Life isn’t fair

While I was picking up three points in Nottingham last season just for thinking about a missed foul (well possibly “just” for that),in Notts this old bloke spent 70 years driving without a licence in the same bloody area.. He probably scrubs balls better than me, as well.

Trailblazers complete league double over high-flying Hemel

Words: Nigel Cash. Pics: Carson Dietrich

Derby Trailblazers 91      (19, 47, 65)   Hemel Storm 82          (19, 33, 55)  

 Defence was king as Derby Trailblazers completed a league double over third placed Hemel Storm for the first time since the 2014/15 league season.

Led by Taylor Johnson (28.5 points per game) and Greg Poleon (24.7ppg), the Storm were averaging 95.6 points prior to this game, but Derby stepped up the defensive pressure to produce a 91-82 home win, backing up the intensity they showed in the away fixture, when the Blazers won 94-73.

When the two sides met in Hertfordshire back in October, Johnson was held to just 12 points and although he managed 17 at The Wig on Saturday, it means Derby reduced the American guard’s average points production by 50% across the two games.

Trailblazers Head Coach Matt Shaw was delighted with that effort:

“I was really pleased with our defensive performance and I thought we really made life difficult for them. They’re the league’s leading scorers and to hold a team like them to 82 points is probably equivalent to holding certain other teams to around 70 points.

“That was probably one of the keys to the win, but we got some huge contributions from Morgan [Carter] and Leighton [Elliott-Sewell] especially in the first half, which was delightful to see.

“We were also boosted by having Ryan [Bruggeman] available for the first time in almost a month. We have a lot of depth this season but having him back really does make an enormous difference to our game,” he said.

Bruggeman had been struggling with an ankle injury, picked up against Worthing in November. He made a brief return to play in the L Lynch Trophy final but was then side-lined once again as swelling returned. It’s hoped he will now be fit to face the rest of the season, starting with Friday’s BBL Trophy quarter-final tie against Bristol Flyers.

There was some fine shooting across the team, as Derby again led by captain Malcolm Smith who shot 50% from the field and 100% from the foul-line on his way to a game-high 23 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Bake Bowman netted 19 points off the back of 54.4% floor shotting and 100% from the line as well as collecting eight rebounds.

Leighton Elliott-Sewell also converted 57.1% including a couple of offensive put-backs on his way to eight points, but the ever-improving Morgan Carter led the percentage figures, converting 60% on his way to eight points.

Other notable contributions came from Raheem May-Thompson with 15 points, five rebounds and two blocks, Jonas Dieterich added ten points and four boards and Kayne King dished off a game high nine assists.

Hemel were led by Greg Poleon with an impressive 23 points and 16 rebounds, while Johson had 17 and nine and Sam Newman had 14 points and seven assists.

After an even first quarter, back-to-back three-pointers from Carter and May-Thompson gave Derby their first big lead at 25-19 and after an offensive put-back from Bode Adeluola, Carter added a lay-up, May-Thompson blocked a shot from Shaq Lewis and Elliott-Sewell added another basket to take the score to 29-21 and force a Hemel time-out with 7’11” on the clock.

Hemel responded well, twice cutting the gap to three-points before a basket from Smith was followed up by a high-arching Bruggeman three, to restore an eight-point advantage, prompting a second Storm time-out.

This time, it was Derby who responded better, with a 9-3 run to open up a 47-33 half-time advantage.

Hemel came out fired up for the third quarter, with captain Tayo Oyefusi netting eight of the points in a 12-3 run which included two three-pointers. So, with the gap trimmed to 50-45, it was not surprising to see Derby calling for time-out before Johnson could have the chance to complete a three-point play.

A second three-pointer from Bruggeman followed Johnson’s free-throw, before back-to-back triples from Dieterich and Bowman which restored a ten-point lead by the end of the third.

A basket and two free-throws by Smith took the lead back to fourteen points early in the fourth, but Hemel responded ten straight points. With nerves beginning to jangle, Coach Shaw took another time-out with 6’07” remaining.

The scoring drought was ended by Bowman, but Poleon then struck from long range, cutting the gap to three points. Thankfully, Bowman responded in kind and Johnson missed an open look for Hemel.

May-Thompson was then fouled but he successfully converted a pair of free-throws and after Newman missed a three-pointer, Bowman showed how it was done, taking the score to 79-68 and forcing another Hemel time-out.

The Storm gave it one last push, trimming the gap to 81-75 as they took advantage of a foul and a subsequent unsportsmanlike call against King, but Derby closed the game out with a 10-7 run to secure an important 91-82 home victory.

Summing up, Coach Shaw described it as a pleasing win and paid tribute to the role a loud and raucous crowd had played:

“It was a really pleasing win and I think without a doubt it was the best support we’ve had all at The Wig all season. The place was packed and that really makes a big difference, so we hope people will really get behind the team again on Friday night, as we try to make history in the BBL Trophy,” he said.

Well this is good news

Whisper it quietly, because we wouldn’t want to jinx it, but it looks like we’ll get a real March Madness this year.

Just when we had nowhere to go in 2020 it was cancelled and last year just wasn’t the same. I can’t wait for for the real thing.

You never learn, do you?

Back in the day I used to yell that at opposition players as they picked up another foul. It – along with breaking my big toe by kicking things after a defeat – became my trademark before everything went pear-shaped and they let the lunatic run the asylum. The opportunities to do that diminished at that point.

But clearly I never learn, either. I scheduled yesterday’s blog when i was at home on Thursday, talking about the WBBL game I was going to watch on Saturday and the eight games we had at Oaklands on Sunday.

I really should have twigged by now that when I tempt fate like this, something will go wrong and not all of those games will happen.

But I spent Wednesday running the isolation room at school. That’s incredibly boring, and gave me plenty of time to write stuff. So I posted it on my post-Lions day off. At this point it’s worth mentioning that the kids in isolation don’t learn either  The same old faces arrive having done the same old shit and – amazingly – it was never their fault. So I get on with writing crap for here  and the stuff I actually get paid for.

To get to the point (finally), Wolves versus Manchester was called off because one Mystics player had testing positive from that Covid thing you may have heard of. Yep, one. But three of her team-mates have made the decision not to get jabbed – and therefore have to isolate –  so they were allowed to postpone the game.

I have no idea who the four are, and I wouldn’t publish names if I did. But Mystics aren’t particularly deep on players who play big minutes, but they have plenty of bodies who are regulars in the WBBL team. Even with the Covid-issues (self inflicted in three cases) they appear to have five WBBL players and could therefore play the game. They also have a (decent at their level) Division Two team who were without a game on Saturday, and two U-18 teams who – by one of life’s happy coincidences – were playing each other, so that could have been postponed if necessary.

This game should’ve been played. I understand why Mystics didn’t want to risk lo losing to a side that (realistically) most/all of their rivals for fourth place (the top three are untouchable, they’re 34-1 between them) will beat, but that isn’t relevant. They have enough players and the fact that three of them haven’t learned that getting the jab allows them to play basketball is absolutely key, here.

If we’ve learned anything, it’s play the game.

 

Oh, and one of the CVL games is off due to a team pulling out 😦

Vince is back

It didn’t take long….

Another weekend, just nine games

The idea of not going to basketball until about 3pm on a Saturday just seemed crazy.

So I badgered Herts County into organising a session, and both the under-15 and under-13 squads will meet up at Wodson Park, Ware between 11am-1pm. When we’ll get a boys’ session is far more unclear. Wolves provide more than 80 percent of the players for the girls, so it’s just a case of finding a date when we’re not playing (and even then we’ve lost a girl who move from us to London Lions as they have a game. But there are four Herts clubs who run teams at two NBL age groups and – even if we had a week off from CVL – finding a date none of them have a game is impossible. Half-term’s a possibility but it’s two weeks away and we’re waiting on University of fucking Essex to provide dates for Aspire. Alex might be in the under-15s by the time we get that arranged.

Going back to Wodson – even if it’s only briefly because I’m hoping I’m needed for nothing more than dropping Caitlin off – will be a step back in time. I’ve driven past it plenty of times and tried to hire it for a National Cup 3 or 4 years ago (a junior member of staff admitted to me that her boss couldn’t be arsed to take £250 from us for a three hour booking) so I think it was the 2008/9 season when Leopards last played there. I loved the place, without it Leopards II might not have happened, it should be able to host a decent junior set-up and a D3 NBL team, the problem was both versions of Rebels kept getting promoted and Ware was never going to support a D1 team. But the centre’s management seem disinterested despite debts that are rumoured to be quite substantial, and it sits empty on a Saturday evening. The fact we could get the whole main hall for two hours on a Saturday lunchtime tells its own story.

I imagine I’ll go home during the session and we’ll pick Cait up before heading off for some lunch (not in ‘Spoons apparently) before seeing what shambles the hall at Oaklands is in following another open day. Tip for the visit of Manchester Mystics has been put back to 4.30pm and it’s a game Wolves desperately need to win – but probably won’t – if they’re going to get in the play-offs. Hopefully while Caitlin does her stats she’ll get the chance to watch Georgia Jones in action as they are similar in style. It’s hard to believe that 14-and-ahalf years ago i abandoned my newborn daughter to the care of mother-in-law (Tracy was in hospital) to cover a 15-year-old Georgia in action for GB.

Caitlin’s lot have their only free weekend before the end of the regular season, but there’s still five CVL, two NBL and one eagerly awaited inter-club friendly at Oaklands on Sunday, with Alex playing in the middle game on the CVL court as he faces a girls’ team who are impersonating the final Mersey Tigers side.

While both U-14 NBL teams are at home, the big game comes at midday as our U-16 development team (who were unbeaten until last week) face the the bench of their NBL  counterparts. The trash talking has already started on this one, it should be fun.

Blazers look to quieten Storm

I remember the days when Derby were Storm but, anyway, from Nigel….

Derby Trailblazers are back at the Clarence Wiggins Sports Centre on Saturday night for the second of four consecutive home games. After a relatively easy 91-60 win over Essex Rebels, the visit of Hemel Storm will be a much more difficult test.

Dru Spinks’ side head to Derby with a 10-4 record which places them third in NBL D1, four points ahead of Derby, who are sixth with an 8-6 record.

Watch here

The two sides last met in October, when Derby came away from Hemel with an impressive 94-73 away win, led by Malcolm Smith on 30 points, Ryan Bruggeman on 23 and Raheem May-Thompson on 16.

For Hemel, Greg Poleon had 21, Sam Newman added 14, but the real key to the Blazers success was the way in which they restricted high-scoring US guard Taylor Johnson to just 12 points which was a tremendous achievement, given that he averages 28.5 points per game.

 

His American compatriot Greg Poleon isn’t far behind on 24.7, but the Storm also have several other players who can step up and cause problems. That was proved last weekend, when Bode Adeluola knocked down 22 points as Hemel came from behind to beat Loughborough Riders.

Trailblazers Head Coach Matt Shaw knows Derby will have to be at their absolute best if they’re to complete a league-double over the Storm:

“Saturday will be really difficult against at top class team. Hemel have two of the best import players in the league in Poleon and Johnson. We beat them at their place earlier in the season, but we played really well on the day and we’ll have to do something similar this weekend if we’re to avoid defeat.

“I always enjoy playing against Hemel; Dru always has his guys playing an exciting brand of basketball, so it should be a really exciting game and hopefully we can come out on top,” he said.

From he sublime to the ridiculous

Running two CVLs and six teams in them was always going to have its crazy moments. That’s a lot of kids in our teams, and four other clubs to deal with. But we seem to be going from the sublime to the ridiculous as we’ve gone from clubs consistently fulfilling fixtures to dropouts, and from a six man team to a squad of 20 for one game this week.

The news that two of the ten games scheduled for this Sunday were off as one club had failed to open the fixtures email (and took a day to read the reminder)  did not fill me with joy . Over 70 percent of the cost of staging a game is court hire and it’s tough to tell a referee that s/he has to stand around unpaid for an hour between games, so the loss was closer to 80 percent. But the opposing team also miss out on a game and while this was better than last week’s complete no-show, there’s only so much I can do. So I cancelled our U-13 boys prem team game, but thought I’d come up with the kind of plan Baldrick would have been proud of. After handing over the car keys – following the speed camera incident – so Tracy could drive home from Hemel, I arranged for the other side (West Herts) who were due to miss out on a game to play an Oaklands Select team. There had originally been a game between our winless U-14 development squad and a select team in that slot, but uptake had been so poor I thought I could combine the teams, minus a couple from our NBL U-14s bench who were going to play. Ah, how wrong I was. Just like Baldrick.

The court was empty before their game, and the numbers just kept growing. When it hit 13 I figured we were just about there and it would be okay. But no, it was like a bloody invasion. And the coach had disappeared. And I blame the parents. There were kids who’d failed to answer, kids who’d said no and kids from U-12/13 teams who’d already played and decided to stay with their mate and play. There was so many it was impossible to sort out who was supposed to be there, so five minutes before tip – and still coachless – I got them to line up in two lines, U-14s and U-13/12 select players. There were 20 of the buggers. 20! I gave them all a number from 1-4, splitting equally between the older and younger ones which was a mistake as the three kids – none of whom could hit a lay-up – told Alex he wasn’t allowed to shoot. We extended the game to 12 minute (running clock) quarters which was the most I could ask of a seven-player West Herts team. No one from Wolves ended up happy, random units of kids who didn’t know each others names got tonked and didn’t get a lot of court time.

The annoying thing is there was court time and enough players to stage the club game between the 14s and Select, and then let the 14s get spanked by West Herts. But only if grown adults answered messages in a timely fashion. It won’t happen again, I’ll put lists together and, must as it will pain me, if kids turn up who aren’t on it, they won’t play.

The rest of the day passed relatively smoothly. Alex’s team produced a decent performance but lost to a much bigger East Herts team, the U14/16 girls who reffed and tabled did a good job (except the serial no-shower) for beginners and we’ll continue with that this week, while the newly qualified boy in grey looked terrified but survived to ref another game.

But my perfect (albeit only 1&0) 2021/22 coaching record ended as I bravely stepped up to take the U-13 girls after their coach announced mid-morning (while I was freezing my arse off watching Alex’s later wordly for Thorley Manor A team) that she had her driving test theory that afternoon. Words only briefly failed me. I expected better from a Lithuania.

And having had the world’s deepest bench we continued our lurch from one extreme to another by only having seven players. I don’t know how many just failed to show, I didn’t expect to be coaching the team but faced with the choice between grabbing a U-14 girl who’d seen just 12 minutes playing time in the previous game or Alex (who’d also   seen just 12 minutes playing time in the previous game) I thought I should go for the girl – and for all her limitations (which include refusing to wear her glasses during the game) – she did a good job defensively.

We were up against our U-12 development side in what was their first game, but despite that they showed how far behind “my” team is and reaffirmed that we need to get some National League girls in for next season’s U-14 team and leave some in the development teams. It was actually a decent game, a 10-0 run during the second period proved the difference between the teams and the boys ran out winners by six. The girls seemed happy enough, their parents celebrated on whatsapp like they’d actually won.

I still need to find them opposition they can beat. Or a better coach, preferably one who can drive….

Something’s not quite right

The annoying voice on the train tannoy say “if you see anything that doesn’t look right inform a member of staff or text British Transport police on…”

Well, I didn’t do either, but it didn’t look right at the Copper Box without Vince – and one of those suits – jumping up and down in front of the Lions’ bench. Being old, I’ve seen plenty of Lions games without Vince coaching – though he’s always been there – whether it was Nigel Lloyd, Tom Hancock, Mike New (I think, my memory is also old) – so it’s strange rather than downright weird.

Would it have made any difference against those pesky Turks last night? Probably not. The first period was a bit of a disaster, and although they stopped the bleeding, I was still left with the feeling that Bahceshir could have stepped up a gear if they needed to. And that first quarter dominance despite losing a key player on possibly the earliest pair of offensive fouls I’ve ever seen.

While I’d take this season’s Lions over last year’s, there’s still times when they look like a group of players who are playing for a job next year rather for their team or each other. If Lions are going to be a success in Europe, the BBL salary cap/eligibility rules mean that they’ll (probably) have to continue with the policy of having a couple of “Europe only” players, but it’s always going to be difficult to manage. Vince didn’t get there, James isn’t going to get the chance this season (realistically – it’s over in a fortnight’s time), and I guess the whole process will start all over again next season.

But you could have worked much of that out by watching FIBA Europe Youtube. I went where many people have feared to tread this season – I went to the Copper Box.

I do enjoy a bit of midweek European basketball, it’s a nice break from running things at Oaklands or watching three hour games in drafty gyms with Cait. And it’s good to report on a game, do the press conference and then not go to school next day while I write everything up. I should’ve arranged cover so I could go to Birmingham on Sunday, really.

And for once I wasn’t lonely. The lower bowl was pretty full, I guess they could have shut behind one basket and made it look fuller but these are still Covid times (though Boris is probably having a party as I write this) so there’s no real need for that, and it looked pretty good. I saw tickets for £11 behind the basket and £22 on the side were for sale, I’d say the side ones were a bit pricey in comparison to the end ones, but these are more realistic prices. If I’d paid £55 for third row courtside seats I’d feel short-changed, but I imagine they were freebies. It’s taken too long, but they’re getting there.  I hope.

James made a comment about big European night at the Box. It was a good quote, it’ll get used, and obviously it’s the kind of thing that the head (acting or not) coach should say. But the atmosphere wasn’t that great. Kelley’s a nice highlight reel, he gets the “ooohs” and “aaarghhhs” going, and there were a few chants of defence (although the bloke and his son behind me couldn’t keep in tune with each other, let alone the rest of the crowd) but the Box wasn’t really rocking.

Clearly they missed that (Saint) Pat bloke. Him not being there wasn’t quite right, either.

Magnificent seven?

I guess the NBA read my blog a week or so ago, this bit in particular.

I’ve even wondered if shorter games with just seven players might be the way forward.

Because clearly they’ve decided seven in the ideal number (Caitlin will approve) for the Rising Stars game replacement at All-Star weekend. We’ve moved from the rookie game, to rookies versus sophomores to Team USA against the rest of the world, and now have a four team mini tournament where the final will last half the length of the semi-finals. The lack of any stability in the format just further cheapens something that appears to have lost its way a long time ago.

I can see why they want to promote the Ignite players because, while their bank balances are healthier than their college counterparts, their profiles aren’t nearly so high. So there’s a need to get them in the public eye but first team to 50/25 is just a bit naff. There will always be an All-Star weekend as long as it makes money – that was plain to see when last week’s (albeit reduced) programme took place – but it’s getting harder and harder to take seriously.