Jets @ Raiders: BBL Championship preview

Friday 19th October

UCP Marjon Plymouth Raiders vs Cheshire Jets

Considering the very difficult circumstances surrounding Cheshire Jets over the past week, they will be hoping for damage limitation at the Pavilions this Friday.

Since the official announcement on 6th September, there have been up’s and down’s a-plenty, but none more so than in the last seven days.

Knocked out from the BBL Cup, a suspension of their player-coach James Hamilton, a 39-point defeat at home to Worcester Wolves, the resignation of Hamilton, before today, Chez Marks stepping into the hole left by the man who brought him back from his year-long sabbatical.

Caught your breath yet? OK, we’ll carry on.

In comparison to all of this, Plymouth have been eased very softly into the season in one sense considering the lack of fixtures so far, but according to ex-Jets captain Colin O’Reilly, who made the switch to the South East side along with fellow Jet Matthew Schneck, their preparation has been extensive and intense.

“While it has been frustrating to not play every week, you have to play the cards your dealt,” said the Irish international, “The breaks have given us a chance to basically have a six week preseason which should benefit us greatly as the season goes on. Also now that the games will start coming thick and fast from this weekend on we should see an improvement in our play and learn more about each others styles of play.

“As a team this is an important game for us as it really starts our season. We’ve had two weeks to prepare and have worked extremely hard to get ourselves ready for this game. It’s important we come out with a good tempo and energy to our play otherwise it could be a long night.

For the man who was given the task in 2010 to lead out Cheshire Jets in the role of captain, he isn’t trying to let his past experiences cloud the task ahead: “Having spent three years and two as captain with the Jets obviously I’ll be happy to meet up again with people I worked with during my time there. However, my personal feelings towards the club soured with the way things were handled during the past season, so my total focus will not be trying to impress against a former club but to put in a performance to help win us the game.”

Compounded with that is his ability to have already found his feet within the area and as part of the set-up: “Settling in here at Plymouth has been quite easy. The Raiders are a very well run club and have done everything possible to make our stay as comfortable and as productive as possible. Everyone in the club has the same goal and we are all pulling in the same direction to achieve it.”

In his first year, and pretty much first month, back in basketball, Chez Marks probably didn’t expect to have to lead his team-mates out as player-coach. Despite this, he won’t let that take up too much of his thoughts and energy knowing there is a job to do; for however long that might be for.

He needs to pick his side up in a very short space of time from the events that have taken place both on and off court, and facing Raiders first up is no doubt a huge challenge, bearing in mind he was a part of the Plymouth side before his break from the sport.

It is difficult to fully assess the efforts of Cheshire from Sunday evening, although Marks in the interim period as player-coach remains adamant that they will continue with the blueprint left behind by James Hamilton: “Ham brought us in as a team, and that’s what we still have here.

“He still is a great player, who taught me playing alongside him, and taught the rest of the guys on the team in the time spent with us, so we will carry on with that. It’s still big shoes to fill, and it won’t be overnight, however, now we know we can move forward.

“Shawn is a great leader on the floor in my eyes, and with Lloydy [assistant Matt Lloyd] we have three heads, that have great experience and knowledge of the game.”

“Plymouth easily could be 40 minutes of hell – from my experience there, the fans really get into it, there’s a brilliant atmosphere, Gavin Love gives them the mindset to play and compete and it’s a whole effort.

“I’ve played with Colin who is a great all round guy,  Matt I know is a monster inside, and Jeremy, again played alongside him, is a flat out player. All we need to do is be confident and go in to compete.”

• For all the live stats as they happen click here – LIVE STATS – (live tweets may come from myself, @JournoRob, if I can make it to Plymouth on the night!)