P11 - Durham Wildcats: Yes, they finished bottom of the pile but i'd say Durham have nothing to be ashamed of in their rookie BBL season, they put on a great game night at their Newton Aycliffe base and deserved more than the 3 wins they eventually managed. Mario Flaherty had a good season battling manfully in the middle with Mike Capocci and Ralph Bucci addding support on the scoring front. DJ Glavan was a steady distributor at the point and Coach Dave Elderkin made sure they scrapped to the final buzzer in every game.
P10 - Mersey Tigers: From a hat trick of trophies last term to a long season of struggles and doom and gloom this time around...I'm guessing that Tony Garbelotto will be glad to see the back of this season. The team was put together incredibly late amid all sorts of rumours regarding money or lack of it and it showed. David Aliu was the only returnee and he fought hard every time he suited up, along with Myles Hesson they were the only bright spots on a short roster that had little or no back up for whatever starting five was put out. Antonio Bustamante provided some Spanish panache in a short stay and Devan Bailey learnt fast over the season but they limped over the line running a 6 man crew which doesn't bode well for next season....
P9 - MK Lions: I'm certain that Vince Macauley didn't envisage a second season out of the play offs when he and Coach Mike New put this team together over the summer. If at the end of the season you had the League's leading scorer [Demarius Bolds] and the leading rebounder [Daniel Northern] on your team you wouldn't have expected a 9th place finish but that was the outcome as they imploded over the final third of season. Add in Stefan Gill, Justin Dobbins, Adrien Sturt and Robert Youngblood and you have the ingredients for a top 6 spot surely? Maybe it was too many ego's or too many would be coaches?
Who knows?
I'll leave the "B" Team story alone too as it's been done to death although it was a tremendous spur for Riders to rub Macauley's nose in it over the season!
P8 - Guildford Heat: They snuck into the final play off spot but had a woefully inconsistent season. Mike Martin's powers seem to be on the wane, Julius Joseph isn't getting any younger and add to this the poor summer recruiting with the starting PG and C leaving in pretty short order which added all together is a recipe for struggle. Coach Creon Raftopoulous added BBL experience in Lasker, Holmes and Durant as the year progressed but an utter thumping at Newcastle in the play offs saw that they exited at the first hurdle......
P7 - Sheffield Sharks: Another team to struggle with recruitment, BJ Jenkins never arrived, big Justin Dobbins left mid season to be replaced by little Ryan Patton and their lack of size left Mike Tuck and Olu Babalola with a mammoth job inside every night, a job which never looked like being completed. A Play off Qtr Final match up with Leicester proved beyond them too as they were clinically put away by 41pts over the two legs. Coach Lyons has some problems to address over the summer.
P6 - Cheshire Jets: Coach Lavery did a tremendous job in my opinion to get the Jets into 6th place with basically a 6 man rotation operating on a seemingly threadbare budget. Adam Brown had some big nights at PG with the canny Irishman Colin O'Reilly providing a more than solid foil at the 2/3 spot. Bill Cole and Matt Schneck were consistent towers in the middle and the late pick up of the excellent Kai Williams gave the Jets a big confidence boost to finish the season very strongly and advance into the Semi's after toppling Worcester over two hard fought legs on successive nights, something that didn't look possible in the early going of the season.
P5 - Glasgow Rocks: The Rocks never seemed far away from an injury crisis at any point of the season with Player Coach Sterling Davis, guards EJ Harrison and Mychal Green plus centre DeAundre Cranston all seeing long spells on the treatment table. Given those problems, a top 5 finish is to be applauded and this was achieved off the back of some scintillating guard play from Harrison and Green who had a great rookie season. Gareth Murray returned home and provided inside/outside help with Andrew Wedemire and Danny Huffor adding some offensive/defensive spark too. They made short work of Plymouth over the two legs in the Play Off QF to set up a mouth watering SF with Leicester.....
P4 - Plymouth Raiders: If Milton Keynes weren't expecting a 9th place finish, then Plymouth Raiders fans would have scoffed at you at mid season if you had said they would have finished 4th and without any trophies. They met Newcastle in two finals but came up short both times and finished the regular season losing 4 of their last 5 to drop to their final spot of 4th. Surely a team of Jeremy Bell, James Jones, Lehmon Colbert, Anthony Rowe and Paul Williams should have enough talent to bring home some success? If Coach Gavin Love returns he will surely be under massive pressure to deliver next time around??
P3 - Worcester Wolves: Not many pundits would have placed Worcester in the top 3 at the commencement of hostilities but third is where they finished. Rookies Richie Gordon and Tommy Freeman were stand out performers all season long and Sherrad Prezzie-Blue was a steady performer at the point. Veteran Lithuanian Arnas Kazlauskas bombed away ungainly all season and Spaniard Carlos Fernandez did all the dirty work. Coach James would have been pleased with the 3rd place finish but aghast at their Play Off QF exit to Cheshire which ended their season somewhat earlier than they were anticipating.....
P2 - Leicester Riders: I'll save my thoughts for the season end, whenever that may be!!!
P1 - Newcastle Eagles: The long time league leaders became the league winners as Eagles swept all before them in a powerful display of tough D and sharp outside shooting. Smith, Gause, Chapman, Thomson, Defoe, Flournoy and Bridge were a tough combination all year and deserved the title. Trophy and BBL Cup titles were added to the list with only the Play Off yet to be claimed, who knows if they can grab all 4 pots?
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