Tidying up

Sometimes there are a multitude of things I need to sat, but never get around to. So this is a bit of a spring clean. In the autumn – and it’s finally autumn, I’ve actually dispensed with shorts at times in the last few days.

Because there’s a big announcement tomorrow .

Dirk jnr will survive his Achilles injury. Sitting out a week’s training was hard for him. He’s missed two football matches, but – than the end of the game he was hurt in – he hasn’t missed a game for Wolves. The NBA dream remains alive.

The BE website drama. It appears to be drawing to a close, but my (surprising) confidence in them this week was justified. We have an almost full working system. The new game-day looks to be an improvement on the old one. Why we should be at the “nearly ready” stage on what is the fourth weekend of the season is the big question. It’s not one we’ll ever get an answer to, BE just seem to specialise in IT fuck-ups that cause an immense amount of work, grief and stress for their staff and everyone who runs clubs. The club stops at the top. But Mr Teflon is seemingly untouchable.

The next big disaster: This is one I’ve barely touched on. While BE celebrate the growth of the National League, mainly the juniors, they’ve forgotten one things; More games = more referees. And there aren’t more referees. There’s never enough referees, but it’s reaching crisis point. There are senior games now not happening because BE can’t get referees for them. There are numerous junior games being refereed by one official. We’ve never got to that point, but we’ve been on the brink a few times. I’ll only allow that to happen if that one referee is capable of doing it. Because it’s a virtually impossible job. But the standard in the seniors is plummeting by the year. It’s worth mentioning that Cait’s team went 3-0 in the three games I pretended to be their team manager, but the officiating in two of those games was truly terrible. Only the crew at Thames Valley – led by someone who is realistically on his way down due his age, but we desperately need him to stay around – were any good, and they were supposed to do a women’s D1 game straight afterwards.. It’s not going to end well.

The current big disaster. It’s similar to the one above. In their wisdom, the WBBL decided to cap officials’ fees, meaning that any table official/statto who does a round trip of more than 17 miles is now earning less that last year. Not everyone worries about the money but it doesn’t come as a surprise that people will no longer travel far and there’s a shortage as they prepare for their new season. I’m told they’re now relaxing the requirement for L3 officials, so having done the scoreboard for the first time in 18 years yesterday – and dishing out three technicals for players failing to sub out – I think I might have found my next career.

A bit sad. I’ve read  the BE regulations. It clearly states that second teams in the W/NBL are for the purposing of developing players. So reading “the veterans of Sheffield Hatters II are already into the next round, swiping aside neighbours Sheffield Elite Basketball Academy 133-39 earlier in the week” makes me wonder why the hell a WBBL team are fielding for GB internationals in their second team. And (this is where the sad bit comes in) why they’re chasing a 100-point win against a bunch of kids they’d already beaten by 84 a few days earlier. It’s neither big, nor clever.

The WEABL: Obviously this now matters to me. It’s not just Caitlin playing in it, I work for Oaklands Academy, and they’re in it. But I can’t see how the decision to kick Sheffield – who run a girls team – out and replace with Birmingham – who don’t – is going to end well. While Sheffield did have the option to keep their girls team in it, the fact that they’ve said no means that the northern conference is down to three teams for 23/24. Cait’s hoping for a one league system, 16 games would hardly kill them, but I think it’s more likely that they play teams in the other conference once. The big question is why new DiSE academies are being allowed to enter without girls sections, and why the likes of Myerscough are still operating without one. By next season just two of the six northern conference colleges will be running a girls’ programme (Nottingham only play WEABL) while Canterbury, who had plans to run one, are being kicked out of the southern conference. Quite possibly as champions, which would be a bit embarrassing

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Home comforts for Blazers

Derby Trailblazers 82 (23, 46, 59)  Essex Rebels 61 (18, 33, 49)              

 Trailblazers; first ever league match at the University of Derby proved to be a great success, as the club recorded their opening league win of the season, beating Essex Rebels 82-61 to move to 1-1 win in league play.

A big third quarter from Malcolm Smith saw him top score with 22 points, twelve of which came in that period. The Blazers co-captain added six rebounds, two steals and one assist as he led the Blazers to victory. Corey Johnson converted four three-pointers on his way to 16 points, adding eight rebounds and five assists. Sam Masten, Raheem May-Thompson and Jonas Dieterich all finished with 13 points, with Masten once again going close to a triple-double, with eight rebounds and nine assists.

Elsewhere, Rob Marsden controlled the paint in emphatic style, pulling down six offensive and nine defensive rebounds and generally making life very difficult for Essex’s big men.

The Rebels were led by Victor Olarerin, who finished on 17 points, despite missing seven of his nine three-point attempts. Luke Busumbru added 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists, while Elias Poorman finished ten points and ten boards and American Trey Chapman was restricted to just six points.

The biggest difference between this game and the defeat against Nottingham the previous weekend was Derby’s defensive integrity. Rather than giving up over 100 points as they had done against the Hoods, they restricted the Rebels to just 61 points, which was a huge factor according to Trailblazers’ head coach Matt Shaw: “All in all, it was a pleasing performance. It was good to get a win and to hold a team like Essex to such a low total, which showed a lot of improvements defensively. There’s still a lot more improvements we can make, but there were an awful lot of positives we can take forward,” he said.

Despite Essex winning the tip and scoring the first basket through Chapman, the Trailblazers were pretty much in control, aside from a brief moment in the second quarter, when Essex took the lead by a single point.

Two quick fouls on drawn by Marsden and Smith on Chapman saw the Rebels 6’8” American centre consigned to the bench with 3’43” on the clock and he surprisingly didn’t return until the start of the third quarter, perhaps unwittingly helping the Blazers in their quest to secure a first league win of the season.

In the intervening time, Derby transformed a one-point lead into a thirteen-point half-time advantage, putting them firmly in the driving seat.

The Blazers were 23-18 ahead at the end of the first quarter and a three-point play from May-Thompson briefly stretched their advantage to eight points, before three-pointers from Riccardo Massafra and Johnson effectively cancelled each other out.

Momentum then switched in favour of the visitors, as Rory Winter scored a driving lay-up and then converted a pair of three-pointers to tie the scores at 29-all. Smith then split a pair of free-throws before a Busumbru lay-up briefly put Essex ahead.

However, Derby responded with an 8-0 run to establish a lead they would never relinquish in the remainder of the game. The run was halted as Olarerin made one of two at the line, but a basket from Smith was followed by a pair of Dieterich three-pointers, both of which came from Charlie Brown assists.

That took the score to 46-33 at the break, but Essex began the third quarter with a 9-nil run, setting nerves jangling amongst the large crowd at the University of Derby Sports Centre. They need not have worried though, as May-Thompson scored back-to-back lay-ups.

A dunk from Champman trimmed the gap to four points, but a triple from Dieterich and scores from May-Thompson and Smith stretched the lead to 58-47. A fourth foul on Chapman with 1’39” remaining in the third quarter probably spelt the end of the Rebels challenge.

Marsden made one of two at the line, meaning Derby took a ten-point lead into the final quarter, when an 8-1 run put them 67-50 ahead with seven minutes left. The closest Essex came after that point was when they twice cut the gap to thirteen points, but two late three-pointers from Johnson helped the Blazers stretch the lead to 82-61, which fittingly was their biggest lead of the game.

Reflecting on the first ever D1 basketball game at the University of Derby, Trailblazers Chairman Dave Woodyatt said it was a huge achievement for the club:

“It was a big project to put on a game day at an alternative venue which is bigger, different, across the city and out of our comfort zone, but we achieved it both on and off the court, so I’d like to thank the players, coaches and our team of incredible volunteers.

“Our spectators didn’t let us down either. They tried the new venue and appreciated it and we also saw some new faces, including some who joined us having been introduced to the club from recent work in schools which some of the D1 Men and Academy players have been involved in, so let’s hope they got the bug,” he said.

Not such a bad dream

The Basketball Gods did not approve of my plan to put off the debut of my Year 7 girls’ school team. I was told (by the head of PE, not God) there are too many school fixtures – a fact I can’t knock even if a lot of them are netball games – to put one off and let’s face it, I felt a bit dirty about the whole idea.

So we faced the most successful school in the competition – sadly I can’t name any schools or competitions in this article as I have a stalker who would just love to know where I worked so he could mock up messages that I am supposed to have sent him – at home on Thursday. To be fair to my school, they take basketball pretty seriously and they’re reasonably decent at it, but this school has had a (sometimes) national league club attached to it and send far more players to other local national league clubs than we do.

So I went into this with trepidation. I had my doubts about the team selection as it included girls I’ve only seen in music, or maths or whatever I’ve taken this week, and they hadn’t shown up to either the after school club or Monday’s “final trial”. Two of that group never showed up, and the twin of one would never have made it even close to the team if  I’d seen her play.

While waiting for the opposition to turn up, and needing a tenth player to try and have a quick, final practice on a decent court, I spotted a tall girl I definitely wanted, so I signed up on the spot and – for good measure – her mate, as well. No fucking around with broken registration systems for us.

Tall girl went straight into my starting five, we needed size. The team I’m going to call “Yellows” (I’m unwilling to reveal if they were really in yellow, but Towers were in yellow and I hate them) were not small. I was told that their #7 had played for Essex & London. I didn’t reveal that girls can play U-11 county basketball  pretty much just by turning up, but I did ask just what London team she’d played for. Because there’s only one rep side for her, and she certainly wasn’t Aspire level.  I also started the slightly terrifying girl in the hope she might scare them, but she missed the first minute while she borrowed a pair of trainers as her were falling apart. This was a bit sad, she hasn’t got anything better and her family can’t buy her anything better. She’s getting a pair of Cait’s old trainers – I can’t go the whole hog and give her boots, that would look a bit weird – and one day there might be some room in the garage if i keep giving her old footwear away. She was replaced by a girl who appeared to enjoy herself but can’t catch a ball.

They were clearly better than us. But we took the lead. They shot, and one of their players grabbed the rebound and just stared at the basket. “she’s going to shoot it” I muttered. She did. Perfect jump shot, used her knees and the square on the backboard, exactly as I coach my lot. Textbook stuff. Just at the wrong end.  The poor Y10 doing the book didn’t have a clue what to do. I hadn’t even named a captain, who’s supposed to get the points, in such a lunatic situation  “just give it to the coach” I said (magnanimously), and for quite a while I was the team’s leading scorer. Because they scored the next 12 points. At the right end.

We lost 42-14. I ran the bench for the final three minutes. They did okay, I had visions of a 50+ margin. They just need to understand it’s not netball. One I can get them to forget that fucking pretend sport for a while, they’ll all be a lot better. Amongst the carnage that was 40 minutes of running clock basketball for 21 kids who’d never played before (well, maybe Yellow #7 had, just not for Golden State Warriors as seemed to be the rumours), there were some flashes of ability.  One girl has loads of ability, she just needs to get used to the game. That applies to all of them to lesser degrees, there’s seven I reckon I get to the point of being able to vaguely impersonate U-12 basketball players by the end of the season. Which is why I chose this age group.  I’m not a brilliant coach, I’ve never had time to seriously consider becoming one, so starting with kids who have no idea should give some easy wins. Then hopefully a couple will go to clubs where they’ll become real players.

We have an entire double court on Thursday. I’m hoping for 20 girls so everyone can play on a proper (not quite full) court in the second half of the session. And in time we can work on getting that losing margin against the Yellow down, and not rely on being leading scorer for a few – terrifying – minutes.

I’m looking forward to it already.

Trailblazers look to halt Essex Rebellion

Derby Trailblazers begin a new chapter in their history this Saturday, as they bring Division One Men’s basketball to the University of Derby Sports Centre on Kedleston Road.

The game against Essex Rebels is the first of four fixtures to be played at the venue this season and comes after the Trailblazers and the University agreed a new four-year coaching framework, which will see the two organisations working much closer together than ever before.

Trailblazers Head Coach Matt Shaw is certainly looking forward to the occasion: “We can’t wait for our first game at Derby University” he said. “It should be a really exciting opportunity for us and hopefully we’ll get a bigger crowd than normal and I’m sure the fans will enjoy the atmosphere in a new venue for us,

While Derby were defeated by Nottingham Hoods on the opening day of the league season, the Rebels got their season off to a perfect start, with a 73-66 home win over Worthing Thunder.

Essex look a much stronger outfit this season, having kept the core of last season’s side together and added some established players from other clubs. Luke Busumbru played with Surrey Scorchers in the BBL last season and was previously at Team Solent Kestrels in D1, from where Zain Poorman has also arrived.

They have also brought in Victor Olarerin, who has previously suited up for both Nottingham and Thames Valley Cavaliers and added a pair of American players. Trey Chapman is a 6’8” centre from Hawaii Pacific University, while Connor Nelson is a 6’6” forward from Washington based American University Eagles.

Last weekend, the American duo led the Rebels in scoring, with Nelson netting 14 points and Champman 13, with the latter also being one of three Essex players to pull down a game high seven rebounds.

Olarerin was the third player to reach double digits, scoring 12 points, while Busumbru led the team in assists, dishing off four dimes to his teammates.

Derby were led by the impressive Sam Masten, who had 32 points, eight assists and five rebounds, while Corey Johnson added 24 points and Malcolm Smith a further 20. Jonas Dieterich came off the bench to add 12 points and Raheem May-Thompson finished with eight.

Looking ahead to Saturday’s game, Coach Shaw says Essex are a very different proposition to the side Derby comfortably beat both home and away last season:

“I think the Rebels are going to be a real challenge. They’ve improved tremendously from last season, adding some quality British players and two outstanding Americans, while retaining a lot of the guys they had previously.

“We know we’re going to have to be at the top of our game, but at this stage of the season, a lot of the focus is about us and about trying to get better every week. At the moment, we need to improve at the defensive end if we’re going to come out with a win on Saturday, but it’s been a good week of practice and we’re confident we can do that,” he said.

Wednesday afternoon fever

I always promised myself that I’d see as much of Caitlin and Alex’s careers as possible. Being at Oaklands for all home games at the weekends obviously means away games will be few and far between, but Wednesday afternoon academy games are different. I go part-time after half-term, which is about half a term too late as the last time I didn’t either go to Oaklands or work (or both) was Sunday September 2. I’m a bit on the tired side. But, as luck would have it, the girls’ only away game before half-term was at Ipswich, they tip off relatively late at 3:45pm  and the school I can’t reveal that I work at (due to having a stalker) is nearer to Ipswich than my home. So I took an (unpaid) hour off work, missed out on Y8 music, and took a brisk trip down the A12 in my shiny new car. 

I went there without any illusions about Wolves winning. Cait expected to get hammered, the teams are at different ends of the process with Copplestone being dominated by older – generally third year – players, while half of the Wolves roster were making their WEABL debut, and unlike Ipswich they all get to play every game. 

But I never quite expected the massacre that followed.

The hosts’ press absolutely killed Wolves. It was like one of the U-12 games I’ve endured where one team just can’t get above their own three-point line. And when they did, they’d worked so hard to get there, they chucked up panic shots.. While I could question how such a tough press could operate without getting into foul trouble, it only effected the margin of victory. It’s a bit pointless moaning when you’re 28-2 down at the first break.

Yeah, 28-2. 

There’s no way back from that. The press barely relented, that’s not a complaint. This is no longer kids’ basketball, There’s no mercy rule. It reinforces why I (very reluctantly) pulled our six (possibly five) girl U-16 team out of their game a couple of weeks ago. The idea of sending mainly Y10 players into such a situation filled me with horror, but even my baby – who is only eight hours & 40 minutes too old for that fixture – can cope with this. We’ll call it a learning process. 

That baby has been in a bit of a shooting slump, but she has clearly done enough to persuade the coach to keep her on the floor, and although the shots haven’t dropped she hasn’t fallen into the trap of either taking a million shots to get through it or stopping shooting altogether. She looked genuinely shocked to be brought back into the game with just under three minutes left, but certainly didn’t treat it as garbage time (that started in the first period) so it was good to see a triple finally drop for what was Wolves’ final score of the game.

It finished 89-24. Ouch. I’d have taken lube if I’d known, although the wooden benches behind the basket gave me a numb bum, anyway.  

There will be other days like this; Ipswich at home and the two games against CoLA. The games against Barking Abbey should be competitive, and Wolves look stronger on paper than JMA (Reading) and Itchen (Solent), although we’ll be playing them on wood. Ha ha.

The stats were a nonsense, I reckon they missed at least three rebounds for Cait, as many steals, and assist (which is a big deal when you only score eight field goals), a block and a minute of playing time. I’m sure someone else got her rebounds, steals and (obviously) her minute, but it’s a bit of a mockery. W/EABL academies have been pushed into doing live stats, which is great in practice but getting two people qualified/capable at the weekend is hard enough. Wednesday afternoons is close to bloody impossible. Doing it from game tape is barely an alternative option as they have to be with BE by 23:59 on the day of the game.

So we’re left with a page of pretty meaningless numbers.

I reckon Cait finished with four points, four rebounds, five steals, an assist and a block in 26 minutes. Not fantastic – great stats in a 65-point loss are unlikely – but better than those showing online.

Those numbers will be forgotten in time. The important thing is she looks comfortable in the academy team. There were other options – Ipswich included – but I doubt she’d be starting, and regularly playing 25+ minutes. Ipswich can offer D1 basketball at the weekend, but rookies don’t play, and getting a D1 champions medal (this looks like it could definitely be their year) without getting on the court very often is a bit of a hollow success. And she’s enjoying it. Which is important. Even after a 65-point massacre, she was okay. Crazy though it sounds, knowing the game is over five minutes after tip is probably easier than losing by two. 

And In a weird way, I enjoyed it too. The positives were I missed taking Y8 music (obviously that cost me money, but I didn’t pay as much tax/NI, either), leaving me only nine music lessons this week. The trip was absolutely perfect, and I filled up with diesel at an eye-water 12p per litre than the cheapest I can get in whole 50-mile trip between my work/home/Oaklands. and i got to se Cait’s WEABL debut. Both she and the team will have better days, and hopefully I’ll get to see them. . 

Too much basketball

There, I said it. I should close the blog down now. I feel dirty even writing it, but the fact it’s taken this long to review last Saturday’s action at Oaklands speaks volumes.

Five games is just too much. It will only happen once more this season, a weekend in February where we also have three home games on the Sunday, caused by a November weekend when we don’t have Oaklands. Getting refs and table officials for that should be fairly challenging.

They say no good deed goes unpunished, and agreeing to tip at 10.30am for the U-12 boys against West Suffolk Wolves meant we needed two different configurations for the venue during the day, as development practice didn’t finish until 10.30am.

Suffolk (we’ll leave out the Wolves suffix, it’s get messy) originally entered two teams in this league, but once parents realised they had to get off their backsides, it quickly became one. It was good to see five girls in the squad (officially it’s a mixed league, in practice that means the occasional girl) but they were hopelessly overmatched. It was 29-4 at the first break, and their big (a girl who played in our 3×3) fouled out in the second period before we closed out the game with a 16-0 fourth quarter. Happy days, I hope the other Wolves keep going, but I think even at that age group the girls need to be with their own kind or it’ll be a long season.

I wasn’t expecting much from our U-14 girls. I’d had to nick their best player so the U-16 girls could field at team in London, and they hadn’t exactly torn up their pre-season tournament, but they gave Bristol one hell of a fight before going down by two points. If they’d understood fouling to stop the clock they might even have won, but free-throw shooting is a dying art at this level. I did feel a bit bad. If I hadn’t moved the best girl up an age group, they’d have won. But if our U-16 girls conceded their game for the second week running, we might well be kicked out of the league. we effectively ended up sacrificing this one to save the U-16s. In my defence, pretty much everyone who was paying attention expected them to get gubbed anyway.

And it rolled on to the U-12 girls, who faced early-birds Kent. The visitors probably thought it wasn’t worth the 165-minute wait – although where else in the NBL could you kill time at a free zoo? – as they went down 106-40 We had our own little drama with the lack of a coach ten minutes before the game, but got through it mainly by being considerably bigger than them. Again, I hope a drubbing doesn’t stop them continuing. Our U-12s won’t be playing this week as hosts Hackney can’t raise a side. It’s a tough age group, I remain unconvinced by the idea anyone playing national league at this level.

We then set down the side-court and set-up the show court for the biggest game of the day,  as Wolves beat Cardiff in an abysmally refereed game. The crew I recruited for a faster, closer, final game of the day were considerably better and didn’t travel from the other side of the moon (on Oaklands College’s dime) which is pretty telling.

And as fifth game of the day goes, the 89-85 victory for Wolves’ WBBL team against Essex Rebels was a pretty decent watch. I was just bloody knackered by then. Anyone in the gym who didn’t know it was a friendly would never have guessed. Both  teams were missing key players – Essex more than Wolves, it should be noted – but it was a really good advert for the WBBL.

It was just a bit too much.

Hersey rides the bus

It sounds like MJ’s little dalliance with something that was never going to last. And better than “Dave rides the bus”, even if the sad demise of Whatsbev.com means that I’m never called Hersey any more.

Anyway, Sunday saw me jump on the academy team’s bus for a Women’s National Cup tie at Thames Valley II. This was the second straight week I’d done such a thing. It’ll probably be the last time – at least at a weekend – this season as my life is now spent working for Oaklands College running the home games. There’s a bit of a newsflash for you all.. There’s a reason there was no big fanfare. Maybe I’ll explain one day. But this has been my life since the beginning of September.

It’s not a bad job. sitting in a gym, watching basketball. It’s actually better paid than taking a class load of kids for a subject I neither understand, or care about. I like doing both, though, so I’m living the dream,

The downside is that I miss my kids’ away games. Hence I missed Alex buggering up his Achilles. So when I rearranged the weekend’s games to give us an epic five-game day on Saturday and the D3 men’s side went out of the National Cup, I was able to offer the venue for Herts Basketball Association to run their new CVL. Which meant I could go to Thames Valley. So I did.

This could be called  “Hersey eventually rides the bus” because it was VERY late, and took a few frantic phone calls before we finally set off. Which gave me time to look at the empty and dark sports hall because – for reasons I don’t really understand – the Herts CVL didn’t happen.

We needn’t have worried. There was very little traffic, and (predictably given they only tipped of 1:45 before our scheduled start time) the junior game was just starting its fourth period as we shuffled in. We eventually tipped off at Dirk o’clock (14:41) which – even if I could have slept extra in the 51 minutes we waiting for the bus and 26 minutes hanging around for the game – I took as a good omen.

And it was, eventually.

Cait started again, almost two years younger than the only second year starter, with the three available third years completing the five. And they started pretty well to lead 11-8 at the first break before finding it tough going against a zone in the second period to trail 26-22 at half-time. There’s a level where a zone produces basketball. And this is that level.

Having sat down during the final five minutes of the first period, Cait returned with 8:36 on the clock in the second quarter, and she played all of which proved to be a key third period. A 9-4 run saw Wolves open a one point lead with 6:29 on the clock. That made little difference as some great defence saw Wolves score the next nine points to force another timeout with exactly four on the clock. That break did work to an extent as the teams shared 14 points to give Wolves a ten point lead at the final break – although fat fingers meant the parents receiving my score updates thought it was 57-37 at the final break. Whoops.

But they’re kids. This is rarely going o be comfortable, and the need for the coach to give all (well, at least most) of her roster minutes saw the unit that had built a 13-point lead sit down three minutes into the final stanza* and in common with the previous week, that let the hosts back into the game. Cait & co returned with 3:33 on the clock but the hosts had their tails up having cut the lead to 55-51, and it was nip and tuck from there on

It was 61-59 to Wolves with 65 seconds on the clock and both teams had shots and turnovers as it ran agonisingly slowly down. Cavs had the ball with about eight seconds on the clock. Wolves forced a turnover and got the ball to Cait with 3sec left, despite a home player running into her and throwing herself to the floor, Cait got the ball over half court and the game was won. I reflected it was one of those “this is how I die moments”. I could feel my heart thumping (so at least this proves I have one). It’s not a bad way to go, conking out in the dying seconds of a game, just not yet. I need to sort out table officials for the final fortnight of October.

It wasn’t Cait’s greatest shooting performance, finishing with four points from eight shots, although they were all decent looks. But she proved she can be effective for them even without scoring. Fourteen board in 31 minutes isn’t shabby, adding four assists, two steals and the (now expected) block isn’t shabby, and not everything she does shows on the stats

They also played on Saturday, as we finally got referees and a short-handed Cardiff City team. It was a bit more comfortable with a final 80–66 victory, but again the need to give everyone a game saw decent leads disappear before starters returned to steady things. In the end the Welshies just ran out of steam. I think Cait had nine points, the rest of her stats are on her computer which FIBA Live Stats appears to have utterly fucked up and now needs the Oaklands IT department to mend. Not good.

They’ll face tougher tests – they’re at Ipswich this afternoon – but the coach is doing a really good job of balancing giving minutes to the younger players (half the roster are first years, a couple of whom have very little experience) while winning games. They won’t win every week, getting to the Promised Land is a really big ask, although I suspect the rotation would be tightened down the stretch if that became a real possibility.

The coach is a rookie, as well, which is why she wants a bloke called Hersey as her team-manager. Which is nice, because it’s going to be fascinating to watch how they players develop. But sadly that might be the last weekend this season that Hersey rides the bus..

* That one’s for Tony Leopard

The big question

Are there exactly no scores from the the recent weekend’s senior or junior NBL games on BE’s website because the new system is going live imminently or because the creaking system has finally collapsed.

I’m hoping it’s the former, Tracy says I’m being unusually optimistic.

Banging your head on a wall

It seems that at least one person agrees with my rant on Sunday that it’s a bit draining when you put a lot of work/money into doing things properly, and other clubs simply don’t bother. Things will always go wrong occasionally. it’s when there’s no attempt to get them right I get the hump.

The madness of junior basketball

This could be a weekly feature. It could probably be a daily feature. Only a week ago we had this

This week Derby Trailblazers U-16 girls made a 160 mile round-trip to Northants, and were trailing in the third period when the home coach picked up a second tech. With no other adult in the building licenced, the game was abandoned and everyone – including one of my three readers – went home. Blazers get a 20-0 win.

Meanwhile the legend that is Ibrahim Gariba found himself stranded on a busy dual carriageway after his “new” (ie recently purchased second hand) car conked out. He was rescued by a passing parent and the game eventually tipped off a bit (well, 57 minutes) late. Hosts London Legends tried to persuade our parents that we could tip without any licenced adult on the bench – that was never happening – but were pretty good about it. We then discovered that if a player’s three has a decent arc on it, it hits the ceiling. shades of Granby Halls back in the day.

And the complete opposite happened at Oaklands where Kent Crusaders U-12 girls arrived at 11.45am for a 2.30pm. I crapped myself, there were mumblings about them going home as they repeatedly claimed we’d confirmed it as 12.30pm. They looked a bit sheepish when the confirmation email was found, and I breathed a sign of relief an reflected that arriving 165 minutes before tip-off would make Laszlo Nemeth a happy man. They used the time constructively, getting to know each other as – like both our U-12 and our U-13 boys teams – they barely know each other, and spent part of the time at Oaklands Zoo. We might be the only club to have its own zoo.. The story doesn’t have a happy ending as Crusaders were beaten by 66 points despite Wolves being coached by someone they’d never met.

Finally, our U-16 girls arrived at Capital City Academy to find that there were no referees for their game against London Elite. One of the table officials did the game on hi own, with the other table person do both jobs. They didn’t blame the overworked pair for their 49-point loss.

It’s a crazy world out there in junior basketball.