A Tale of Two Coaches

Off-season in the British Basketball League is an opportunity for BBL coaches to retain the previous season’s best players, recruit new talent and level the playing field. The task, in theory, is a simple one.

But as one BBL coach knows, practice is harder than theory when it comes to ensuring your club has a successful summer.

Head coach of the Surrey Heat, Creon Raftopoulos, is well aware of the financial restrictions at his club as he enters his fourth year with the Heat and it doesn’t make for encouraging reading for Heat fans.

“Unfortunately, where we stand financially we are going to be a club that’s going to be a development club so to speak,” said a deflated-sounding Coach Raftopoulos on Monday. The heaviness in the coach’s voice could have been his frustration at watching the London Lions, Worcester Wolves and Leicester Riders announce signings less than 40 days since the final game of the 2012/13 season or it could have been the effects of sickness that he’s been battling.

Whatever the cause, Coach Raftopoulos is bracing himself for a testing few months.

“One of the main focuses over the summer is finding young British players coming out of university or making the step up from EBL Division 1. It’s one of the toughest and most difficult things.

“If you take Leicester for example, they’ve got a great set-up going with Loughborough University, which is absolutely great, so you get a lot of talent going to the university as well as running the AASE programme. Newcastle are doing the same thing, Worcester have got the university which helps them a lot. So where we are, we have improved our partnership with Surrey university but it’s not a sports university. So getting that talent is really a challenge.”

As Coach Raftopoulos highlights, the rewards of a university-link are enormous.

The Leicester Riders, winners of the 2012/13 BBL Cup, League and Play-offs, have reaped the benefits from such a connection with important role players and Loughborough university students, Jamell Anderson and Connor Washington, providing key contributions throughout the last two seasons.

Anderson and Washington are just two of the Riders’ four returning home-grown players, a situation that is alien to Coach Paternostro who has previously had to start each term with a new team.

“This season was unique in that the British guys we had, all expressed a desire to come back and we were able to get that done,” said Paternostro. “The guys that came back all really enjoyed their time here and really see the potential and understand what we’re trying to do.

“It’s important to have good British talent and over the last few seasons we’ve been building up with that, not only at the top level, but in our academy and at university and we feel like we’re trying to fill our programme with good British talent and getting them to stay for multiple years helps with the continuity.”

Both Paternostro and Raftopoulos have scheduled trips to the States for next month to carry out scouting on potential imports, despite having opened talks with their existing trios.

“All the players that we had on the roster last season we have talked to and continue to maintain a healthy dialogue,” explained Paternostro, talking about Couisnard, Taylor and Fraley. “Everyone understands that I’m always looking for many options but certainly those guys are guys that I have a tremendous amount of respect for and admire the way they play.”

At this stage for Raftopoulos, signing import players is a luxury, coming second on the ‘Things to Do’ list behind the nagging issue of finding British talent. It’s a search that continues closer to home and one that may fill Heat fans with positivity for the 2013/14 season.

“Julius Joseph I feel like could give us another season at least. Albert Margai was really good for us also. Sam Cricelli had a great season. I’d love to get a deal to bring Cricelli back.

“We’ve had a little bit of a chat,” added Coach Raftopoulos.