Wildcats coach Elderkin on playoffs, expectations & signings that never were

The Newcastle Eagles’ 102-87 victory on Tuesday night did nothing to help the cause of their North East neighbours, the Durham Wildcats. Already facing an uphill battle for play-off qualification, the Wildcats now face a Leicester Riders team that has the opportunity, and added incentive, of being able to seal the Championship at home with a win over Durham on Saturday.

Despite the daunting challenge that stands before the Wildcats this weekend, Head Coach Dave Elderkin is focusing on what best serves his own side.

“We’re making no special preparations this week, we’re relaxing and giving the guys a couple of days off when they come back,” explained Coach Elderkin knowing that a loss to the Riders will end the Wildcats’ play-off hopes for this year. “We can’t improve fitness at this time of the year, so what we’re trying to do is keep them fresh, bearing in mind that Leicester has had a pretty tough series of games of late.”

Since the 71-69 loss in the Trophy Final, the Riders have been subjected to an overloaded schedule which has seen them play six games in 11 days. The last game the Riders played was against the Manchester Giants, a team that the Wildcats find themselves battling with for the last remaining play-off spot.

Neither side has reached the post season in this incarnation and with the two clubs trailing the London Lions, who currently occupy the eighth seed and have a mathematical advantage over the chasing sides, the odds of the Wildcats extending their season past mid-April are not good. A positive of the Wildcats’ season has been Durham’s league record: nine wins in 2012 compared to just three in their first year, although Coach Elderkin said he wouldn’t be satisfied with settling for just an improved record in the team’s second season in the BBL.

“I think for any team, regardless of what your standing was the year before, (the aim) is to try to make the play-offs,” advised Coach Elderkin, whose side is currently six points behind the 8th seed, with three games remaining.

Continuing, Coach Elderkin added “We’ll be disappointed if we don’t get to the play-offs and that’s the way we should feel. But at the end of the day, we’ve won three times as many games as we did last year, we’ve played more consistently, we’ve reached a higher level when we’ve played at our very best and we should, at the end of the season, look back and be proud at the progress we’ve made this year.“

The frustration for Coach Elderkin and Wildcats fans will be the ‘What if…?’ factor – the question that tortures with it’s limitless possibilities and alternate scenarios – and in this case, applies to moments in late 2012 that Coach Elderkin felt would have moved the Wildcats further into the frame for play-off places had circumstances been different.

“We haven’t changed our team at all since the start of the season,” stated Coach Elderkin. “A lot of teams have obviously strengthened their roster, so it probably took us two months before we started to feel our way. We had such a good run either side of Christmas that we really did feel that the play-offs was a realistic place to be.

“No secrets – we still had one overseas spot that we could have filled. We looked at the situation very, very closely in October and again in December but we could not get the right package together for it. It was a player we were very keen on but his personal circumstances changed.”

Rather than wonder ‘what might have been’, Coach Elderkin is instead concentrating on where his team currently is:

“When I think of how strong the league is this year,” said Coach Elderkin, “I’m proud to still be involved with only three games to go.”