NBA ravings of a madman

So Grayson Allen will sit out Bucks’ game tonight after breaking Alex Caruso last week.The Bulls player is out for eight weeks, obviously shit happens sometimes, but for Bucks to whine when we’re looking at something like a 25:1 ratio on games missed.

The Twitter battle between various people is amusing, though I can’t see why reporting on twitter battles is now considered to be journalism.

But in all of this it does need to be mentioned that Grayson Allen is a dirty player. Obviously he was a dirty player player when he played for (my team) Duke University, but in those days he was “our dirty player”, so i probably gave him a bit of a pass. What does amaze me is that no one has utterly battered him, he’s seen as a privileged white kid who went to a private university, and by NBA standards he’s not that big. I reckon it might happen pretty soon. Possibly when Bulls next play Bucks.

Three and T’easy

Threes. They’re what NBA basketball is all about these days. Greg Popovich said he wanted them banned, he was a bit late to the party on that one, and they have certainly changed the game in recent years. They’ve infiltrated every level of basketball with progressively fewer success stories the lower you go. In fact I might ban them from our U-13 CVL next year to shot the boys chucking up shit. I’m turning into a grumpy old man like Pops/

So Caitlin getting three, two at key times, and for her partner in crime Joanna to hit one to effectively seal the game was pleasing. The three points that the acting team manager picked up driving to Hemel wasn’t and will be discussed later. Possibly in front of a judge.

Unsurprisingly, the court was still next to Millwall (who still weren’t at home, which was a bonus), it was still too short and it was still freezing in there. So the fact that the game followed a familiar pattern to the other two against them wasn’t a shock.

Unlike the previous two games we did start well, Cait hit a three to open it (and then missed another, but I think she was 3/8 by the end which is fine) as they opened with a 7-0 run, but we got an early hint of what was to come with a couple of early foul calls on Thunder and it the game quickly became a series of walks to the foul line. The foul count ended up Wolves 25 Thunder 16, many were marginal at best. It ruined the game and the signaling from the refs was bordering on non-existent (not uncommon with recently qualified officials) which meant that everything was slowly explained to the table, so we went at a snail’s pace. Several of the calls were mad eon incidents in the paint that one ref managed to see from the other half and at one point both sides lined up for foul shots only to be told that the foul was offensive. Even Thunder looked surprised.  It’s not a job I’d do, but clearly the refs weren’t in a rush to get home as the game took two hours and five minutes, despite only ten minutes for half time.

But anyway, we led 15-12 at the first break and after seven minutes of the second period it was still 15-12. I began to wonder if someone has painted the score on the scoreboard and it would never move again. Cait’s second three woke everyone up, and sparked a 9-2 run to see Wolves lead 24-14 at half-time. So, despite those triples, it really wasn’t the NBA.

The third period somehow managed to get worse. Thunder barely left the foul line, and and Wolves’ frustration grew. Just as Tor has told the players, I told the parents that we expected this shit on the road, the thing they need to do is learn to play through it. Cait picked up her fourth foul midway through the third period – Tor reckoned one was a legit call – and sat down where she managed the day’s second career first – a bench technical for saying “don’t worry Tiff, it was a trash call”. ah, my daughter… Seeing as Tiff broke her hand in that “foul”, she might have had a point. Cait was apparently crying by this point, and they missed the free throw  and the voice that is rarely heard in junior games (genuinely, I sit/stand on my own muttering) was heard to mention that “the ball don’t lie”. We got a late basket to end a tortuous third period up by five but then let the score twice early in fourth period to make it a one point game.

And this is where the three is a thing of beauty as Cait’s third of the game noticeably lifted the team. The 1-3-1 zone helped. Tor hates a zone at that level because he says it teaches them nothing, but when all your key players are on three or four fouls, there was little option. The zone and the 20-1 saw the fouls dry up and Joanna’s triple ended the game as a contest with three minutes to go leaving the bench to see out the final two minutes. Somehow no one fouled out.

My claim that Cait and Joanna need 30 between them in any close game was wrong as the latter only managed that fourth period triple, but Jemima – my project back from the U-11 days with Herts – finished with 14 and showed what she could do if basketball really became her thing. Caitlin had 16 points, six assists, five rebounds, four steals (and a T) in 31:23.

Having tipped off 15 minutes late (same crew – it’s easy to see how it over-ran) we finished at 6.20pm, which gave us 40 minutes to make the trip to Hemel. which was rather unlikely.. Of course the reason i wrote this

I will take over the driving (my car’s banned from London) at this point as we make a mad dash to Hemel where Caitlin is statting their game against Loughborough

last week was because I drive quicker than Tracy. Too quick it turns out as the camera flashed me as I entered Rotherhithe Tunnel, but not quick enough to avoid us getting to Hemel 30 minutes late to find them four minutes into the second period. And only then did I see the missed call and messages on my phone saying that – after we’d let them know we had problems – they’d replaced Caitlin on stats. I’d have gone home at this point, I’m still pissed off about my own three pointer, but she stayed as an extra spotter. I hate being late for things. I missed tip-off at only two Leopards games (and clearly the second one mentally affected me late at Reading) but it was a reasonable watch, even if Storm made hard work of it before emulating Wolves U-16 girls by scoring the final 19 points to break open a tied game and win 104-85.

And after that, I remain unsure whether I like threes or not.

Loving Angels instead

You’d think that our U-16 girls would hate the team who knocked them out of the National Cup, have inflicted their only league defeat on them and could (and probably will) deny them the league title. But instead they (and me) wanted Hackney Angels to win the National Cup. And they just about got there against a resilient Manchester Mystics side.

So we lost to the side who won the Cup. I guess that’s a consolation. Especially as they got screwed by being made to play it in Manchester, which even after a BE contribution has cost them a four figure sum.

The filming of the game – we didn’t actually go, watching it in the kitchen was enough – was really good, multiple angles and highlights at half-time The commentary appeared to be done by fully paid up members of Mystics. A mid-second period basketball by the home side got more enthusiasm than the game winner with a few click on the clock.

But they were in Manchester. We expected nothing less.

Trailblazers leave Rebels without a cause to party

Derby Trailblazers 91 (24, 51, 75) Essex Rebels     60 (18, 32, 46)         

 

An excellent all-round team performance helped Derby Trailblazers to beat struggling Essex Rebels 91-60 as division one basketball returned to the Clarence Wiggins Sports Centre for the first time in six weeks.

Raheem May-Thompson led Derby’s attack, finishing just shy of a double-double with 26 points and nine rebounds.

Blake Bowman added 19 points, four rebounds, six assists and two blocks, while Malcolm Smith and Jonas Dieterich both finished 12 points, with Smith adding six rebounds four assists while Dieterich added four boards and six assists.

There were strong stat lines throughout the Blazers roster, notably from Kayne King who dished off nine assists as he continues to do a great job deputising for the injured Ryan Bruggeman, while backcourt partner Charlie Brown collected nine rebounds.

Elsewhere, Ash Ugo had a lively second half spell off the bench, netting ten points while Leighton Elliott-Sewell had nine rebounds and six points.

Essex were without 7’0” centre Lee Hodges, but still did a decent job on the boards, only losing out 54-46 in the rebounding count, but they struggled offensively, shooting just 35.3% from the field and 52.9% from the free-throw line.

Derby got off to a flying start, with a pair of baskets from May-Thompson either side of one from Dieterich and after Essex finally got off the mark, Dieterich struck from downtown to make it 9-2.

The Rebels briefly rallied, tying the scores at 13-all as Jake Eynon struck from long range, but his basket was answered by Bowman who went on to score all but two of Derby’s points in a 9-2 run which took the score to 24-15.

Eynon’s second triple of the game cut the gap to six points at the end of the first, but Bowman marked the start of the second by replying in kind, as he moved onto twelve points. Elliott-Sewell and Smith then combined for all of three of the points in a free-flowing and entertaining 13-6 run.

The other three came in the form of a May-Thompson triple, after Dieterich found him wide open in the corner. It left the Rebels needing to call a time-out with 5’59” on the clock and Derby leading 38-24.

The two sides then exchanged baskets and free-throws before a sweet hook shot from Morgan Carter delighted the crowd and he was unlucky not to add to that score late in the fourth quarter, when a three-pointer rattled around the rim before spinning out.

A three-point play from May-Thompson and an offensive put-back from Dieterich saw Derby end the first half leading 51-32.

Essex needed another time-out early in the third, after May-Thompson sank a pair of triples either side of a Bowman lay-up, stretching the lead to 27 points with 7’42” on the clock.

Another strong Derby spell happened midway through the third, starting with an offensive put-back from Elliott-Sewell, moments after he had blocked a Rory Winter attempt at the other end.

Ugo then scored baskets from inside and out, either side of a basket by Ray Akpofure. Bowman then made a lay-up and added a free-throw and after a pair of scores by Akpofure, Carter stole the ball and provided the assist for an Ugo dunk.

All of that meant Derby took a 75-46 lead in to the final break and they started the fourth with an eight nil run, comprising a pair of baskets from May-Thompson, and lay-ups by Dieterich and Dom Prospere, the latter of which drew rapturous applause as the youngster made the most of extended court time.

Not surprisingly, the Essex response was to call time-out with 6’02” remaining, but it did little to help as Derby’s lead peaked at 88-48 just over a minute later. It came as Dieterich struck from long range and then stole the ball back, feeding Smith who set up King for an easy lay-up.

With Shaw mainly using his bench players over the final few minutes, Essex eventually managed to go on a run, scoring the final eight points of the game, but Coach Shaw was still delighted with the result:

“I thought it was a really strong defensive performance. We really made it difficult for them to get into any kind of defensive rhythm, so hats off to the guys for sticking with the task for the most part and never really giving them the incentive to try and get back into the game.

“It was good to be able to spread the minutes out a bit more than we usually can. We looked good in patches offensively, but there’s still a lot of work to do. The nice thing was we were able to get a lot of guys decent minutes and rotate the squad to keep people fresh and overall, it was a very pleasing performance,” he said.

Derby:           May-Thompson 26, Bowman 19, Dieterich 12, Smith 12, Ugo 10, Elliott-Sewell 6, Carter 2, King 2, Prospere 2, Brown 0, Roberts 0, Bruggeman DNP.

Essex:           R. Winter 16, Eynon 12, Child 9, Akpofure 6, Ashley 6, B. Winter 6, Hudson 3, Adeyeye 2, Moore 0, Mutemasango 0, Hodges DNP.

World is exclusive: Netball is crap

Regular readers of this nonsense already knew that I believed that.

But I gave it another go. I was one of the few parents who bothered, though I guess 4pm on a Thursday afternoon is work time if you exist in the real world.

Caitlin’s school has a shiny new sports centre. So, naturally, with the sun going down on mid-winter afternoon, they put them outside in those ridiculous netball dresses. It was bloody cold.

They won 29-15, after starting on an 8-0 run. Caitlin scored 26 goals. The whole thing left me cold in more ways than one. Kids – especially in her team’s defence – just stand around because they’re not allowed in certain parts of the court. The rule that they take it in turns to restart after a goal is just crap and makes one-sided games even worse. Basketball got rid of the centre jump ball after a basket about 90 years ago and instantly transformed the game. The lack of defence when  player is shooting is just naff.

Despite being a Y10 game, Caitlin’s team had a Y13 playing a couple of quarters because she needed some film for A Levels. She wasn’t very good, so it didn’t affect the result. Actually saying she wasn’t very good is being kind, so the opposition voted her as player-of-the game. Even kids who play the game can’t take it seriously.

It’s only the second game the Y10 team have played this season, the PE department are – at best – half-arsed, but I reckon I can now join the rest of the parents who gave it a miss. I can officially announce that netball is crap

But I’m a solutions guy, and I’ve come up with a few improvements

• Cut a couple of players, so it’s 5-a-side.
• Change the scoring a bit, maybe two points for a shot inside the arc and three outside it.
• Move the game indoors. I don’t like cold feet.
• Put a board behind the hoop.
• Let anyone score. Caitlin doesn’t need 26 goals.
• Allow players to move with the ball, but only if they bounce it.
• After a score, let the team who conceded start with the ball. And don’t bother restarting at mid-court.

I reckon with those changes it could be the best sport in the world. Though I’d probably rename it.

The long road to Manchester

As we prepare for the National Cup finals and marvel how Covid-19 restrictions mean that BE staff don’t have to leave their postcode to attend the game, I found myself thinking about our trip to Manchester in 2018/19.

We were based at my favourite of Leopards’ home venues – Essex Sports Arena. I hope you appreciate irony. The trip was insane. I only had to get five players there as some were travelling on their own, but I had to drive from Stortford to Chelmsford to collect a mini bus. On arrival I had to move several other mini buses/cars etc as the guy who rant the rental place couldn’t drive. That’s a bit like a swimming instructor not being able to swim. I eventually reached Uni of Essex two hours after leaving home, and then drove for an hour back to Stortford to get on the M11. So three hours after I left home, I was four miles from my home. I could have walked there and watched Stortford FC before jumping on the bus at the services in that time. If only someone else had driven the bus.

But we made it – helped by the fact we only needed a people carrier which didn’t have a speed limiter – we won the game 87-63 and did the whole reverse journey, only slightly quicker than the trip up and I got to bed at about 4am. As an aside, it was another chapter in the lunacy that was Asante Sandiford as he claimed in an email to BE that I drunk wine and whisky throughout the trip.

However it does prove that it can be done. It’s just a shame BE wouldn’t give it a go.

It’s the National Basketball League, not the Manchester Basketball League.

Trailblazers finally back at The Wig to face Rebels

For the first time in six weeks, division one basketball returns to the Clarence Wiggins Sports Centre on Saturday as Derby Trailblazers play host to Essex Rebels at 7.00pm.

It was Sunday December 12^th when the Blazers were last at the Wig and a lot has happened since then. Derby celebrated lifting the L Lynch Trophy with victory over Team Newcastle and followed it up with their first ever win in the BBL Trophy, as they inflicted defeat on Surrey Scorchers.

The Trailblazers are sixth in D1, with a 7-6 record, but if they’re to push for home advantage in play-offs, they need to take that kind of form into the second half of the league season, which gets underway with the visit of struggling Essex Rebels (1-11).

Essex will be boosted having finally picking up their first league win of the season last weekend, beating Leicester Warriors 89-82 just hours after they were hammered 97-67 by Nottingham Hoods.

Veteran centre Lee Hodges and guard Jake Eynon, both of whom are recent pickups from D2 side Ipswich, led the way for the Rebels in the win over Leicester, with each netting 21 points. Hodges added 14 rebounds and three assists, while Eynon added four and four.

Derby were made to work hard for their 86-72 away win over the Rebels in October, but both sides have made changes to their roster since then.

Trailblazers Head Coach Matt Shaw says the Rebels are better than their league record suggests, something which was evidenced when they pushed Newcastle and current leaders Worthing close in recent games:

“Essex will be a tricky task. They’ve got a lot of different players from when we played them earlier in the season, including Hodges and Eynon.

“They’re two very good pickups and I think they’re a much better team because of it. After picking up their first league win last weekend, I think they’ll be full of confidence and it could be a difficult game for us,” he said.

Saturday’s game will also give Derby supporters the chance to see the L Lynch Trophy:

“It will be really nice for them to see the Trophy; we’re going to have it on display and there will be a chance for people to have their photos taken with it.

“It will be nice for those people who weren’t able to go to Sheffield to have the opportunity to celebrate and perhaps get some photographs of the Trophy and the players after the game, but the most important thing for us is trying to make sure we take care of business in the league match first and foremost,” he said.

Just 12 games

Just the 12 games this weekend, it seems so little that I’ll probably take Alex over to Oaklands to do a bit of U-13 prem 3×3 followed by the U-12/13 development training. He’ll spend the rest of the day watching, so it seems fair. And I’m quietly confident I know the way.

And then we’re off to Lewisham, thanking the Basketball Gods that Millwall are away. It’ll be like a meeting of old friends as just 172 before the scheduled tip Wolves beat them 61-31 last week thanks to a strong third period. There’s a couple of team changes and I guess we’re a bit weaker, but even on a much smaller court (which certainly suits their short rotation) that shouldn’t make 30 points difference. It’s another must-win, but they all are and in reality it’s going to come down to the back-to-back visits to Hackney in a month’s time,

I will take over the driving (my car’s banned from London) at this point as we make a mad dash to Hemel where Caitlin is statting their game against Loughborough. After last week’s gubbing at Thames Valley, Storm simply have to win this one if they want home court advantage in the play-off quarter-finals. They might be third in the table, but four sides have less losses than them and Cavs now have the head-to-head decider. Riders weren’t particularly impressive as they scraped home at Oaklands last week.. This should be as predictable as our first game of the day.

Sunday sees another crack of dawn start as Alex is now officially a Thorley Manor U-11 first team player, combining life on the wing with stints in goal. Sadly the mighty Blacks team don’t seem to play at home often, either, so we’re off to Hitchin for a 10am kick off, but it does fit in quite nicely with a trip to Oaklands for a day of solid CVL basketball. With the National Cup finals somewhere in the grim north, there’s no junior NBL so we have seven U-13 and three U-16 games. Cait grabbed the chance of a day off – she’s so rich from statting that the loss of earnings don’t matter – to do homework, and is basking in the glory that she’s being replaced by seven trainee stat people. They’re working in pairs for what is a one-person job, we’d had to set them loose at some point , so it’ll be interesting to see how they get one. We also have four trainee refs (again working in pairs, it’s normally a single ref job) though this is more due to necessity It’s quite outstanding how many excuses the team of level one (some trainee L2s) can come out with not to referee. It’s getting a bit tiresome – one’s even decided that, having got qualified, he doesn’t want to do it – so I’m going to give our kids the chance to earn some money. In effect these are only friendlies, it shouldn’t matter if there’s a problem.    Meanwhile, on the other court we have another newcomer.

We have an eye-watering eight teams in action, and only two of the games don’t involve a Wolves’ team. There’s a return for the Oaklands Select team as we give the hopeless U-14 development team another chance of at least getting close to winning a game. There’s also a debut for the under-12 development side as we put a bunch of kids on the floor who’ve never played a game before and see if they can be the latest in a long line of teams to beat the under-13 girls.

So ten games, 12 new officials. What can go wrong?

Being Robbie Peers

Remember the Jet Wash? Robbie Peers’ Chester spent all the NTL cash on just six players, sat in a zone, got called for the fewest number of fouls in the league (though it was still far too many for Mike Burton) and promptly won everything. Robbie moved on to Towers where a bigger budget and a proper bench saw him win far less, and Chester gave up on a repeat because “Phoenix Wash” would have sounded crap.

But I can see how Robbie found it so much easier with six players – you don’t do much coaching and everyone’s happy with their minutes.

I clearly tempted fate the previous night when i said, while I’d taken a couple of girls U-13 practices, I’d managed to escape coaching a game, because by 12.15 it was clear it was me and six U-12 boys facing the U-13 girls. It was easy to decide who started on the bench, he’d got there late as his mum had lost track of time (where’s the roll eyes emoji?) but it really didn’t matter anyway. The girls had only eight players, so we abandoned the normal five minute sub rule and I made a change roughly every three minutes. On the show court, it certainly gave them all a run.

The instructions were clear; Alex is your point guard, he brings the ball, up you get in a good position, the ball gets shared around and we only take good shots. And there’s something about the boys when they know they’ll see plenty of court time and the ball, they play so much better. I’ve even wondered if shorter games with just seven players might be the way forward. Four seven-minute periods (or maybe 15 minute halves) would still give them their 20 minutes of playing time, they’d just sit around less. We did have the luxury of a seventh man for the fourth quarter, he’d got there early for the short 3×3 session afterwards and I brought him in with seven on the clock, intending to let him play out the rest of the game. He was knackered after about four minutes and I took him out after six – I guess he’s the answer why shorter games/teams may not be the answer.

We were utterly rebounded, especially defensively where the bigger girls could easily collect five rebounds on one possession, but it still wasn’t a shock if they missed the sixth shot. The boys won 48-14, with Alex getting 18 points and a (conveniently round but probably fairly accurate) ten assists in about 34 minutes of a 41 minute game (his mother failed to start the clock at a start of a period). I don’t know where we go with the girls, their six, age, depth and experience should have been enough to at least make this competitive. On Sunday they face a U-12 boys development team who’ve never played a proper game before, if they lost that I’ll be hanging around outside a maternity ward signing up newly-borns.

With only five boys and seven girls the 3×3 was a bit of a washout as the girls wanted to play on their own. In the end we did killer. A bigger killer was watching the WBBL team – the reason we weren’t doing a full day’s CVL – lose to a Caledonia side who’d won once all season. It wasn’t pretty, it could be a long few months.

And talking of a long time, we then hung around for the under-13 development team’s opponents for the day’s final game. It’s a good job we gave up because they forgot to show up. So the ten players and Alex (obviously, he just hangs around waiting to get signed) were split into two teams by the coach for a 40 minute running clock game. Just like the previous game, the boys enjoyed playing rather than watching. It might be worth considering….

Alex’s (subless) team went up early but as they tired they started to jack up silly shots and we had the rarity of a timeout by the coach. A bonus three minutes due to the clock operator (again) failing didn’t help, and with 20 seconds remaining the game was tied. My shout of “next basket wins” failed to produce a score so the clock was stopped with 0.7 seconds on it and they kept playing for about a minute. As the kid who spent most of last season refusing to play because he was in the development team (and, tellingly, still is) chucked up a three, the club’s only undefeated coach this season (me, in case you’re not paying attention) said “that’s not a good shot”. Obviously it dropped and after a very long weekend, we all went home.

The departure of a legend

So Vince has departed from Lions. I won’t say I told you. I just told you something was going to happen, and I still can’t tell you why I couldn’t tell you. I think that makes sense, although I accept it’s a bit fucked up. You’ll just have to trust me.

But Lions won’t seem right without Vince. He was at London Arena in April 1997 on the night Leopards beat Hemel Royals to win the BBL title. He was still there at Watford the next season as we beat them again, ad he was there all those nights I watched the newly christened Lions at MK. Including the night I broke my big toe at midnight after we’d had a rather heated discussion being a dick. He was still there at Palace as he got us the court for a “home” game against Kent before Lions played Giants, and of course he’s been at the Copper Box for the last nine or so years.

He was basically Mr Lions/Royals.

I think most people have thought that, at some point, the new ownership would want their own man calling the play. They’re not there, yet, and I always question a coaching/managerial change if a club doesn’t have a replacement ready to step in. The Manchester United situation still puzzles me. I think the general assumption was that he’d move into a director’s role, but the timing of it pretty much made that impossible. and why I’m sure the true story (probably several versions of it), it’s not mind to tell.

I don’t know how he could be judged on Lions’ record since the pandemic started. They’ve rarely had their full squad available, there’s been times when it’s just a matter of getting games played  But for all of that they went 5-1 in the first stage of Europe and reached the second round where they’ve hardly disgraced themselves.

But what this guy did for the Hemel/MK/London franchise since he bought the club for £2k a quarter of a century ago shouldn’t be underestimated. I had a pretty big influence on Leopards, but Vince absolutely was Lions, he kept them going against some almost impossible odds at times and they’re playing European basketball at one of the best venues in the country because of him. They could easily have folded when they lost Bletchley, but he got them into a position where they became attractive to big money investors.

Not being the main man any more was always going to be a strange experience. I’m not sure whether I’d have wanted a role with new owners at Leopards, I’d have probably taken the chance to retire gracefully (you could argue I did) but then I was never going to be the coach.

Whatever Vince does next I’m sure it’ll be entertaining (his suits certainly will be), but it’ll never be quite the same at Lions without him.