for the glamour.
EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
14 JANUARY

Self driving mini buses are a rip-off. Because if they did what they said, I wouldn't have to get up at 7.30am on a Sunday to take it back. Having returned at midnight from a 350 mile round-trip to Sheffield, this obviously didn't amuse me. Mind you, I was never likely to be happy after going out of the trophy with a spineless performance and a 12-point defeat.
It was the kind of game where you wonder if some of your team actually give a toss.
They are quick to remind you when it's pay-day, but getting to places on time so you don't have to average 85mph down the M1, and playing proper D for the whole 40 minutes are obviously optional.
We went there with genuine hopes of a result.
We didn't expect huge things of our new signing Jerrid Campbell in his first game, but we thought we had enough talent and depth to beat a team that are basically two Americans, one talented English player who never made it the BBL (Andre Rankine) and a load of kids.
Clearly we were wrong.
I'm beginning to have my doubts about recruiting experienced English players.
Even putting aside the fact we haven't got any bloody money, Sheffield seem to have a competitive team by simply signing the best two Americans they can and getting kids who are keen to achieve something, rather than vets who already have.
It was a long and very quiet journey home, and we were left to reflect just how badly we've underachieved this season.
We're 1-6 in games against the rest of the top half. That's shocking, and being 7-0 against the bottom half is no consolation. I don't know what the future holds for Leopards - and it's not the BBA (but I'll save that for another diary) but performances like that make you wonder why you bother.
So, yes, I have the hump. Kylie's ill, you wouldn't believe the hassle I'm having trying to get hold of another guinea pig, and I run a bad basketball team.
Think I'll go to Milton Keynes and take it out on the referees.


15 JANUARY PRETTY IN PINK
I don't suppose it's a great surprise that I often dream about basketball - after all it does dominate my life. What I can't understand is this dream. North Carolina were playing a game at Wodson Park [obviously - where else would they play ?], and I think it was against another college side.
For some reason, one of the opposing team spat chewing gum into the hair of NC coach Roy Williams.
The gum wouldn't come out, so [for some reason] it became my job to cut the gum out of his hair. Basically I missed the biggest game ever at Wodson Park as I was cutting the hair [which actually appeared to be wig - but he wouldn't take it off] of Roy Williams.
My angst was increased by the fact that Williams turned his nose up at the post-game sandwiches. Miserable bugger, at least he didn't have to go to the barbers - we all know what can happen then.
Anyway it's a wonder I slept at all, after sitting next to this rather strange man at Bletchley yesterday.

Wonderful picture though it is, courtesy of Mr Whatsbev himself - Jez Brown, it doesn't truly do him justice. To match the pink in his har and pink shirt, he had strange pink shoes, with cut outs in them so his feet could get wet in the rain. An he appeared to be wearing a badger on his head during the first quarter. I was quite scared. In fact in the picture I'm hiding behind Tracy (curly girl), but having spoken to him after the game, I found he's a very nice man.
With Tracy away on business this week, we might hook up. Just need to get a pair of those shoes.....
Continuing the surreal nature of today's offering, I've just discovered that Naomi Campbell plays for Sheffield Hatters II.
And in a desperate attempt to write something vaguely about basketball, as I was driving to Milton Keynes, there was a piece about snooker on Radio 5.
The man excitedly told me that "more that 1000 people have turned up to watch". "MORE THAN 1000" I bellowed at the radio. "Big f@@@*ing deal. There were more than 4000 at the NIA last Sunday and you didn't report a bloody word about it".
It's stuff like this that makes me wonder if we're all banging our heads on the wall.
Still, musn't grumble. The Lions v's Rocks game was worth the trip.
As I said on Whatsbev, I still think Lions threw it away, and with that many eteran players, they performed VERY poorly down the stretch. I'm not sure the man in pink shoes would have done any worse...

19 JANUARY DRIVING TOWARDS INSANITY

So, fresh from my dream that Mike Burton asked me to "help out" at Chester, because they "are in a bit of a mess", it was time to give another American some lessons in driving a manual car.
I'm not sure if Mike had wanted me to play or not, we could have taken odds at who lumbered down the court the slowest - me or Billy - but either would be preferable to teaching Americans to
a) drive on the correct side of the road,
b) go round roundabouts in the right direction, (easily the most difficult)
c) change gear.
I wasn't the genius who bought a manual car, in fact, I was the genius who said not to, and STILL ended up giving the driving lessons. To be fair to Jerrid, he wasn't THAT bad. We bounced off a few curbs, pissed everyone off by stalling in the middle of the road and had the by now traditional incident on a roundabout where he took go right to mean drive the wrong way around the roundabout. I'm definitely getting better at the teaching, though the whole journey is still spent with me clinging onto the door for dear life. Still, no one's dead, well not yet.
So this weekend we face an away double header, Capitals on Saturday and the entire BBA on Sunday in Coventry.
We've stunk in double headers this season. Take out the farce against Wellingborough, and it's fair to say we've never played well in the second game. Duncan Ogilvie struggles with his knee in back-to-backs, but we can live with that. If he didn't have a dodgy knee, he'd be in Spain, earning a decent living and not watching an entire country grind to a halt 'cause it's a bit windy. No one else has an excuse. If you go into the season out of shape, you won't get into decent condition just by going to practice most of the time.
There's no big ultimatums here, but another failure to do what we think we're capable of this weekend, will see some changes.
There's only a week and a half until deadline day, so they would have to be quick changes, but the idea of going through last week's crap for two more months isn't appealing.

25 JANUARY HOT DOG

To be honest, I only went for the hotdogs. But technically I ended up coaching Leopards to an overtime win at Capitals.
Who said the world's gone mad ?
I was still pissed off from the Sheffield defeat. I'll make not pretence, I'm certainly not above sulking, and I did consider that I could go to watch Stortford (my game for work was called off) and then go on the piss with my mates. I've never actually missed a game of the "new" Leopards, so in reality this was an empty threat, and I'd heard that Capitals were making more money out of selling hotdogs than they were on admission. So I drove to Neasden.
The dog was quite nice, certainly value for money at a quid, and I even shared it with one of the table officials - though she did happen to be my wife. I'd already made the fateful decision to put my name down on the scoresheet as assistant coach. This isn't an ego thing, we had only seven fit senior players and if someone went mad and got a load of bench T's (and it's happened) you run the risk of either Sam Salter (who's officially AC) or Errol Seaman (who's captain) getting chucked.
Better me than them. And I've been chucked out of better place than the Capital City Academy.
With 3:22 on the clock in the first period, it proved to be a fateful decision. You couldn't fault the first T. Jon probably even played for it. But as Roberto Mazza T'd him up, he slipped, and being the evil man he is, Jon laughed. Cruelly, sarcastically, vulgarly and offensively according to the ref's reports. Quite an achievement in split second, a split second I'd spent saying - don't get chucked. Actually I'd only said dont get... before he's got his second
The reports confirm that ejection was for laughing. There's no BS here. It would be laughable if I didn't run the risk of Bada T'ing me for laughing.
So, in a tight game, with the first period not over, I am technically the coach. This is where the technical bit comes in. Our injured point guard, Lloyd Gardner, coached the game. We sacrifice the 5-10 minutes we might have got out of him to allow Sam to concentrate on playing. He's a born coach anyway. He's AC at the Barking Abbey Academy (the coach is the GB ladies coach, Mark Clark), his dad's a coach, his uncles a coach. He can coach. And he did. I just did a little more than normal. And I finally had permission to jump up and down on the sideline and grill the ref at half time about why the hell I was now (technically) the coach.
There were times it was mental. It was one of those games. And we should have won it in regulation time, but we did it in the end. It was no exaggeration to say I was mentally shot. I didn't eat or even drink much when I got home, but (technically) I am 1-0 coaching in EBL 1 - almost makes up for being robbed in the coach's game at the NIA. Forget the technical bit, I'm 0-1 in those.
As they say, every silver lining has a cloud. Not everywhere has such tasty hotdogs.


27 JANUARY HOW CLEAN IS YOUR PLAYERS HOUSE?

So on Sunday we went to Coventry. I guess everyone was knackered. I looked at Duncan Ogilvie the previous night and you could see he was shot. He's a great player for our level, as good as our Americans, but he's only with us because his knees are knackered, and because of that he isn't in the physical shape he'd want to be. We have to live with that one, but as I looked around the locker room on Saturday evening (having stepped down as interim coach by then), I feared the worst.
Luckily, the BBA's finest, and indeed only team were as banged up as we were. Missing two starters, they were never going to cause us any real problem. We led by nine at the end of the first, and although they had a run to lead briefly, a buzzer-beating trey from Sam Salter (assist D Ryan from the stand) gave us a ten point lead at half-time. We murdered them in the second half, winning the third period by 12 points and the fourth by 20. A record away win of 42 points, and the scoring was led by 19-year-old Joe Ikhinmwin, a man who's every commentator's nightmare.
Good day all round, and with the team travelling in three cars, I was home before 7pm. Marvellous.
Obviously, having put the Sheffield defeat behind us with a good weekend, the rest of the week has been a bloody nightmare. And it's all player's fault.
The car is a wheel short (obviously, the spare) after our new centre drove into a curb and wrecked it. Luckily I'm telepathic, because I should know that this has happened, and that he wouldn't be turning up at either of his community coaching sessions. And you couldn't expect three grown me with a total height of over 19 feet to change a tire.
And then there's the community work. Between the two Americans they are 4 from 8 for actually doing it this week. That's a bit unfair on Calvin, as Jerrid has managed to be 0 from 3. This is a good way not to be paid. Because at this rate there will be no money to pay them with.
And then there's the house. Or rather the pigsty. The place with bags of trash lying around and congealed food in the pans and plates that simply must be a week old. It's fair to say words will be had today..
And then there's the player who played one game for us, made Sam Salter 35 minutes late for last week's game at Capitals, and still didn't actually show up. He'd now like me to rush around to get him transferred to Tees Valley. So he can play against us today. Seriously, why would I do that ?
Then there's the player who phoned me yesterday. He's 20 year old, he's never actually played for a team, but he's really good and wants to play for us. In football terms, we're probably a Conference side, mixture of full and part-time players . do you reckon they give trials to people who've never actually played for a team, but are really good ? Needless to say, he won't be at practice on Tuesday.
So today we face a Tees Valley side who appear to be signing a player on the hour every hour. I'm hopeful that the last fortnight might be a turning point. We bounced back after the Sheffield debacle, and the players really did pull together to get the win at Capitals after JB had been chucked. So maybe it prove to be a pivotal moment, or maybe it'll all go tits up again. It's British basketball. Anything can happen.

01 FEBRUARY NO NEWS NOT GOOD NEWS FOR DIARISTS
The news is, there is no news
In the late 1950s ('58 I believe) the BBC went one day without a news bulletin, apparently because there was "no news". Obviously, as a journo, I find this madness. There's good weeks, and bad weeks, but even in Royston SOMETHING happens.
Unfortunately I can give you no news. When I agreed to do this, I always said there's be things i couldn't talk about. But at the moment it's at the point where i'd simply be lying by omission if I wrote a diary. That's not really my style (and it has nothing to do with the BBA before any add 2 + 2 and gets 427), so I will break a habit and shut up.
Sorry.
But, I WILL be back.
Hersey out (for a while)

EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
07 FEBRUARY A BLOODY FARCE
So, after 59 league games, nine in the National Cup, 13 in the National Trophy, seven in the BBL Trophy, two in the play-offs, nine in two summer leagues and 17 friendlies, I finally picked up my first technical foul on Sunday. Bearing in mind Solent scored both the shots, and we managed to lose by two points, I wasn't very happy.
Obviously, if I'd been gobbing off on the bench, I wouldn't have much cause for complaint. The trouble was, I was sitting on the fourth row of the bleachers. I only pointed out that the player was clearly not shooting when he was fouled. But as it seems to be the season for handing out stupid technicals the referee concerned thought that the comments had come from our bench. I was under the impression that T's were supposed to be for things referees KNEW about rather than just supposed had happened. Clearly I was wrong.
In a situation spookily similar to the farce at Capitals, once he knew he was wrong, the referee continued to keep digging - and informed me that he was reporting me to EB. I'm still waiting for the disciplinary report, because I'd love to know what I did wrong considering the whole incident was basically a bloke in the crowd appealing for a decision. My guess is, unless he reads this tripe, I'll keep on waiting.

The loss at Solent put the cap on a thoroughly #### week.
We don't have a club car any more, and at one stage I thought we were going to complete a hat-trick of finishing seasons with only one American. All basically because our new centre believed the myth he was taught at college.
Sadly, we didn't - he's not the centre of the universe.
He's simply the centre at Leopards. And that centre has to do the community work. And if the car's been crashed because he can't read typed out directions from the AA, he'll have to get on a bloody train.
The amount of time spent on trying to keep the team together and rescue a rapidly collapsing community programme was massive - and after the performance at Solent on Sunday, I'd question whether it's worth it. I can live with the loss against Worthing on Saturday, they are arguably the best side in the league, and we ran them really close. But Sunday was a shambles. There's plenty of excuses we can find, but none of them are good enough to explain a loss against a side with just one league win this season. I'm gutted about the T - ludicrous though it was - but we went on a run after it, and really should have put the game away long before the final shambolic minute.
After all that, it was almost a relief to switch the phone off and have my nose operated on.
There's plenty of blood, and I feel totally knackered. I'm also bored, and currently on my fourth NASN game of the day. I haven't shouted at the TV during any of them, because blokes in the crowd shouldn't affect the outcomes of a game by collecting technicals.


16 FEBRUARY EFFING REBOUNDS AND GAY GUINEA PIGS

I really should learn to shut my mouth.
Just six days after picking up my first T while sitting in the bleachers at Solent, I put my size 11 in it at Wodson Park. I was standing next to the PA man, and he appeared to have the microphone off and in his hand down by his side. So I casually remarked "I wouldn't mind if we got a #### rebound". Obviously, the mic was on, and all those little kids we'd worked so hard to get to the game heard me.
No one complained, mind you.
I did have a point, though. We were terrible against King's Lynn (not the next member of the BBA, incidently) and only played properly for the final twelve minutes. You couldn't knock Fury, they are basically a player-coach who does a reasonable job, a couple of Americans (one of whom we turned down the chance to sign in January) and a load of kids. They played decent team basketball, and made us work hard. Or rather we didn't work hard, we messed around for 28 minutes, then finally got our finger out. Not impressive.
Talking of the American we didn't sign, Hank Rivers, we made the right decision on the court - clearly - but if he'd signed I probably wouldn't be going to south London today to collect a new club car (when I say new, it's an N reg).
Donated by one of our fans, it should see us through for the rest of the season. When I said we were living hand-to-mouth, I wasn't exaggerating.
So what else is new ?
Well, fresh for the complete non-story that John Amaechi is gay (I really thought everyone knew), it turns out that Carmello the guinea pig is as well. I'd always wondered. The fact that he had to be castrated after repeatedly trying to have his wicked way with Dirk the rabbit, was an obvious sign. But having finally given up on trying to find him a single adult female (sounds like a lonely hearts ad - not that I'd resort to such things, I've got Kylie), I gave up and put one of the other female pigs I have in with him. He promptly refused to allow her in the hutch, and he will now spend the rest of his days as a solitary pig. I blame it on being ginger....
Well, it's 6am, I haven't slept for a couple of hours (though the nose has stopped bleeding), and I'm struggling for things to write. I could describe the 26 games I watched while off work last week, but they began to blur in a way that normally only alcohol induces, so I won't.
I could congratulate Yeoman on his fine work promoting the BBL (yeah, the last letter being L), but as he only reads threads with the word BBA in them, I'd be wasting my time. Or I could try to shut my eyes AND my mouth. As I can now breath again (almost normally), that might be a first.


19 FEBRUARY
(NOT) NICE TO SEE YOU TO SEE YOU (NOT) NICE BRUCIE

Well, it's only February and we're in the play-offs already. Bit of a shock really, and I only noticed by accident. Obviously it's not the world's greatest achievement, the goal at the beginning of the season was never to simply qualify for the them, it was to get a home quarterfinal, but it's a far cry for the first season where we staggered in on the final day of the league season by beating the BBB's finest, and a couple of weeks earlier than last year - though with a smaller league that's probably a moot point.
The win at Northampton wasn't vintage, but it cemented us in fourth place for now, and with Errol only playing a bit-part due to injury, and we did it in spite of some terrible officiating. Shockingly, I'm not going to blame the refs (more of one of them in a minute) but I basically had to spend the whole game keeping an eye on the table, as points and fouls went missing.
Amazingly they did notice that we'd given the wrong number on the sheet to one of our players, but curiously they noticed it when we had the ball rather than Northampton. We were T'd for it, lost possession and they scored both shots. It was our screw up, and to be fair, the table also called a time-out for Northampton when all they asked for was a sub, so I'm not claiming any bias.
But it turned out that it was a good job i reversed my earlier decision to sit in the stand, and went on the bench instead. The AC was busy top scoring, and players are notoriously hopeless at counting fouls (I'm notoriously hopeless at top scoring), let alone checking the score every time the ball goes in - so it turns out I do have my uses.
So the ref. It was Keith Bruce.
The first (basketball) ref I ever hated. I put it down to four technical incident at Chester ten years ago, where Jets effectively won the game as John White was tossed out and they had ten free throws.
He was actually the best of the five officials (judge that if you will), and I've mellowed enough now to be completely indifferent about him - though it helps we only see him about once a year (including, curiously, when we qualified for the play-offs in 2005 - so maybe he's our lucky Keith).
There were times when I needed gagging when I was within a mile of him, now I have to talk to him about whether the tech was on the coach, bench or player (naturally the table put it on the sheet wrong anyway). At this rate I'll be growing up. Now that's more frightening that Britney's new hair-do.


24 FEBRUARY
One of the worst weeks of my life. And for the first time in about three years, my life hasn't been totally dominated by basketball.
My best friend laid down and died on Tuesday. No warning, his heart aorta just packed up. He was approaching 35-years-old. I've tried crying, I've tried being obnoxious on whatsbev (obviously you didn't notice the difference), and I've tried whiskey. Not much is working.
If we were to go down the pub and exchange anacdotes of mad things we've done, my mate Foody would be in all of mine. He really was one of a kind.
It puts the trials and tribulations of Leopards into perspective.
I have no idea what the future holds for Leopards, and to be brutally honest, at the moment I couldn't care less.
So I'll drive the mini bus to Manchester, we'll get our first call at about 7.40pm when the game's already blown, and if last year's farce is anything to by, I might even end up coaching.
And none of it will really matter.

27 FEBRUARY

Itdidn't get any worse. To be honest it wasn't likely to. Unfortunately it don't get a lot better either. I hadn't felt great since the nose operation. Tired a lot, and worryingly, unable to drink my usual quota.
However, despite all that, I was going to sod work and go to watch Stortford at Eastleigh (Solent to you and me), and do what Andy - my friend who died - would have wanted. Which involved drinking, acting daft and making lots of noise in support of Stortford. Trouble is it rained a bit in Eastleigh, and their pitch wouldn't drain. To the extent a dead fish was found on it. So that idea was off.
Idea 2 was to find a game, and least have a few beers. So I left home, feeling a bit odd, and midday. By 12.05 I'd turned around. I was shattered. Calvin and James were coming round to collect their money, so I arranged for them to drop me in the middle of Stortford.
Turned out I couldn't even do that. Basically I was close to passing out. Even with Tracy in Spain, and without the brains i was born with, I knew I had to go to the doctors (I don't generally do that).
So to cut a long story (relatively) short, I ended up in an ambulance on the way to Harlow A&E where it transpired, the black tar I'd been crapping for a few days was my blood - and I was about three pints short. Never had the idea that my blood was 38% proof been more apt.

So I spent the next two nights in the madhouse that is the Princess Alexander Hospital getting those three pints back, and generally watching them screw pretty much everything up. I was in a bed between a women who really could have been one of the pikeys from Snatch and a stupid bint who'd made a half-baked attempt at suicide.
That sounds harsh, but you had to be there to believe it, and having lost my best mate during the week, I really wasn't in the mood for a selfish bitch who only cared about herself.
Anyway the upshot of it all is that I have three pints of someone's blood - so I may even be sober - and I face a camera being shoved into my gizzards (always liked that word) next week,
Shockingly, I also missed a Leopards' game. After 118 games in our history, they managed to cope without me at Manchester. Though the lack of a bus driver caused all kind of problems. I'm disappointed we lost, but everything that had gone in the week put it into perspective. Fourth place is still there for the taking, but if we don't get it, well, we don't get it.
Scary though this is. This could be the start of a whole new Hersey.
PS Thanks to everyone who emailed their condolences about Andy. Appreciated, and I wasn't sure anyone read this tripe

08 MARCH
IF ONLY IT WAS AS SIMPLE AS PULLING MY HAIR OUT AT BASKETBALL
So we buried Foody. Carrying him into the church was probably the hardest thing I've ever done - and not just as his name suggests because he was a very large lad. Struggling down the middle of church wearing a Stortford shirt (for the first time in a long while) carrying the coffin, I wasn't aware of just how many people were there - but it turned out to be close to 400. So I wasn't exactly alone in my grief.

The wake was how he would have wanted it. At his beloved Stortford FC, and everyone got bladdered - including me, by then I was basically ignoring everything I'd been told when released from hospital.
I'm trying not to wallow in this, but on Tuesday night when the football was called off we'd have probably gone down the pub with another mate. Well, the other mate's just moved to Switzerland for work and Foody's gone. I felt pretty bloody lonely on Tuesday night.
Amongst all that we played a game of basketball against West Herts Warriors. To be honest, I couldn't have been any less up for it if I'd tried. I really didn't want to be there. it took until the fourth quarter, with "Mad" Mark Quashie ejected, our largest ever crowd at Wodson getting noisy, and both teams starting to get snappy with each other, that I finally enjoyed it.
It was a nice win, though, it sets us up for fourth spot. But that's really in our hands. We have to play Sheffield, who have now dropped down to sixth, twice and Capitals. Personally I'd like to play Sheffield at home and beat them. They've knocked us out the play-offs in both our two years, so revenge would be sweet. But we've all heard the theory about best laid plans.
We were without Duncan Ogilvie, and I've got doubts that he'll play again this season. That's a massive loss, as he's basically a third American-quality player for us. If he didn't have his knee problems, he would be in the BBL - probably starting. He's struggled with fitness all season, and finds back-to-back really tough, but you could still argue that he's our player of the year. Whether we do anything in the play-offs will depend a lot on whether he's back for us.
So today, I went to hospital, let another doctor stick a camera down my throat and have a look around. It probably still beats driving a mini bus to Manchester (it's the one away journey I truly hate), but it would nice to be getting back to simply tearing my hair out about basketball.


10 MARCH
DON'T BLAME IT ON THE SUNSHINE.... DON'T BLAME IT ON THE MOONLIGHT... DON'T BLAME IT ON THE GOOD TIMES... BLAME IT ON DELLA

I blame Della. For those of you who don't know Della, she's a Milton Keynes fans who posts on Whatsbev as "Della", having spent hours thinking up a name for herself on basketball's finest website.
Anyway, she's given up booze for Lent. i need a lot of persuading at the moment that God exists, and if He does exist He surely couldn't want me to be without beer.
Well, if here is a God, it turns out that Della has a direct line to Him.
Because after watching a truly awful second half performance from Lions, I needed a beer. The only problem was the Kronenbourg was off, as was my second choice - Strongbow. As was my emergency back-up, Fosters. As was my real emergency back-up, Bud.
So I demanded to see the manager, just to ask what @@@@ing hell was the point of opening a bar that only sold John Smiths and a few alcopops.
Naturally he wasn't around, but I now have a piece of paper in my pocked with his name and number on it, and on Monday we'll be having a chat about the fact I don't want to give up alcohol and it's not his job to try to make me. Who said I'm an alcoholic?.
Back to basketball, finally. Lions where seriously bad. Jets absolutely murdered them despite playing the whole second period without James Hamilton who sat down with three fouls. Once he was back, Chester just took them apart.
All this basically playing with a four man offence most of the time that Billy Singleton was on the court. At the risk of stating the obvious about big Bill, you know he's in trouble when he's blowing out of his backside in the warm-up.
Being the friend of the stars that I am, I spoke to Mike Burton after the game and he was laughing at how easy it had been.
Certainly, Lions threw some very strange line-ups at them in the second half. Not bringing Ronnie Baker into the game until the fourth period. Surely he's either in the rotation - and I would have thought that went without saying - or he's not.
And then there's Robert Youngblood. I used to wear blinkers when he played for Leopards.
He was a dirty player then, and I'm reliably told that he did some naughty things in practice. But now, he's downright filthy.
He was ejected against Leopards this season for two intentional fouls, and picked up another last night before fouling out on a technical.
Obviously I laughed, a loudly bellowed my catchphrase of "you never learn, do you?", but if I was a Lions fan it would drive me mad to see a senior player acting like that.
In fact, it might even drive me to drink.......................... though obviously not at Bletchley.


EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
16 MARCH ........................ Just don't get too excited about the exclusive, though.........................
As the season moves towards its final weeks, I can honestly say that year three of Leopards II has certainly introduced me to a new feeling. I'm really looking forward to the end of the season - and that's never happened before. As the last year or so has progressed, more and more of running Leopards has dropped on my lap, and at this moment I've simply had enough. I still have no idea what next year will bring, and at the moment I don't even know if there will be a next season. I have some meetings in the next few weeks regarding community work will go a long way into determining whether - and at what level - we play next year, but at the moment I do with it all being over.
Which is a shame, after all we've been through.
Not that my mood was improved by the farce we had to watch last week. The home game against Sheffield was key. Win that and we were near as dammed in fourth spot. Then we wouldn't have had to worry about the fact we are beaten up, down to seven men, and have away games against Reading and Sheffield this week. But somehow we managed to be 20 down at the end of the first period, up by six with three to go, and end up losing to an Andre Rankine trey with 4.7 second remaining. Add the fact that we couldn't run a five second play if our lives depended it on it, and you can see why I had the hump.
We can still get fourth spot - out pre-season target, though the plan was to be in the title race a bit longer - but it's just become a whole lot harder.
You would have got a diary earlier in the week if I hadn't spent Tuesday evening in A&E after another "black poo incident". I'll spare you the details - because you might be eating - but I'm fine, and very bored with it all.
Still, there is March Madness. I have no idea how much college ball I've watched this month. It would frighten me. I've ploughed my way through the conference tournaments, and NASN had 12 hours of the NCAA tournament 1st round on yesterday - I plan to have that watched by the time the second half of the first round starts at 4pm this afternoon. Basically, I'm in hog's heaven, wall-two-wall basketball, and without any hassle.
That's beginning to sound a serious alternative option.
Especially as - and you might want to sit yourself down and brace yourself here .................
...... I'm going to be a dad!

Now, I bet no one sleeps tonight.
Still, there's plenty of ball on TV.......


20 MARCH ..... AND NO SIGN OF SCRUMPY JACK
Alone in a Godless universe, and out of Scrumpy Jack
Ok, well I'm not really alone. One and a half other people live here, there's seven guinea pigs, a chinchilla, rumours of a rabbit, and I'm pretty sure there are mice in the shed.
And the jury's out on the God question. Though, in light of me having to lug my mate down the middle of a church in a box, I'm inclined to think no.
But I was out of canned Scrumpy Jack.
And that's when I knew it would go wrong.
There is always canned cider here, you see. I have literally never been without it in the six years we've lived here, plus a sizable amount of the time living in the old house. In fact my best ever shopping trip saw me return home with 80 cans of Scrumpy Jack, a guinea pig called Hersey and two pints of milk. The milk was over-rated.
So we went to Reading on Saturday. Seven players, and an injured one kitted up to avoid being fined. One referee who's already T'd our bench this season for a comment I made while sitting in the crowd, and the other referee who is on such good terms with Rockets that they played his song before the game.
It turned out to be "I've got a brand-new combine harvester". I have no idea why, I guess it is some kind in-joke, but I'm not sure you should have public in-jokes with referees. Because when he then fails to give the visitors a single bloody call all night, they tend to get the hump. At this point, I should mention that the other referee (the one who sort of T'd me at Solent) wasn't the problem, even if he does seem to have a problem with me. Still, he's not alone there....
Anyway, we played well for the first three periods, but just couldn't sustain it for the fourth. The 99-87 margin clearly flattered Rockets, but the reality is, it doesn't matter - you either win or you lose.
By the time I got home, there was Scrumpy Jack in the fridge.

Things could only get better, even if I was too knackered to manage more than one. And a large Bushmills to celebrate my grandad Pat's birthday.
So we dragged our aching limbs to Sheffield. By then it was seven players, and the coach kitted up to avoid being fined. Having stunk the place out in the second half of double headers this season (the Worthing/Wellingborough weekend excepted, having got it the wrong way around), I wasn't exactly confident. But we managed to produce four periods of good basketball. Especially as Calvin appeared to get called for a foul every time he went near an opposing player - so our top scorer ended up playing under ten minutes. And we lost the starting PG, James Nicholson, with a leg injury midway through the second period.
By the second half we were basically playing with five men. Calvin made a brief cameo in the third period, which lasted about three minutes, before he picked up his fourth foul, and that point Jon basically gave up trying to play him, and saved him in case one of the other five fouled out. He was probably also scared that he might have to come on, especially as that would have left me as coach.
We played some superb D at the start of the third and went on a 11-0 run off the fast break to lead by 15, and from there on it was just a case of playing smart and closing the game out. It finished 80-76, but that flattered them as their midget point guard hit a three on the buzzer when we were too bloody knackered to guard him.
So then it was just a case of driving home and celebrating with a can or 427 of Scrumy Jack. In fact, I think I'll have another


30 MARCH HEADACHE OR A HEAD-REST?
So, tomorrow's either the beginning of a whole new headache or the beginning of the summer.
Sitting here at the moment, I'd probably prefer the latter, but the reality is, by around 7.30pm tomorrow (assuming our referees put in an appearance on time this week), I'll be hoping that we can beat Capitals. It would be our first ever post-season win, and would give us a semi-final against Worthing ('cause there's no way they'll lose to Solent).
The trouble with the play-offs is, they take so bloody long to complete. We can reasonably budget and arrange the logistics to compete in the quarter-final. Even if you flunk out and don't finishing in the top eight, it's only a week. But the whole play-off schedule was planned to take SIX weeks (it's now down to five due to finals weekend being moved).
Considering you play four games if you reach the final, that's just madness. Four games in six weeks (we normally play around six in four weeks) is a financial nightmare. Realistically, you can't arrange the normal amount of community work, because the Americans will want to go home as soon as it's all over (they don't actually come here to coach ten-year-olds, surprisingly).
You have to decide whether to keep the house for the extra month, which is a sizeable outlay. Basically, you can spend a month's money, without anything close to a month's income, and go out of the thing at the first opportunity.
For all that, though, I still desperately want to jump around at Newcastle with the play-off trophy.
We've limped into the play-offs. Duncan's gone for the season, and Joe Ikhinmwin didn't play against Capitals due to injury. We were down to a six man rotation, without any real cover at the bigger spots, and it was hard going.
Basically, we went into the game one win ahead of Capitals, and having won the famous game at Capital City Academy by three (you'll remember the game, our coach was ejected for laughing), we could afford to lose by two, and go through. Ultimately we lost by one, and they had the final shot. You don't get more brown trouser than that.....
It was very bizarre jumping up and celebrating a one point loss, but having come this far, we really wanted home court advantage. I'm not sure it'll make much difference tomorrow, but it certainly won't do any harm.
And guess who's the referee ?
There will be no smiling tomorrow, whatever happens.





02 APRIL PLAYING FOR THE PLANE?
To be honest, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
We flunked the play-offs big time. Having spent the season aiming for a top four spot, we simply rolled over and led Capitals have it. We were tied at 11 with a couple of minutes of the first remaining when they went on a 11-0 run, and from then on we never looked capable of staging a comeback. The closest we came was nine points on two occasions.
I'm not taking anything from Capitals, they deserved it, but I'd question whether we really are the fourth best side in the EBL Division One table.
They say the league table doesn't lie - well it might on this occasion.
We squeaked into that spot, and did nothing in the cups. Capitals are now looking forward (probably with some trepidation) to their third semi-final of the season against Worthing. We've lost four of the five competitive games we've played against Capitals this season, and while it could be argued that we'd have played the final minutes of the league game at Wodson differently if a one-point lead wasn't enough to give us fourth, but again we threw that game away.
So that's the crying bit.
The laughing bit is that's all over. I would seriously question whether either of our Americans REALLY wanted to win on Saturday. They certainly didn't play like they were desperate to remain in the country for another month.
So the hypocritical bit of this is that I'm also relieved it's all over. The difference is, I don't get paid, and I didn't fail to play any defence. Basically I didn't do anything to stop us continuing the season.
But the relief I felt when it was all over is making me seriously think about my long term commitment to it all. This is basically running my life (and when I say it's all over, it's not, there's still ####-loads to do), and when you reach the play-offs and you're left with the impression that the Americans you pay a fortune to bring over here really don't care about losing, you have to seriously wonder if it's worth it.
That's probably harsh on Calvin, though his defensive effort has been minimal since Christmas. On the other hand, you couldn't pay me to say nice things about Jerrid Campbell. One of the most rude, arrogant people you are ever likely to meet, it will be a positive pleasure when I set eyes on him for the final time on Wednesday.
Jerrid's problem is that he is going to play in the NBA. I know this, because he's told everyone - well everyone he speaks to, which isn't a long list, because he doesn't bother speaking to many people - that's going to play in the NBA.
Personally I would have thought that future NBA player would have scored more than eight points on Saturday, but then Jerrid knows better than me. And frankly better than most people. The three months that he has spent with us having been a constant battle. Having signed a contract that stipulated he had to do community coaching, he spent most of his time here trying to avoid doing it.
He lost us quite a lot of work, caused the car to be written off, and he basically ended up following Calvin around and simply sitting at the side of the court watching him coach. The last time we had a conversation was in January, sine then the closest we've came to one is when he snatches the envelope off me each week - a manner that has led to plenty of people who've witnessed it mentioning it's possibly the rudest thing they've ever seen.
I'm thick skinned, but if he hadn't been signed with money supporters have donated, he would have been cut ages ago. I just felt that those people deserved the best possible team on the floor - if I'd known that he'd not bother when we got to the play-offs so he could go home, I'd have had him out of the place six weeks ago.
Anyway, that rant's out of my system. When I get an email asking for a reference from whatever club considers signing him (and I'm reckoning it won't be an NBA one, if he made BBL and lasted the full season, I'd be surprised) he might find they are suddenly disinterested. I won't need to lie.
Anyway, I'll spend Easter thinking about it all, I'll probably consume a beer or two. I may even consult Tracy - though only if she lets me call the baby Beelzebub Satan Ryan - and then I'll decide if I really want to do it all again.


13 APRIL SUNSHINE N STRESS FREE FOR AN OLD BUGGER

This is all very strange. This is the first Friday since early September that we haven't had a game over the weekend AND I haven't been going away.
It's bloody marvellous.
There's still the end of the season crap to sort out. Unsurprisingly, the house was left in a state, but at least the players are gone. At the moment, if I never had any dealings with an American basketball player again, it was be FAR too soon. Which doesn't bode too well for next season.
Mind you, I am still dealing with American basketball players, basically because Trendsports Agency appears to be offering try-outs with us - which came as a bit of a surprise as I thought we were done for the season.....
Anyway, basketball isn't finished for the season - though sadly the NCAA finishes just when I have the time to watch the games - and this weekend I'm off to see the champions of EBL and BBL in action.
Saturday sees the delightful trip to Capitals who face Worthing Thunder in the first leg of the Div One semi-finals. I hate two-leg basketball, but Tracy's on the table, and it's better than nought. The only disappointment is that the 6pm tip means I'll miss watch Royston Town FC getting relegated.
Capitals are probably capable of springing a surprise on their own floor, but the two-legs mean I really can't see Thunder failing to reach Newcastle. There will be a point in the game where I'll look at Capitals and think "it could be us", but whether the fact that it's not will be greeted with disappointment or relief remains to be seen.
The other semi-final is likely to be much better, but I have exactly no intention of driving to Manchester for the first leg and I'm on the lash net Saturday, so no trip to Reading.
Then on Sunday I'm going down to Guildford to watch Heat smoothly move into the final four. To be honest, if there was any other Q/F game in the south I would have gone there, but both times I've watched Heat this season I've been impressed (even if one was against Leopards), and I would hope that United can put up more of a fight than last week. Anyway (somewhat surreally) I've got to give Laurent Irish a bag of balls.
So, to close, I discovered I was old today. The radio in the club car appears to be stuck on Radio Two (bet the players loved that), and they were in "golden oldie" mode. They played "Common People" by Pulp. Considering I've only got two CDs in my (new, but very boring) car, and that's one of them, I felt my age. Think the mind's going too.......


27 APRIL DRINKING FOR TWO ON TYNESIDE(* Ed make that for three as Forrester is almost tee-total.....)
Well, it's been fun. Not doing basketball, but being the international jet setter I am, I'll be at Stansted Airport bright and early tomorrow to catch a flight to Newcastle.
If I had to do predictions,I'd say Newcastle to win the BBL final, Worthing to finally win at a decent venue in a final and either Sheffield or Rhondda to win the women's final - basically because with Sheffield or Rhondda always win the women's final.
Newcastle, not just because they are at home, but because they must know they've underachieved this year and this is their last chance. Being at home won't hurt, either. Failing that, Guildford. I've liked the look of them every time I've seen them, even when they struggled against LU you could see they had enough in the tank. My guess is, therefore, Rocks will meet Sharks.
On the subject of Rocks - I've interviewed Thorsten around 20 times this season, and I've always been impressed with what he had to say. He's in a new country, running a team for the first time, but he clearly knows his stuff. Considering that it's a two hour journey just to get to Newcastle for a scouting trip - so basically a seven hour round trip if you include the game time - he has a very good knowledge of the league.
Obviously PJ won the coach of the year, and you can't knock the job he's done, and Gary Stronach has had a lot of deserved praise, but the bloke whose team finished fourth shouldn't be overlooked.
Anyway, the league I should know stuff about - the EBL. Division One, anyway, tomorrow's final will be first div two game I've seen. Sooner or later Worthing simply MUST win a final. They have the best group of players, they finished 21-1 in the league, they've reached both the other finals. Mind you from what I'm told, Magic were out of this world last week, so I'm probably on the verge of going 0 & 2.
Anyway, next week, I'll talk about Leopards. Until then, I'm the bloke with a pint in one hand and a pregnant wife. Feel free to buy me a drink in Newcastle. Tracy's eating for two, I have to drink for the both of us.
Well, it's been fun. Not doing basketball, but being the international jet setter I am, I'll be at Stansted Airport bright and early tomorrow to catch a flight to Newcastle.
If I had to do predictions,I'd say Newcastle to win the BBL final, Worthing to finally win at a decent venue in a final and either Sheffield or Rhondda to win the women's final - basically because with Sheffield or Rhondda always win the women's final.
Newcastle, not just because they are at home, but because they must know they've underachieved this year and this is their last chance. Being at home won't hurt, either. Failing that, Guildford. I've liked the look of them every time I've seen them, even when they struggled against LU you could see they had enough in the tank. My guess is, therefore, Rocks will meet Sharks.
On the subject of Rocks - I've interviewed Thorsten around 20 times this season, and I've always been impressed with what he had to say. He's in a new country, running a team for the first time, but he clearly knows his stuff. Considering that it's a two hour journey just to get to Newcastle for a scouting trip - so basically a seven hour round trip if you include the game time - he has a very good knowledge of the league. Obviously PJ won the coach of the year, and you can't knock the job he's done, and Gary Stronach has had a lot of deserved praise, but the bloke whose team finished fourth shouldn't be overlooked.
Anyway, the league I should know stuff about - the EBL. Division One, anyway, tomorrow's final will be first div two game I've seen. Sooner or later Worthing simply MUST win a final. They have the best group of players, they finished 21-1 in the league, they've reached both the other finals. Mind you from what I'm told, Magic were out of this world last week, so I'm probably on the verge of going 0 & 2.
Anyway, next week, I'll talk about Leopards. Until then, I'm the bloke with a pint in one hand and a pregnant wife. Feel free to buy me a drink in Newcastle. Tracy's eating for two, I have to drink for the both of us


05 MAY NEWCASTLE AND ALL THAT..........

The fact that it's taken me five days to write this following the trip to Newcastle suggests that it was a good weekend - and it was.
I proved my skills as a tipster by predicting that Newcastle and Worthing would win their pots - if only I could have put a few quid on it. In no particular order, I got to visit countless gay bars, spent a night with Forrester (the two aren't linked), drunk lots of beer and gave five pence to a transvestite.
Oh yeah, and watched five and a half games of basketball.
It was disappointing that there were noticably less "neutrals" there than when the finals have been held in Birmingham or Wembley. You could always guarentee to chat to players and fans from all around the league, and although there was still some there, it was deifinitely far less. The only person from another div one club (obviously apart from Worthing & Manchester) was the guy who runs Capitals. And that doesn't really count.
Anyway, myself, Tracy plus Tony & Lynn Leopard travelled up on the 8.20am - I proved I'm an alkie by having a 7am Stella whereas Tony proved he's old by having coffee. Upon arrival in Newcastle City Centre, Tony took us on a three-lap trip around the city before he found out his hotel was approx 3 feet from the station.
More beer and lunch followed before we watch what I thought was a disappointing (quality-wise) Div Two game, then the semi's. I thought the better side on the night won both games, and you could probably say that about the whole weekend.
The "do" the BBL organised in the foyer of the arena was decent enough - there just wasn't enough people there. Again that could be said about the whole weekend. I thought the turnout from Sheffield was particularly poor.
120 people for finals weekend !
It's only two hours each way - I'd understand if they didn't bother coming back for the third place game. I didn't bother with it, either. Clearly Newcastle doesn't work as a venue, mainly because of where it is.
Personally I thought it was fine as a venue, when you asked the staff a question, they actually knew the answer. So I didn't end up locked in a room on the wrong floor. And any bar that refuses to serve halves is allright by me !
So after a hot night with Forrester, we trotted back next morning for the second half of the women's game - basically we couldn't arsed with the first half. Watched the Div one final, wished Leopards were there, but couldn't begrudge Thunder their win - they clearly are the best side in the competition.
I understand the point of the third/fourth game, it encourages people to go up for the weekend, but we needed a break so the pub beckoned again.
On the way back we were stopped by a rather large "lady" who needed a 5p piece. S/he was insistent on paying us for it, but despite the costs of running a division one side, I just managed to stretch to it. It was pretty surreal, though not as surreal as the bloke in one of the gay bars (two quid a pint - I like that) who'd cut the arse out of his jeans and appeared to be wearing a thong.
I thought Eagles deserved their win. Rocks looked knackered. The two sides have played each other so many times this year, Thorsten's meticulous planning was always going to be less of an advantage.
It was good to see Shaft getting a slating on Whatsbev.
His performance deserved it. He just doesn't seem to understand the difference between commentating Sharks and doing the finals.
Nice to see that the programme didn't get a slating. Feedback would be welcome, though, as I'm in need of work now. But I'll save that for the next installment of this old crap.


10 MAY WALKING AWAY DAY

So, to celebrate the end of the basketball season - and the fact that I won't have too much to do over the summer - I quit work. The timing wasn't great, but it had been on the cards for a while. The paper went free about 20 months ago, and it's gone downhill ever since - not that it was any good in the first place. At the same time, the amount of freelance work i have has steadily increased, and it had reached the point where I had to choose between the two. Given the choice between writing about kinds football and basketball, it wasn't much of a decision. I just should have waited until August when the baby arrived and the work started kicking in again. Still, I can always sell a kidney...
It was strange walking out on the final day. The last time I left a job that I'd been at for a few year, I was upset. And I could barely walk. This time, I went for a pint with half the newsdesk (one bloke) and drove off into the sunset. Without a regret in the world. Still, I couldn't have hated it that much, I'm still sitting in the same chair after it somehow ended up in the back of my car....
I've spent my free time since the end of the season watching Stortford in their (ultimately unsuccessful) attempts to get promoted to the Conference National. It's been a nice break for having to organise things, and although it was disappointing to see them fail to make, life goes on. I've also helped to arrange a memorial game between to teams of Stortford old boys in memory of my mate Andy, who died in February. There's no doubt about it, his loss has made me look at things differently - life's too short to waste it, hence the decision to leave a job that was badly paid and going nowhere. We raised around 3.5k for the British Heart Foundation on Monday at the game, but it was never about the money for me, just remembering him.
So I haven't missed basketball, but it's early days, and there's still be the Euroleague and NBA on the telly. Hopefully, but August, I'll be nashing at the bit. So I promise to talk about basketball next time. Which will probably be the last time as far as the diary is concerned.



11 MAY THE FINAL CURTAIN

Well, we were THAT close to calling it quits and ending Leopards II. The fact that I was relieved - if not happy - that we lost in the play-off quarter-finals was probably a good sign that it was time to call it quits.
The knowledge that you can work your arse off all season, only for a couple of lazy Americans decide not to bother in the play-offs as they want to go home, is the kind of reason why you thing that it simply isn't worth it.
We're not the first side this has happened to, Sheffield Arrows saw both their Americans walk out in the final week of the season three years ago, and the fact that the last three summers have seen three EBL 1 clubs just close down speaks volumes.
In the end, we decided to continue, but without any Americans. No house to have to pay for, and find it's been treated like a tip. No car for them to treat shabbily, and ultimately write-off. We'll do some community work, but I won't need to spend haf my waking hours trying to get lazy gits to actually turn up and do what they've been paid for. In short, a lot less aggro - and bearing in mind we're down to a two-man board, I need a lot less aggro.
Intially we decided to drop down to Division Two, but we've linked up with a college which will give us a source for good quality young players, we'll be training in London (but still playing in Ware) which should help with recruitment - and we'll give it a go. W
e won't go into the season expecting to win a pot, but we didn't last season anyway. What we won't do is lose a bloody fortune - because the money we've lost over the last three years would make your teeth curl. In one sense it's the end of a dream.
When we started Leopards up again, the intention was to go back into the BBL - clearly that isn't on the agenda in the forseeable future, but we'll still exist.
There's a 1001 reasons why it never worked out as we intended. The main two being a lack of support from people who claimed that they would (in the words of the football song) support us for ever more, the other being the Brentwood Centre stitching us up with the price of hiring the place. The rest sort of went downhill from there.
But it hasn't all been doom and gloom. To a certain extent, I've lived the dream, even if it's been a bad dream at times. I got to sit on the bench at the NIA and behave like a lunatic when we won the National Cup.
Technically I'm 1 & 0 coaching at EBL Division One level, even if I've never really coached a game in my life. I got to run a team in a tin-pot game at the NIA, and there's been some other excellent moments. Hopefully it's not over. By keeping the club alive, we have a chance of something better developing. And by not bothering with full-time players, I won't give myself a heart attack. Because they aren't fun.
What is over is this season's diary. I'm sure it's been boring at times, and if i continue it, it will become boring most of the time. So have a good summer. I'm going for a beer.
ED - I am sure I speak for everyone when I say thanks for the memories of an amusing if fraught Leopards season. Broken noses and babies too. Great Stuff. Much Appreciated
EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
hersey427
Basketball Legend
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
June 5
I will get to grips with the editing system, but in the meantime a trip down memory lane....
Well it might be the summer, but there's still fixtures to sort out, and cup draws to receive and try to get exited about. Unlike the BBL, the EBL Div One's constitution is settled and the draft fixture are out. Mind you, they are a lot simpler to work out than the BBL's. Everyone wants to play on a Saturday, and if you can't get your venue for a game you're given, you have to sort it out yourself. So I've managed to fix all of our 14 home games except one, and that's only because the opposing club secretary is on holiday.
The National Cup draw, on the other hand is a bit more interesting. If Towers can beat fellow div three team Hackney White Heat, we'll have a Leopards v's Towers game at Wodson Park on Sunday October 21. It'll bring back the memories of the old days when we were the top two sides in the country, and even when we slipped down the BBL pecking order, it was still one if on THE game of season.
The reason I ended up involved in all this is that I was channel-hopping one Sunday evening and came across the Leopards v's Towers game. It was the one where Leopards came back from 20+ down to win the game in overtime. It inspired me to go to London Arena, and the rest - as they say - is all history. The first game I went to between the sides was the same season - 1996/7 - in the Championship final. Eric Burks turned the ball over in the first seconds and Towers won the game 89-88. Roger Duhanny came and gave us a neck-dance. At the time I was furious, not realising that it was simply retaliation for Youngblood's antics after that overtime win.
The games between the two of us were not friendly. They were highly-charged, scrappy, bad tempered encounters. I remember Billy Mims and Kevin Cadle going at each other after one game at LA, and Chris Pullem hurling a dustbin across the court at Palace. I also, somehow, managed to start a mini-riot at a Towers game - when Leopards weren't even playing !
Leopards won the league in 1998 but somehow managed to blow out in the play-offs. We won the first of three legs in Manchester, and were about 20 up midway through the second period against the eighth placed Giant in game two, before chucking it all away and letting them win both games at London Arena. Giants were so impressed they signed half our team for the following season !
Anyway, Tracy won an Evening Standard competition for tickets and two night's accomodation at Wembley for the final four, so we figured we go and support anyone except Towers. We arrived, were shown to the exec lounge and were told that the free Bud bar was closing at the end of he first quarter of game one. So we drunk accordingly. The problem was, it didn't close. And we kept drinking. I'd produced a few "champions" t-shirts for me and my mates who went to games (basically a team pic on the front with the trophy, and a Leopards on tour list of games on the back), so having watched Towers blown out by Thames Valley Tigers in game two of the semi-finals (a sobering fact is that none of the final four that year now play in the BBL), I thought it would be a good idea to stand at the front of the top section, raise my arms and start singing "there's only one team in London" ! I'd figured that all the Towers fans were in the section below, and that they wouldn't take much notice. I was VERY wrong. The ones below me went potty, but the ones around me seemed even less pleased. One punched me in the back of the head, another managed to smack the top of the my leg into a barrier hard enough to make me bleed and scar me for 18 months, and my watch was ripped off and never seen again. As I pointed out as the stewards arrived, it was ok when Dunanny had his celebrations. Meanwhile, a very drunk Tracy sat and giggled.
Well, there was no harm done. We had to promise there would be no repeat on day two, otherwise there would be no hotel room on the Sunday evening. I learnt my lesson, there was no repeat, either of mini riots at Wembley, or indeed champions t shirts (sob). But even when Leopards started their slide which ended with the lunatic being allowed to run the asulym, we always seemed to raise our game against Towers. It won't be the same if we do meet at Wodson in October (and Hackney will probably spoil the party, anyway), but they are great memories - even if the scar has healed.
.AOLWebSuite .AOLPicturesFullSizeLink { height: 1px; width: 1px; overflow: hidden; }


Apparently life can imitate art. Or almost, anyway. So, while Bradley's trying to find his half sister's guinea pig in East Enders, and predictably finding her just after he'd bought another one. I managed to squash one of mine. Poor Delilah (and yes, there is a Samson), managed to get caught under the hutch as I moved her and her pals to a fresh patch of grass. The squeal meant I stopped before she became flat, but she then bolted under a bush. So me and first three ten year kids I roped helping, and then a neighbour spent half and hour trying to get her out. There was blood everywhere as she had cut The strange tale of Hersey the one-eyed hedgehog.
June 7
So, as if to suggest that there is a pattern to this blog, rather than just random thoughts of a madman, what else have I learned ?
Apparently life can imitate art. Or almost, anyway. So, while Bradley's trying to find his half sister's guinea pig in East Enders, and predictably finding her just after he'd bought another one. I managed to squash one of mine. Poor Delilah (and yes, there is a Samson), managed to get caught under the hutch as I moved her and her pals to a fresh patch of grass. The squeal meant I stopped before she became flat, but she then bolted under a bush. So me and first three ten year kids I roped helping, and then a neighbour spent half and hour trying to get her out. There was blood everywhere as she had cut her ear, so I hurtled down to the vets (and the bloke who thought that the normal right of way rules on a roundabout didn't apply to him is probably still in therapy as I drove straight at him). The cut to her ear looked much worse than it was, but they were worried she may have internal bleeding, and as this sounded vaguely familiar, so she spend a night in an incubator. She appears to be ok, though understandably she's vary wary of me, and the way the other pigs cleaned up the her head (neither me or vet wanted to stress her further) was touching.
Therefore lesson one is that squashing your guinea pig leaves you covered in crap from a bush, leaves you 42 quid worse off and can seriously scare other road users.
I occasionally need to use an asthma inhaler. Most of the time I just sit and fiddle around with it while watching the telly. However the other night I thought I'd see what happens when you stick it in your ear and press it down. The answer is that it scares the living crap out of you. It wasn't as bad as the time I stuck my finger in a stapler "to see what happens" (I was about 30, BTW), or the time I put an old-style light-pen in my mouth, but it did make me jump a bit.
So lesson two is, like running a basketball club, don't try this at home kids.
I hope this has proved educational. I'm now going to give my dad a lift to Land's End before driving back. A mere 700 mile round trip. That could prove to be less three, I suspect.
Read my Olympic blog here

Leopards - Division One league, play-off & National Cup winners 2012
Leopards - National Trophy winners 2013 - that'll complete the set

That was my idea
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
hersey427
Basketball Legend
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
June 18
The trip, lunacy though it was, to Land's End and back went fine. In the name of trying something new, I went on my first ever solo pub crawl (around Penzance), and although the town was fine and the pubs were ok, it's not something I'll bother doing again. Frankly, drinking in a pub where you know no-one is boring.

So last Sunday I went down the pub while Tracy went out to continue her plan to buy up the world's supply of baby clothes. I thought we were having only baby, but judging by the amount of stuff we have, in 20 years time my offspring will be filling both the men's and women's rosters for Leopards. I guess the mini bus will leave from my house....
Anyway, she also gave me a lift back from the pub and were driving down the street at about 4pm, and instead of being caught behind a Sunday afternoon driver, we got caught behind a hedgehog running furiously down the road. My little knowledge of hogs suggested that this isn't a good idea, he should be curled up somewhere. So we caught him, and put him in a spare guinea pig cage with some water - which he clearly needed.

We're in Spain for the weekend, visiting Tracy's mum - it beats being drowned in Bishop's Stortford. Whether I'll get to watch game one of the ACB tonight is unclear, but I'll definitely be taping it. I haven't really had the time to watch the Spainsh or ULEB Cup games on Eurosport this season, but the last two Real Madrid v's Juventut ones I've seen have been a decent standard. The NBA playoffs were a real disappointment. Not just because Dirk & co stunk, the final was so predictable, and I really think they should abandon the east/west split, and try to get the best two sides in the final. Mind you the "best" team got blown out 4-1 in the first round, so the best laid plans don't always work.

While we were in one of the many queues at Stansted Airport Steve Ogunjimi strolled in just 15 minutes before his flight to Milan was due to close. He was supposed to be joined by Mr & Mrs Errol Seaman. All season Errol's been Roger Lloyd-eque with his time-keeping, and on more than one occasion I've threatened to leave him behind. However, it transpires that although Ryan Mini-Buses may wait for power forwards, Ryan Air don't. He may well still be at Stansted Airport..... To cut a long story short, he has only one eye and struggles to see where he's going. After speaking to Herts Hog Rescue (yes, really), they said he's probably a bit brain damaged due to the loss of the eye. Clearly he will fit in perfectly, and as we have the perfect garden for him (ie it's quite large and we're too idle to do any gardening), Hersey the one-eyed hedgehog now lives with us and at about 5pm every evening strutts around the garden before tucking into some dog food and cheese. As I said on Whatsbev you couldn't make this up.
Read my Olympic blog here

Leopards - Division One league, play-off & National Cup winners 2012
Leopards - National Trophy winners 2013 - that'll complete the set

That was my idea
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
hersey427
Basketball Legend
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
24 June
Now it’s really really over. I was relieved when we played our last game of the season, and I said it was definitely over when the Americans went home & the house lease came to an end. Well, on Friday I spent three hours at Wodson Park running a kids’ basketball festival – it was our final bit of community work in the 2006/7 season and now it’s definitely all over.

Aside from taking irate phone calls and emails about players not turning up for community work, I’ve never really had much to do with the actual coaching. It’s not really my ambition to run a tournament for 42 ten and eleven year olds, but it went well. The kids enjoyed themselves and my garage is a bit emptier after giving away some of the merchandise that has been hanging around since the days of the old Leopards, plus we got to promote the game against San Jose State in August.

I hadn’t reckoned on becoming a superstar after the event, however. The kids were getting the coaches (Laurent Irish and three of the kids at Barking Abbey) to sign the large pennants they’d been given.
And apparently I had to sign too (I suppose I was the only one with a Leopards t-shirt on). It seemed rude not to, so I signed and as all the others had put their number next to their name I put 33 – you might think Pippen, but to me it’ll always be Hersey Hawkins…..

I’ve nothing against community work, it’s a necessity if you want to run a successful club, but I do think the dog is beginning to wag the tail. The anonymous quote that Steve Garrett put on whatsbev about basketball clubs used to run community programmes, but now we have a community programme running a basketball club. To be honest I was a bit disappointed with the Everton announcement. It might just have come across badly, but Everton Tigers seem to be little more than Toxteth Tigers with a new name. I hope I’m wrong, I just thought we were getting something bigger.

Still, the BBL’s back up to 13 clubs (I hope), and they moving steadily towards their target of 16. Part of me wishes Leopards were one of those clubs, but that’s life I guess.
Read my Olympic blog here

Leopards - Division One league, play-off & National Cup winners 2012
Leopards - National Trophy winners 2013 - that'll complete the set

That was my idea
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
29 june - forced to work for a living

So I got a job. It’s only pulling pints in a working men’s club, but it was that or go mad. Obviously it was my decision to quit work four months before I should have done, so I’m not moaning. But I also had to do something to fill the time.

I have a bit of freelance work – I’ve done the “Coach Vince” and “Coach Buck” press releases - but the bulk starts in September, and Leopards is certainly taking far less time now I don’t have to trawl through endless emails from the new LeBron James, so I was getting seriously bored.

There’s still stuff to do for Leopards, we’re not there just to make up numbers, and we’ve added a couple of senior players this week. But as Tony Leopard said this week, it would be nice if we got to run Leopards with smiles on our faces (I did point out there was nowhere else to put them) this season, as there were plenty of times last season when it seemed more like a punishment that a hobby.
Prior to getting the job, I had tried occupying my time with PlayStation, but I could only play it for so long. Having proved that Hersey Hawkins is better that Wilt Chamberlain as he drained 101 points in Dallas Mavericks’ 127-72 victory against Detroit Piston. He’d already gone close with 99 points in a 99-79 win against Indiana, and if Shawn Bradley hadn’t taken Mavs’ only other shot of the game, I might not have had to go for it again. 101 points from just 54 shots – not bad – but then it’s NBA Live 98, it’s not real life (probably). So I now pull pints for a living. At least for a couple of months….
EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
hersey427
Basketball Legend
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Well it’s been a while. The trouble with the close-season is it’s bloody boring, and the urge to write about nothing is diminished. I was due to finish at the working men’s club a couple of weeks ago, but a Hungarian called Dodie (who was actually born in Slovenia and is really called Louis it’s complicated) fell off a rock, broke his toe and gained me an extra 3 or 4 weeks work. You couldn’t make it up.
Anyway, it seems that another attempt to promote basketball has bitten the dust with the demise of UKTV Slam. I’d disappointed, but not exactly surprised. I’ll put my hand up at this point, I didn’t subscribe to it. In my defence, I haven’t got my finger out to get broadband yet mainly because I don’t really have any wish to watch games on my PC. I had Sky Sports last season (obviously they’ve been told to do one now that they’ve dumped the NBA) and I subscribe to NASN. Add Eurosport 2 and its ULEB coverage (which I rarely had time to watch), and I had more than enough basketball to watch. And I’d sooner watch it sitting on the sofa gazing at the TV with a can or 47 of Scrumpy Jack, than peering at a laptop – I do enough of that for work.
In my opinion, UKTV Slam’s biggest failing was its failure to do a deal with the BBL. Euroleague and the World Championships are all very well, but the key will always be domestic coverage. I don’t know the breakdown of how the figures work, so I could be speaking out of my Yeoman, but in my mind they spend money on the wrong things. I doubt either Euroleague or the World Championships were cheap to cover – but they wanted the BBL to pay their productions costs to cover their games. That was always wrong in my eyes. Even if the BBL had the money (and I assume it hasn’t), once you go down the road of paying to be on TV, it’s a long way back to get to the point where you’re paid to be on TV. Obviously the situation was complicated by MKTV offering money they didn’t have, but I’m not sure it made any real difference. If the BBL could have done a deal where their games were shown on a recognisable station (one of the first ones you see on the Sky digital planner) without any outlay, I think they’d have taken it. They gave MKTV ago because there wasn’t any other realistic option (unless you count spending money they didn’t have). All they lost was a bit of credibility. And as their main rivals, the non-existent BBA, have no credibility, it hardly mattered anyway. Euroleague and the World Championships may have been a better standard of basketball, but it didn’t persuade people to part with their cash.
A similar situation applied to the written content of the website. They went for alleged quality, that ultimately didn’t persuade people to stump up their cash. Ian Whitall may well be a better journo than me, Bada or Niall Gray, but we could have got the same stories for significantly lower wages I suspect.
Read my Olympic blog here

Leopards - Division One league, play-off & National Cup winners 2012
Leopards - National Trophy winners 2013 - that'll complete the set

That was my idea
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
18 aug SUMMER FRIENDLIES

So it all starts again tomorrow. San Jose State University Spartans are the visitors to Wodson for what I’ve described as a “summer friendly“

You could question whether it’s been worth the considerable effort involved, but it gives JB the chance to have a look at three trialists and get to learn a bit about the three the kids who are expected to be part of the rotation during the season.

Hopefully it won’t be a financial disaster “ though we could certainly lose a few quid on it but it should certainly cure the boredom.

There’s been plenty of basketball around, I could have gone to Midnight Madness, a friendly between Capitals “ sorry Capital as they have become” and Belmont Uni and the two GB friendlies. But I’m being made to pay for my actions in New Jersey in early December, with my rapidly expanding wife (understandably) not fancying travelling the country looking for basketball now she’s in her 39th week of pregnancy. We might make the Britain game on Tuesday, although the fact that the NIA is 90 miles from our chosen hospital (Cambridge, naturally), but in the meantime I’m going quietly out of my mind. Not that it takes much.


My stint at the Bishops Stortford Working Mens Club is now over, and I’ll save the tales of old men drinking gin, falling over & wetting themselves for another day. I have had a reasonable amount of basketball work, thanks to England Basketball’s request to cover the junior national teams and I’ve enjoyed doing it.

The initial remit included writing about the GB under-20 teams and has now expanded to include the senior women’s team on the grounds that the agency employed by British Performance Basketball don’t appear to be aware of their existence.

My stint at the Bishops Stortford Working Mens Club is now over, and I’ll save the tales of old men drinking gin, falling over & wetting themselves for another day. I have had a reasonable amount of basketball work, thanks to England Basketball’s request to cover the junior national teams and I’ve enjoyed doing it.

The initial remit included writing about the GB under-20 teams and has now expanded to include the senior women’s team on the grounds that the agency employed by British Performance Basketball don’t appear to be aware of their existence.

I’m happy to do it “ and I need the work” but I do think that the press side of the GB programme has been handled pretty poorly.

The fact that myself and Bada could have done better than a professional sports agency speaks for itself, especially as we’d work a damned sight cheaper. One thing we would not do is constantly refer to the national team in official press releases as “Finchy’s boy‘s. It’s amateur, and the kind of thing I expect to see from an over-exuberant press officer from a local league organisation“ or perhaps in a blog such as this.

Anyway, covering the junior national sides has kept me busy. It also led to me logging on when I staggered in from the pub (these were days when I staggered, before I went on baby watch and have to remain sober), because I simply HAD to know how the under-16 girls got on against Armenia (or whoever).

It’s led to me knowing such stunning facts as that Bosnia & Herzegovina ran a six-player rotation throughout the tournament, with their main players filling the top six places in the “minutes played“ stats for the competition and that point guard Matea Tavic led the side with an incredible average of 40 minutes and 54 seconds per game.

That fact alone brings home the value of drinking in that it dulls the senses enough to forget such facts. Maybe by the next Asylum Seeker I will have found a good reason to go out celebrating.

Ed - For good measure here is the SJSU site report on their win over Reading Rockets! I guess the Leopards one will be on there shortly too!


22 AUG TWO OUT OF THREE AINT BAD


Two out of three ain't bad - But it wasn’t what I was aiming for, either, though. The grand play involved seeing Leopards v San Jose State University, followed by Milton Keynes against the same side and then Great Britain’s game at Birmingham.

The first two went fine, but my car never got out of Stortford on Tuesday. I couldn’t even get drunk to drown my sorrows. I didn’t even really enjoy the fact that Cambridge United went top of the league.

When I’ve calmed down, I’ll give you all the full sorry story. So you can expect a diary entry around the year 2427.

Saturday’s game was at least competitive for 27 minutes before San Jose blew us away. Considering that the team didn’t contain a single player who played for us last season, we did pretty well for a reasonable chunk of the game.

We had a look at three of the kids from Barking Abbey, and the point guard really stood out. He’ll definitely be good enough to be back up, and if he had to start some of the games, it wouldn’t be end of the world.

The two big kids did okay, again they’ll be decent back-up, but we will need to sign some senior players if we aren’t going to struggle.

We did give a trial to a Canadian point guard. There is enough work for a player to live on, but he’d have to look after himself. The player we looked at certainly seems to have the right attitude, but whether he’d be good enough to make it worth the effort and expense is questionable.




There were some familiar faces - Steve Ogunjimi and James Warwick both played, and its conceivable that either or both could sign for the new season - but we’ll see.
Having persuaded Tracy that being heavily pregnant shouldn’t prevent her doing the table two days on the trot, we went to see San Jose again the following day as they took on the Milton Keynes Massive

You could definitely call them the MK Massive, as they kitted up an incredible NINETEEN players. When they had their four senior players on the floor (Baker, New, Spinks and my old pal Youngblood) they looked capable of winning the game, but the decisions to go with kids in the second period backfired spectacularly as they were outscored 36-5.

So it was basically all over at half-time. Games in the middle of the summer are for looking at players, I just thought it would have been better to wait until the fourth period before effectively ending the game as a contest.

Still, all in all, it was an enjoyable couple of games. We made a small profit on our home game, so at least I didn’t end up wondering why we’d bothered, and the people from San Jose were friendly - oh yeah, and I got a free T-shirt.

Finally, I’ve found out why I do it.



EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
03 nov phoney war is over

So, today the league finally starts. That’s later than the NBA (possibly the only time I’ll compare the NBA and the EBL), and the crowds up and down the country suggest that the decision to play the Trophy group stage throughout October hasn’t been a success.

Part of it’s been down to England playing their rugby world cup semi and final on Saturday evening, effectively wrecking a home game for everyone, but a Milton Keynes fan saying to me last week “your season starts next week, doesn’t it?” probably sums up many people’s attitude towards the trophy.

It has, however, proved a blessing for Leopards as we’re able to put our early season problems behind us and start afresh. The fact that today’s home game against West Anglia Fury will be the first time that we’ve played together as a team isn’t good, but we needed to make the additions.

 Last week’s game against Mildenhall should have been the perfect opportunity to sort things out. However, the coach was a wedding, so was Gareth Laws (rumours they are marrying each other are, as yet, unconfirmed), two players were injured, and Sam Salter was waiting for tow truck in London.

We’d used seven different starters in the previous weekend’s pair of games, and four of them, together with the coach, were unavailable so we may have well done what most of our supporters did – stay at home or go down the pub.

We would, however, have missed an incredible comeback which saw us trail by nine with just over two minutes remaining, and still win by a point despite missing a free-throw with 0.78 of a second remaining.

The fact that the Americans took it so badly, made it even more amusing. I don’t have a problem with our friends from across the pond, but I can see how they piss people off; There are an international set of basketball rules, but they want to play their own.

It should make for an interesting game up there, especially as they’ve promised us table officials who won’t foul their players out….

The Division One season will start with just ten sides in the league, and frankly it’s a mess. The clubs wanted a 14-team division, so that if anyone did drop out, we’d still have a viable league.

 got given a 12-team one, despite the fact that it was the worse kept secret in the EBL that Solent were on their last legs. No one could have predicted West Herts sudden demise, but we are now left with a league that is bordering on the unviable, with two sides sitting on their backsides most weekends.

If it wasn’t for the tournament with Fury and Mildenhall, we’d have lost three home games before Christmas. Not only could that have proved a financial disaster, but we do actually do this nonsense to watch games.

The grief that goes with running a club – especially when it comes to bringing in import players – hardly seems worth it when you’re only playing 25 games.

Despite all that, I’m relatively happy; We have a squad who can challenge for a top half place in the league, and I don’t have to write about kids football any more.

I really don’t miss writing about “David Beckham-style free-kicks”, nor do I miss the bloke who once wrote a 1,700 word report about an under-11 game and then got the hump because I knocked it down to 150 words.

Spending all day every day writing about basketball can drive me up the wall at times, but it definitely beats telling the world about the fat kid in goal who let in 19 goals but really deserved his man of the match award.

And later this month I'll have the BBA's launch to write about. Damn ! back to being as crazy as Rico....



EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
08 NOV REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL


I like winning. In fact I’d happily do it every week. I think the odds of me ever getting bored of it are fairly remote. In fact there’s more chance of Jerrid Campbell ringing me up and saying “Hi Dave, I was a bit of a scumbag last season, how about I pay back all the money you wasted on me, and I fund a second American for you this year. By the way, I really have made it in the NBA.”

The reality is, no one runs a club to spend a day driving around east Herts and north-west Essex to get their American on a plane so his work permit can be validated. You don’t do it to sit and fold the programme, to make food for the players (or more accurately to get your wife to do it) or to drive mini buses to Bristol.

You do it to win games.

And we won pretty handsomely on Saturday. The difference between the last time we met Fury couldn’t have been more marked. We won that game by two points, though it should have been more comfortable, but we won by 28 this time around. Fury had lost their bigger American due to homesickness – proving we aren’t the only ones who’ve been shafted by imports who are only playing at being pro ‘ballers – and although they’ve replaced him with the American from their B team (don’t start me on that), they have gone backwards a bit. On the other hand we’ve come on leaps and bounds.

And we won pretty handsomely on Saturday. The difference between the last time we met Fury couldn’t have been more marked. We won that game by two points, though it should have been more comfortable, but we won by 28 this time around. Fury had lost their bigger American due to homesickness – proving we aren’t the only ones who’ve been shafted by imports who are only playing at being pro ‘ballers – and although they’ve replaced him with the American from their B team (don’t start me on that), they have gone backwards a bit. On the other hand we’ve come on leaps and bounds.
I’m realistic, we’ll face tougher tests, but we looked like a team – and considering it was the first time we’d played together, that was pretty encouraging. We used 11 players, the tenth of those came into the game in the 17th minute, and everyone played at least eight minutes. So clearly 28 points didn’t flatter us. Five players were in double figures, and there’s another five on the roster who are capable of doing that, so while I could give you a breakdown of how to stop us (though, strangely, I won’t), it isn’t going to be the easiest thing in the world.

Having said there would be no Americans who needed housing and coaching this season, we obviously have an Americans who needs housing and coaching. Bearing in mind we could have signed a couple more from West Herts and may yet get a former BBL starter (start guessing), we may not have needed to sign Stix. But the coaching is getting done, he seems a decent bloke, and unlike the miserable sod mentioned in the opening paragraph, he actually seems happy to be here. Going a steal short of a triple-double (22 pts, 11 rebs, & 9 steals) on your full debut isn’t hanging around. Especially in only 22 minutes. An EBL American who plays defence, where will it all end ?

So, I’m happy. I’ll worry about this weekend later.




EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
11 NOV WINNING COULD BE A HABIT



And we won pretty handsomely on Saturday. The difference between the last time we met Fury couldn’t have been more marked. We won that game by two points, though it should have been more comfortable, but we won by 28 this time around. Fury had lost their bigger American due to homesickness – proving we aren’t the only ones who’ve been shafted by imports who are only playing at being pro ‘ballers – and although they’ve replaced him with the American from their B team (don’t start me on that), they have gone backwards a bit. On the other hand we’ve come on leaps and bounds.
I’m realistic, we’ll face tougher tests, but we looked like a team – and considering it was the first time we’d played together, that was pretty encouraging. We used 11 players, the tenth of those came into the game in the 17th minute, and everyone played at least eight minutes. So clearly 28 points didn’t flatter us. Five players were in double figures, and there’s another five on the roster who are capable of doing that, so while I could give you a breakdown of how to stop us (though, strangely, I won’t), it isn’t going to be the easiest thing in the world.

Having said there would be no Americans who needed housing and coaching this season, we obviously have an Americans who needs housing and coaching. Bearing in mind we could have signed a couple more from West Herts and may yet get a former BBL starter (start guessing), we may not have needed to sign Stix. But the coaching is getting done, he seems a decent bloke, and unlike the miserable sod mentioned in the opening paragraph, he actually seems happy to be here. Going a steal short of a triple-double (22 pts, 11 rebs, & 9 steals) on your full debut isn’t hanging around. Especially in only 22 minutes. An EBL American who plays defence, where will it all end ?

So, I’m happy. I’ll worry about this weekend later.


So, with Tracy & Caitlin swanning around Spain for a week (and a very quiet house), I’m off to Guildford tonight. Obviously the news about Brian Dux has taken the gloss off it all, and after all the work that’s gone into getting Heat into Europe, you have to feel for everyone at the club. The news certainly made the bar in Bristol go quiet on Saturday night.

I never really bothered with Towers in Europe, so this is only my fourth European club game. The first two were Leopards’ ill-fated Korac Cup adventure eight years. I found the team-sheet from the away leg last night, and it brought it all flooding back. We were drawn against Icelandic club IRB Reykjanesbaer. With only one American allowed in the Icelandic league, FIBA – in their wisdom – allowed the top two teams in Iceland to field a combined team into what was then the equivalent of the FIBA Cup. A better solution would have been to allow the champions to borrow a couple of players, because we ended up facing a team comprising two starting fives (only ten players in a team, then) and we got murdered. They included Purnell Perry and Oklahoma State University legend Chianti Roberts in their team, and they blew us away by 36 points. We were just never in it, and Kenya Capers got himself chucked out near the end for whacking Perry.

It was basically the end for Billy Mims at Leopards, but although it cost a bloody fortune, it was a good trip and beer at roughly four times what we were paying in England helped keep us sober. We won the second leg by one, but we didn’t know that it was probably the beginning of the end for Leopards as Ed Simons had his heart set on being a European powerhouse.

And to bring it back to modern times, a certain Michael Martin was in the Leopards team that night. I hope he has better luck tonight.


EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
23 NOV MUGGED AT MIDLENHALL

The day Caitlin was born, I sent a few texts telling people that she’d finally arrived. Well, actually around 60, so obviously I got a lot back as well. Among the replies was one from the CEO of the BBL, Andy Webb. Part of it said “Enjoy it pal, and don’t miss much of it”. Turns out I didn’t take that advice last Saturday.

Tracy and Cait had been in Spain with Tracy’s mum for six days, and most of the day before they’d gone away had been taken up with a trip to Bristol. So by the time they flew into Stansted, I’d hardly seen her for a week, but we were away to Mildenhall that evening. So barely an hour after I’d picked them up from airport, I was off to a rather different kind of airbase.

Probably the best thing that could be said about the evening was that it we were able to rest Carl Latham-Henry and Lee McCarthy, and it gave Jon Burnell the opportunity to give Leopards’ bench players plenty of court time. The rest of it was a total farce. Having been kept waiting for 50 minutes in security because the game’s organiser (and I use the term loosely) hadn’t given in the list of people travelling with us, we then played a game in freezing conditions to rules that no one outside the US airbase had ever encountered. Allegedly the game was played to American college rules, but our players who have played in the States had never seen such random interpretations before, and I’ve watched more college games on TV than is good for me, and I’d never seen anything like it. Having complained about the scoring at the game at Wodson, Mildenhall proceeded to give the job to two people who’d never done it before, and their efforts defied all logic. At least two Mildenhall baskets mysteriously appeared on the scoreboard for no apparent reason.

I knew we wouldn’t get many calls and I knew that we’d have to keep an eye on the scoring. But this was just a total bloody farce. They clearly had the hump about the fact we’d beaten them at Wodson, especially as they’d led by nine with 130 second remaining, and they were going to get their revenge whatever it took. The problem is, we started the competition to fill in the two blank weekends before Christmas caused by the withdrawal of Solent, and with West Herts also biting the dust, it does mean that we would have had a third blank date as well. So, in that respect, the competition has served its purpose. But for Mildenhall, it’s their only competitive games until March.

Not that makes it okay to, basically, cheat. They were out to screw us. They’d moaned that there weren’t enough chairs on their bench, so we arrived to find only five on ours. So we folded them up and used the front row of bleachers instead. As the one stage we were taking a pair of free-throws after an intentional foul (the home player had left the ref with no real choice), and their coach was in the middle of the court and an impromptu time-out. It was just farcical and I spent the evening wondering why I hadn’t just stayed at home and watched Thomas & Friends. The Fat Controller appears to have more of an idea than the Fat Ref at Mildenhall.
Anyway, rant over. We won’t go there again, which is a shame because it’s an easy trip & their bar does Stella at $3.50 a pint, and we’ll move on to our biggest weekend of the season.

We visit Coventry on Saturday as we look to move to 3 & 0 in the league before hosting Worthing in the National Cup quarter-finals. We’ve added Matt Collins (Wolves starting PG last year) to our already guard orientated team, which can only help us. I have no idea what will happen, but at least we won’t be reffed by a set of rules no one has ever seen.
EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
05 DEC BEEN HERE BEFORE

Obviously we’ve all had de ja vu before, I believe it’s been scientifically explained by different sides of the brain, but then the only thing I ever did in physics was accidentally set fire to classroom and mess around with the Bunsen Burner and the tap.

However, when I read about Birmingham Panthers’ problems and talk to Nigel Lloyd for the BBL preview, it’s like they are living my life a couple of years ago. I fully understand the frustration of people who’d put up with the crap caused by Craig Bown, and now find themselves with a team who seem unable to hold onto their American players and are stuck with a load of British guards.

I understand it, because I’ve seen it all before. Granted it took two years for the full set of problems that have befallen Panthers to happed to Leopards – and we actually chose to leave our venue in year three (Goresbrook) though the court has since been condemned and their knocking the whole shabby place down.

In year one we signed a total of four Americans. You’re allowed to play two at a time in the EBL – we finished with one. The first left after his parents told him to get a real job, they probably had a point because he was never going to earn a proper living out of basketball, but we’d shelled out around a grand to sign him.

 
The second had to leave the country because we’d screwed up his paperwork. We were given some bad advice – admittedly given in good faith – and it cost us dearly. To be honest, Panthers shouldn’t have made the mistakes they did with getting the permits, it’s complicated, but it’s nothing that the BBL couldn’t have helped them with.

The third American that season went home after about six weeks because I was unwilling to be his mum. I expected him to be able to look after himself, at least some of that could be applied to Craig Walls as well.

The fourth turned out to be the diamond in the rough. Troy Selvey went on to win the MVP in the National Cup final, and it turned out to be a great signing but one out of four isn’t exactly an average to write home about.

The second year saw us sign a mere three Americans, and again we finished with one – Troy. The first turned out to be a genuine basketball mistake – he simply wasn’t good enough. His replacement – Demetrice Williams – was more than good enough. That was until, in a spooky prelude to Walls’ departure – he walked out and signed for another team.

Both players have great reasons why think it’s okay, Williams’ was that we weren’t going to pay him once the season had ended (shocker – it was in his contract – and as it turns out we would have had enough coaching to give him his money), whereas Walls’ injury treatment was apparently so bad that a team in Iceland were willing to sign him.

Face it, no one signs and injured player. As excuses go, it’s up there with the guinea pig ate my homework.

Running a professional basketball team, whether it’s in the BBL or Div 1, is a hell of a learning curve. Until you’ve done it, you really have no idea of what it involves. Neither Worcester or London United exactly covered themselves in glory in their debut season in the BBL. Wolves’ problems could be seen by looking at the table, but a look at United’s ever-changing roster would hint that something was wrong from the beginning (even before their withdrawal).

 Everton have already tried to sign someone who was subsequently refused a work permit, and Capital seem to be operating same revolving door roster policy that United did.

The answer isn’t obvious. The three sides in the EBL who are the most obvious to step up (Manchester, Reading and Worthing) don’t seem interested. They have a variety of reasons, but the fact that between them they are 30-0 against other EBL opposition probably plays a part.

The BBL probably does need two tiers (though you could argue they have already got a two tier competition, look at the table), but without those three I can’t see it taking off – and I imagine any current members would take a lot of persuading to step down.

So there’s no easy answers, hopefully Nigel will get the point where he doesn’t crap himself every time the phone rings (been there, switched the phone off), because it does get easier. As I quoted from a song in a diary written long ago, no one ever said it was easy, but no one ever said it would be this hard.

16 DEC TOO OLD AND TOO FAT TO PLAY?

It’s been mentioned before that I’ve done pretty much every job at Leopards except play. I’ve coached (allegedly), I’ve stuck players back together, printed, collated & written the programme, driven the bus, set out the court, washed the kit (well, Tracy has) etc etc.

 But I’ve turned down ever suggestion that I should play in any friendly or summer league game. Basically because I am crap. My career free throw percentage is probably better than Roger Lloyd’s – but that’s where it ends.
 
So it came as a bit of a shock when the announcer told the “crowd” (I counted 34) at Sheffield Arrows on Saturday that number 14 was Dave Ryan. Amusing though it was, I crapped myself, ‘cause I’m not licensed to play. Fortunately, it turned out that the book was correct, and in fact it was Jon who was player coach, and I was just pretending to be an assistant.

Even that’s a push, because he’s too old & fat to play, and my tactical knowledge is of a similar level to Yeoman’s knowledge of British basketball (I might be being a bit harsh on myself there).
 
Anyway, even without our top scorers Carl Latham-Henry, who’s also our best player, and my role being pretty much reduced to that of a water boy (he was injured as well) we won by five.

We’ve been playing pretty well, we went really close to beating Worthing in the National Cup, and although Manchester looked a class above us, we could realistically finish fourth for the second year in succession. Even Reading haven’t gelled yet, so it’s looking positive.
 
We’ve already done better than we did in the cup last season, and we’ve failed miserably in the trophy as usual, so it will be a bitter-sweet pill to swallow if we do end up doing as well as we did last year without bankrupting ourselves in the process.

It’s a telling sign that we’ve signed four Americans over the last two seasons (one had a British passport, but he was American to all intents and purposes) and none of them have been the best player on the team. Duncan Ogilvie was far better than last season’s three Americans, and even when Carl was injured it was Lee McCarthy who stepped up.
 
That’s not an unfair criticism of the Americans in the EBL – there are teams who rely heavily on them – but the money that’s out there means that it’s tough to attract genuinely good players, and I wonder if it’s worth the effort.

 While the standard would obviously drop (though we are disproving that theory), at least there be a point to it - developing British players and giving them somewhere to play..
EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
13 jan taunted by delays

After three weekends off, Leopards started 2008 at Taunton on Saturday night. Well most of the Leopards roster will be in Taunton. Because three players and the assistant coach (who was due to coach the game) are stuck in Sarajevo. As excuses for missing games/practice goes, I reckon it’s up there with the best of them.

Basically Barking Abbey Academy traveled to Bosnia for a tournament early in the New Year, and where due to fly back last Sunday. But there’s been a bit of fog, in fact quite a lot of fog, and they are still there. They’ve spent the week slumming it in a dodgy hotel, and waiting for a flight. They did consider getting a bus to Croatia and flying from there, but with two of their players not British passport holders, they couldn’t get the necessary visas.


They were due to fly back either Friday night or Saturday, but they reality if they are going to be knackered and are unlikely to be up to a 400 mile round trip with a battle of the big cats sandwiched in the middle of it.

So, we’ll have take eight players to Taunton, and I’ll be named as coach, because JB has to work.

I do wonder at times if this club’s cursed.

The eight player bit of it really isn’t a problem. The three players we’re missing would have come off the bench – although Lukas certainly does give us something at the point. It’s the lack of a coach that is the worry. Gareth Laws will do most of the coaching, by naming me we end the chance of him being chucked out for two T’s, though that doesn’t end the chance of him being chucked out.

Obviously, there’s also my 1 & 0 record pretend coaching that’s at stake. Ever since that famous OT win at Capital where I officially coached the team for the final 33 minutes of regulation, plus the extra period, I’ve basked in the glory of being undefeated as an EBL coach. We shouldn’t lose, but if we do, I’m down to 50% - and just run-of-the-mill.

For all that, it would piss me off if we lose. We have a chance to be joint top of three or four (depending how Reading do at Derby), and even if we’re not, the decision not to pay out money we don’t have has certainly paid off. We’re still too small, but I don’t see an end to that. But in Carl Henry-Latham, I think we have the best British PG in the league (Manchester can argue, but doesn’t mean they’re right), in Matt Collins we have easily the best back up PG in the league (he only started in the BBL last year), and in Lukas we have an 18-year-old who would piss the best third-choice PG in the league, if there was one.

The only difficulty is, you can’t play them all together. Though, if his flight gets back in time, as a future coach of the year, I might just try it.

EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Bada Bing
Member Avatar
El Crack
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
13 JAN TAUNTED BY DELAYS

After three weekends off, Leopards started 2008 at Taunton on Saturday night. Well most of the Leopards roster will be in Taunton. Because three players and the assistant coach (who was due to coach the game) are stuck in Sarajevo. As excuses for missing games/practice goes, I reckon it’s up there with the best of them.

Basically Barking Abbey Academy traveled to Bosnia for a tournament early in the New Year, and where due to fly back last Sunday. But there’s been a bit of fog, in fact quite a lot of fog, and they are still there. They’ve spent the week slumming it in a dodgy hotel, and waiting for a flight. They did consider getting a bus to Croatia and flying from there, but with two of their players not British passport holders, they couldn’t get the necessary visas.

They were due to fly back either Friday night or Saturday, but they reality if they are going to be knackered and are unlikely to be up to a 400 mile round trip with a battle of the big cats sandwiched in the middle of it.





So, we’ll have take eight players to Taunton, and I’ll be named as coach, because JB has to work.

I do wonder at times if this club’s cursed.

The eight player bit of it really isn’t a problem. The three players we’re missing would have come off the bench – although Lukas certainly does give us something at the point. It’s the lack of a coach that is the worry. Gareth Laws will do most of the coaching, by naming me we end the chance of him being chucked out for two T’s, though that doesn’t end the chance of him being chucked out.

Obviously, there’s also my 1 & 0 record pretend coaching that’s at stake. Ever since that famous OT win at Capital where I officially coached the team for the final 33 minutes of regulation, plus the extra period, I’ve basked in the glory of being undefeated as an EBL coach. We shouldn’t lose, but if we do, I’m down to 50% - and just run-of-the-mill.

For all that, it would piss me off if we lose. We have a chance to be joint top of three or four (depending how Reading do at Derby), and even if we’re not, the decision not to pay out money we don’t have has certainly paid off. We’re still too small, but I don’t see an end to that. But in Carl Henry-Latham, I think we have the best British PG in the league (Manchester can argue, but doesn’t mean they’re right), in Matt Collins we have easily the best back up PG in the league (he only started in the BBL last year), and in Lukas we have an 18-year-old who would piss the best third-choice PG in the league, if there was one.

The only difficulty is, you can’t play them all together. Though, if his flight gets back in time, as a future coach of the year, I might just try it.
EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
hersey427
Basketball Legend
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
19/1/8
A TEAM IN MY OWN IMAGE
So we traveled down to Taunton, which isn’t exactly around the corner. Seven players on the mini-bus with me driving, one player making his own way down there, and no coach in sight.
Despite my driving, we arrived around 90 minutes before the 5.30pm tip-off, and sat down to watch the women’s game that had tipped at 3pm. Due to having the pleasure of writing about women’s basketball for the EB website, I know that most games are a blowout. Naturally, the one time we wanted to be on the court early, the game went to overtime. I sent the players off to get changed in my new capacity of Pretend Head Coach, and when it became apparent that we weren’t going to be able to warm up before 5pm, I suggested to Gareth [Laws – technically assistant coach, but he did the vast majority of the coaching] that the players went into the (closed) bar and had their team talk, which they did.
The game went much the way I would have expected it to. We were the better side, but missed having a proper coach. To be fair to the players, they listened to Gareth, he coached them well, but obviously he’s not used to coaching and playing (he scored 21 points). We won 101-96, so there wasn’t much evidence of defence, thus stretching my EBL coaching record to 2 & 0 – surely the coach of the year award is a mere formality…..
But back to the title of this rubbish, at half-time I went to get an ice-pack for Gareth who taken a bang on the knee near the end of the second quarter (leaving me to make another inspired substitution). Having got hold of one, I then couldn’t find the team for love nor money. They weren’t in the shared locker room – for obvious reason – and I walked around the sportscentre twice before finally giving up and decided to have a swift half. And there they were – sitting in the now open bar having a team-talk. All they needed was a jug of beer between them, and they would truly have been a team in my own image….
Read my Olympic blog here

Leopards - Division One league, play-off & National Cup winners 2012
Leopards - National Trophy winners 2013 - that'll complete the set

That was my idea
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
hersey427
Basketball Legend
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
22/1/8

JUST LIKE MARTIN LUTHER KING

It was all a bit of a dream really – going top of the league. The fact that Manchester were at Bristol (a rearranged game from the previous week that I hadn’t noticed when I told everyone that we could go clear at the top for 20 hours if we beat Derby) meant that even if we won we were unlikely to have top spot to ourselves. Ironically if we had done, I could have taken pictures of ceefax when I got home, and printed off the league table from EB’s site, as the Bristol game went to overtime, and the tables weren’t fully updated until next morning.

It’s my own fault for counting chickens.

We lost 96-90 in a game where we had a three to tie it with 15 seconds remaining, and in truth, I think we blew it to a certain extent. You might get away with being outrebounded 51-30, and you might get away with missing 15 of your 31 free-throws, but you won't get away with both.
I'm at a loss how we could be so good from the line last week, and so poor this week. Even a small improvement would have won us the game, because it was only a six point game due to having to foul to stop the clock. What you do about that, i don't know.
We're looking at addressing the rebound situation before the signing deadline (31/1). Clearly we're struggling again the bigger sides, but then with what is more often than not a four-guard line-up, we were always going to. Every week we seem to turn down another guard, but big men don't grow on trees.

I never seriously thought we could win the league. I haven’t thought about a Leopards team for ten years – jeez it’s ten years - and even then there were some brown trouser moments and Sheffield on that balmy April afternoon. The reality is we’re in the middle group of clubs with Derby, Bristol and Sheffield. That’s not noticeably different to last season, we’re just not bankrupting ourselves in the process.

It was a nice dream though. And I’m sitting here watching some of the Martin Luther King day NBA coverage on C5 – apparently he had a dream as well. It’s good that C5 have stepped up following Sky’s decision to dump basketball. Just as we get a national team that isn’t a joke, with players in the NBA that they could follow to give it a British flavour. They now my thoughts on the matter – though the reply said they clearly didn’t give a toss – and they don’t get my money any more. But I guess there’s no harm in dreaming one day I’ll be able to sit here and type this rubbish while watching British basketball on TV.

Damn, there I go again….
Read my Olympic blog here

Leopards - Division One league, play-off & National Cup winners 2012
Leopards - National Trophy winners 2013 - that'll complete the set

That was my idea
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
DealsFor.me - The best sales, coupons, and discounts for you
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Best of the rest · Next Topic »
Add Reply