I'm not quite sure who didn't read the script. Was it our players or the Scottish Rocks? And I'm not entirely sure how I neglected to do any contigency planning, but when we were down by 20 at half-time I had to give serious thoughts about not appearing in the BBL Playoff Final. Ouch!
And the weekend started off so good too...that 7 hour drive on the bus to Newcastle was wonderful. To be fair, the ride itself was only 7 hours, but since I left my house at 11.45 on Friday, the total time spent running about was about 10 hours. In precisely 0 of these 600 minutes did I consider we would lose against the Rocks. Oh and the ride home. Priceless. Thank God we didn't wait around to see the Eagles play the Rocks. That 7 hour return trip empty handed felt more like 14.
In retrospect, I can clearly see how it could happen. As I've mentioned, I think the concept of the playoff's in a 10 team league after a 38 game season that includes 2 other competitions to be entirely redundant. And as we had miraculously won the league and the cup, I guess we didn't want it as badly as the Rocks, whose coach Thorsten Leibenath, made it plain to me after the game just how "desperate" they were for a trophy this season. These guys put everything into the game, and despite having a 20 point lead at half time, they nearly choked the almighty choke as we narrowed the gap (twice) to but 3 points with a few minutes left.
The loss left me decidely empty though. The manner of the loss was bothersome. For champions to dig a pit that deep and toss themselves into it was a bit shocking. Meanwhile, to add to my woes, I was the courtside roving reporter for the BBC. Wandering around asking our assistant head coach Russell if we were going to pull it out every time out seemed a bit daft. Russell did make me laugh, really did, when he said, "during this last time-out I learned a few words I had never heard before..."
Credit where it's due, the Rocks were the better team on the day. However I don't want to add to that sentence, "...and wanted it more".
It leaves a few months in front of this team and organisation. The American players will be starting for home and the coming time off will be really welcome. Next season will be mammoth. One can never use the phrase 'make or break' in terms of a single season in the BBL. I've realised now that every season is a make or break. Every half season.
I guess it's safe to say that I would prefer not to go out and lose games like this in future; to teams that could want it more.
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