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Bogies
Topic Started: Jan 22 2008, 08:20 PM (420 Views)
Bada Bing
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El Crack
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NOV 07 SAINTS N SINNERS



Well, it’s been a long time coming, but finally I’m putting pen to paper again, or at least- fingers on computer keys. Work has consumed a huge amount of time, effort and thoughts recently, some of which I may be able to write about some time in the future, hopefully with a very positive slant, but I’ll just have to wait and see.

 Whilst all that has been going on, basketball is one of the few things that have kept me sane. Now you all know I’m in trouble, if BBL basketball and MK Lions are keeping me sane, then the rest of my life must be in total turmoil!!!

Before I start on basketball, I have to mention my beloved football team, Southampton FC. 4 years ago we were in the Premiership with possibly the most hated (by home fans) Chairman in the country. That Chairman got overthrown before the 2005-2006 season started, by ‘fans favourites’ and apparently ‘fans’ of the team. They appointed a whole new board including themselves.
Where are we now??? In a position that looks so bad, that many fans are actually missing Rupert Lowe and wish he’d stayed!!!
The two main instigators of the ‘coup’ have fallen out, both with each other and the Board, neither of them now sits on the Board!! We have little money and the Board and the main shareholders are at complete loggerheads with each other, their in-fighting is getting very close to ruining the whole club.
Due to a proposed part takeover failing to go through, as the 3 main shareholders (the 2 ‘coup’ members and the original Chairman) decided it wasn’t in the clubs (their??) best interests. The board announced on the eve of a game that we had no money, that players would have to be sold in January and other cost cutting measures would need to be made. WELL, THAT’S GOING TO INSPIRE THE PLAYING STAFF AND MANAGEMENT ISN’T IT!!!!
How will this end, who knows at present, but yet again BBL basketball and MK Lions seem quite sane in comparison!


Since my last blog, Lions have won 4 and lost 4, making us 5-4 for the season and sitting in 4th place. Lions have been totally unpredictable from quarter to quarter, no one knows what team is coming out to play, or which players will turn up. We have not been helped by an awful run of injuries which has had up to 4 players sitting out each game and at least another 2 struggling with injuries. We’re an old team and injuries will happen and players will take longer to recover, but you would have though we could at least have started a game with a fit team!
With the exception of 2 games one we won by 21, one we lost by 16, the remaining 7 have all been within 6 points or less, so we could easily be sitting with an 8-1 or 1-8 record. Why haven’t we got an 8-1 record?? Mainly due to composure down the stretch, too little ball and player movement and an ability to panic when we haven’t got a shot off with 5 seconds remaining. We simply haven’t played ‘smart ball’ down the stretch. With the experience in the team that we have, that really shouldn’t be a problem. The last two games have seen two tight wins, so perhaps we’re learning, in the last minute of both games we kept our nerve.
What is certain is that if the team continue to play how they have, then this 45 year old may well have a coronary by the end of the season. As people who sit near me know, I make a fair amount of noise and get rather involved in the game, I tend to live and breath every point and in a tight game it really gets my heart racing!
As for the rest of the BBL, well it’s been almost as unpredictable as Lions play. Only Eagles have shown any real consistency and that’s only because they haven’t played us yet. Heat have just turned in a credible first performance in the Europe and I hope to go and see them play their first home game next week, although I doubt that they’ll keep it to a sixteen point loss but basketball has already proved very inconsistent this season so I suppose anything is possible, but a win would rather be like an Arsenal first eleven losing to Woking.


04 DEC LIONS BBL CUP WINNERS?

Nearly another month has gone by since my last lot of random scribblings and it only seems like a fortnight, I’m told it’s because of my age, time passes very quickly!!!

I know I must be getting very old, you all know the saying about policeman looking young- well, three weeks ago the firms bank manager came to the office, HE LOOKED ABOUT 12!!! I doubt there is any hope for me now.
 
Since my last blog, Lions have won 5 and lost 1, which is a great achievement.

The only blip on the record was a loss to Tigers, a game that would have seen us go top if we had won. It was the 1st game this season that I have missed, and I’m assured we were poor, whether this was down to the heightened pressure of possibly going top, or simple a bad day at the office is impossible to judge, AT THE MOMENT. Due to Eagles total capitulation to Rocks, Lions have a chance to go top on Wednesday and have a chance to secure the top spot on Friday at Sharks, the result of those two games will show what the team is really made of.

Lions played 4 good games before the Tigers game and started to look like a team who believed they could not lose, even when they put themselves in difficult positions. The Tigers game stopped all that and in the game after that, we struggled to get any sort of team play going and scraped a win against Capitals in the Cup.

I have a strong feeling that it may have been Lions pivotal game of the season, a loss in the cup against Capitals and I think Lions fans may have seen a similar scenario to the last 2-3 seasons and seen a steady decline towards the end of the season. We managed the win and I think it will give the team a renewed impetus and belief, of course I could be proved wrong within the next 96 hours, but I actually doubt it!

The semis of the cup are in Crawley, a venue I have yet to visit but by all reports it’s a decent arena. We play Heat and hopefully we’ll get the win and keep the ‘sing when they’re winning’ fans of Heat quiet, throughout the game.

ED (VINCE IS PRIMED AND READY TO GO WITH HIS TEAM'S FAVOURITE WERTHERS ORIGINAL MUNCHING BUS COMPANY)

I presume Heat will have added to their squad by the time that game arrives, if they have any budget left. I’m fairly sure, due to the very sad accident that Brian Dux suffered (please let his recovery continue at the same rate that it seems to have in the last week or so), that most neutrals would be willing them to win.

The other semi puts Eagles against Rocks. Rocks must be feeling quietly confident given their bashing of Eagles recently but Fab will be hurting after that loss and you know if Fab is hurting, he’ll be making sure the players are hurting even more on the training court.

If Lions beat Heat I would much prefer Eagles to win, not because I think it’s an easier game, I actually think we are more likely to beat Rocks, but because I think a final against Eagles would be a fantastic game. It might not be pretty, it would probably be a bruising affair with some intense battles around the basket and I doubt we would get to half time without at least one pair of players squaring up to each other.

I think it would be a captivating game that would be impossible to look away from and it could be the last five fit men standing that win the game. It would also allow two of the more vociferous sets of fans in the BBL to battle (verbally), which could also be fairly amusing.

 Of course, If Lions lose against Heat, I couldn’t care less who wins!!
EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
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Bada Bing
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30 Dec Happy New Year - MK Lions BBL Winners?



The end of the year is nearly upon us, I hope everyone reading this (all 3 of you) had a great Christmas.

Lions have now won 12 of their last 13 games, a feat never before seen in Lions or Royals history. Some Lions fans are struggling with these sorts of stats, we’re more used to it being the other way around!!

Apparently when Labour first got into power in the 90’s after years of Tory rule, the new ministers couldn’t quite believe it and when anyone asked a question with ‘minister’ in it, they looked round to see who was behind them!!
For Lions fans, when you read things like ‘top of the league Lions’ or ‘the top two in the league will be battling out the Cup final’ then it’s a similar feeling, you can’t quite believe it. It’s a fantastic feeling and one that hopefully Lions can keep going.

People will question how long the ‘oldies’ legs can continue? How long before all the egos explode? That’s impossible to answer, although Lions have currently, a fully fit squad, which means there is no need for any ‘oldie’ to play much more than 20 minutes and they all seem happy, whether they’re playing 5 or 35 minutes. Many people questioned the wisdom in keeping the same team together (me included) but Vince obviously had belief in these players.

The addition of Yorick has given the team a new dimension and I think, a belief that even if we are down by a big score we still can pull it back and that we can put a run together very quickly when needed. Vince has held the team together and we have managed to get through to Christmas without a single ejection, again something many people (me included again) thought was likely.


Lions start the New Year with two trophy games and although all games (and wins) are very important, I think most Lions fans are focused on the Cup Final on January 13th(hopefully Vince has the team focused solely on the next game!).

It’s Lions first cup final and I’m delighted to be playing Eagles. Eagles are on a great run of results and hopefully the top two form teams in the league should give the fans a final to get excited about. I’m informed Lions have already got 6 coaches going to the game and we’ll need all their support to try and ‘out-noise’ the very passionate and loud OOTA.

Away from basketball, my football team seem to lurch from crisis to crisis. They have no money and the only people apparently willing to invest have now bought Coventry. 3 executive directors have resigned and one of the major shareholders has come back into the fold to run the club.

Hopefully this will start to see some stability and the huge amount of in-fighting will be over, whether this will bring any much needed investment into the club is impossible to judge, but the new incumbent can hardly do any worse than the last three!

Although results have not been particularly inspiring I think it’s important we keep the same manager and let him do his job, we have had far too many managers over recent years, which has been one of our major problems, clubs are all too ready to sack managers when it’s fairly obvious that it takes time to gel a team and longer to make it successful.



It always amazes me that clubs appoint new managers and immediately give them money to spend- where was this money when the old manager was in place?

Sometimes I think a whole club needs ripping apart before a new manager can truly influence the team, just changing a manager and perhaps 1-2 coaches and 3-4 players doesn’t always change the in-built problems of a football team, which can be deep routed. I think that this could be a team like Newcastle’s problem and all the back room staff needs to be sacked before a successful team can truly be achieved.

I think Martin Jol was a good manager and almost as successful as he could be at Tottenham and the most interesting thing about the sacking was that the assistant Chris Houghton also left (an assistant who has been there and seen very many managers come and go), the team are now playing a much more relaxed and fluent game and seem to be enjoying themselves more and the results are coming, how much influence did Houghton actually have behind the scenes- I think probably far too much.

Enough of my ramblings, I hope everyone has a great New Year and the hangovers don’t last for too long! My best wishes to everyone for the New Year (with the exception of Eagles fans, who I hope have a very poor start to the New Year however much I like them!!)


EuroLeague Women because women's basketball is the most important thing in life after family and good health!
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