Jets at Sharks – BBL Cup Preview
BBL Cup Preview 12th October 2012
One Health Sharks Sheffield vs Cheshire Jets
One Health Sharks Sheffield return to action this Friday following a two week break, with a home BBL Cup fixture against Cheshire Jets.
Sharks will be hoping better times are around the corner, having gone 0-3 in their opening Championship games. Cheshire have won one and lost one but remain grateful just to even be on the court following a fraught summer when they nearly went out of existence.
Jets’ player-coach James Hamilton didn’t have the luxury of a pre-season so he can be forgiven somewhat as his side get to know each other. An opening 80-72 defeat to Leicester was nothing short of miraculous given the hastily-assembled roster at his disposal.
This was followed up with an 88-64 win over Mersey Tigers and with three imports now in place, things are starting to progress. 6’ 8” centre Alif Bland was the latest of those imports with 17 valuable points on debut to add to a similar figure from Texan guard Gabe Haskins and 14 from former Tennessee State forward Kenny Moore. Interestingly, Moore takes to the court where his brother Mike Cook had a stellar season for Jets’ opponents in 2009-10, earning the BBL MVP award to boot.
Speaking ahead of the game, Hamilton was very blunt and to the point over both the situation he finds himself in having little or no room to chop and change his squad, and also how things will pan out in the competition that will provide the first silverware of the season in the BBL: “I have what I have, and I’ll need to work hard on that and always look to improve. With any knockout competition, there is nothing more I can say than who performs better on the day; it’s as simple as that.”
A blank weekend will hopefully have given Atiba Lyons breathing space as Sheffield look for their first competitive win of the 2012/13 season. Rumours abound of a third import player, presumably a centre, as Sheffield look to plug a gap on offence and defence.
Current bigs Olu Babalola and Mike Tuck have struggled to impose themselves in defeats against Leicester, Manchester and Surrey and Lyons is only too aware that further application is required.
“The Jets will be a tough team for us. We have struggled so far this season taking care of the ball and rebounding so that is our focus this game. We need the mindset to limit easy transition points and turnovers for scores,” said the Sharks Coach speaking to ukamericansportsfans.com.
One player who has adapted well to the BBL is point guard Gage Daye. The Newark, NJ native is currently averaging 20.3 ppg at this early stage with 5.7 assists and has taken to his role as the heartbeat of the Sheffield side with aplomb. The Sharks will need Daye to be on top form in the straight knockout Cup competition as the Yorkshire men look to progress to the next round and pit their wits against either Glasgow or old rivals Manchester.
Tip off is at 7.30pm this Friday night (12th October) at the English Institute of Sport, Coleridge Road, Sheffield.
For more information visit either www.sharksbasketball.co.uk or www.jetsbasketball.org.uk
For game tweets follow @billybadknees.
