News from the Eagles nest 1 March 2012
Team Northumbria
Congratulations to Team Northumbria who achieved promotion to EBL Division One following last weekend’s 88-55 defeat of Birmingham A’s. That means the Newcastle Eagles Team Northumbria club now have men’s senior teams in BBL and EBL Division One, a remarkable success and an achievement that only bodes well for the future recruitment and development of the club.
If you want to see for yourself how well the lads at Team Northumbria are doing, they take on Newcastle University in the Stan Calvert Cup at 4.15pm on Friday at Sport Central prior to the Eagles v Raiders BBL clash. Try and get along if you get the chance, I’m sure the lads will appreciate the support.
The Sound of Silence
The OOTA, Newcastle Eagles’ travelling band of supporters, aren’t a quiet bunch. They love to support their team and have a bit of fun along the way too. On Friday evening at the Plymouth Pavilions however, Raider’s fans and stewards had other ideas! Jamie aka Dougie, the Eagles intrepid drummer boy, was silenced and threatened with expulsion unless he stopped banging his drum. The poor lad had to put it under his seat amid cries of ‘kill the drummer’! He was allowed to bang his drum during free throws. Figure that one out.
It wasn’t just poor Jamie, apparently the nine Eagles fans were just too noisy and upset a section of the Raider’s faithful both in the arena and outside where they received a volley of verbal abuse. All of this is a bit much at a basketball game don’t you think? Word reached Cheshire Jets fans who welcomed Eagles fans with humorous posters bearing the legend ‘No drumming or chanting by order of Plymouth Pavilions Management’. Needless to say it was business as usual for the Eagles OOTA in Cheshire. I’m sure they’d like to give a big thank you to Charles Smith for his game saving three-pointer and the rest of Eagles for making that long trip to Plymouth a winning one!
BBL Coach of the Month
Newcastle Eagles 100% start to 2012 has resulted in player coach Fab Flournoy receiving the Molten BBL Coach of the Month for February to add to his January accolade.
The Eagles won all six games during the month including crucial road victories over fellow title contenders Worcester Wolves and Plymouth Raiders that now put Newcastle in pole position for the BBL Championship. The other victories included comfortable wins at home to Durham Wildcats and on the road at Cheshire Jets. The month was topped off with the destruction of Sheffield Sharks in a two-legged BBL Trophy semi final.
With an incredibly tough seven game schedule in March, including three games against Plymouth Raiders and two against Leicester Riders, it will take a Herculean effort from the Eagles for Fab to three-peat but with superlatives running out for this Eagles team I wouldn’t put anything past them.
#DoubleDforGB?
Basketball commentator, Dan Routledge, has a regular column on the Sky Sports website and it’s usually an interesting read. His most recent blog concerned the criticism by John Amaechi of the state of the BBL, Sport England and their funding of British Basketball and a subject close to the heart of all Eagles fans, Darius Defoe’s breakout year.
Darius has been quietly going about his business all season, dominating the boards and racking up some impressive numbers. Dan went so far as to suggest that Darius could be a dark horse for a Team GB call up for the Olympics, Whilst that isn’t going to happen as GB are top heavy with quality big men like Joel Freeland already, it’s nice to hear our man being praised so highly. The news that Byron Mullins of the Charlotte Bobcats has declared for GB through his English born mother has put Darius even further down the pecking order but none of this diminishes the fantastic year Darius has had. Keep it going big guy.
You can read the full column at Defoe ‘da man?
Well done Joe Chapman
Tommy Freeman pipped our man Geordie Joe to the BBL Player of the Month for February and it must have been by the skin of his teeth. Joe averaged 28.2 points over 6 games, hitting 33 of 54 from 3-point range. That’s an eye-popping 61.1%. He was closely followed by Andy Thomson on 53.1% as the Eagles shot the lights out from behind the arc all month.
Joe also led his team to 6 victories in February so I’m absolutely dumbfounded as to what else he could have done to better his performance! All I can see is keep it up Joe. We’re having a heck of a time watching you this year!
Follow Darrin Smith on Twitter @OleDJ
