Riders travel to Milton Keynes to silence Lions’ roar
In the 90’s there was a campaign by a telecommunications company that used the slogan ‘It’s good to talk’. Well, the Leicester Riders can most certainly confirm that talking is not always the smartest thing to do.
Milton Keynes Lions Chief Executive, Vince Macaulay, made some rather inflammatory remarks before the two teams met in the first leg of their BBL Trophy match-up last Saturday, claiming that he wanted to ‘beat the Riders every time we play them’ and referring to them as the ‘MK Lions B Team’ due to the small number of former Lions currently in Leicester. He also cheekily claimed that the Riders only wore a black uniform to copy his Lions. Incredible.
Meanwhile, in Leicester, Riders coach Rob Paternostro has kept his head down instead of running his mouth and focused on doing the job he is paid to do- get wins. He has worked tirelessly through the off-season to create a squad capable of being competitive which has, thus far, been the case as his team have gone through the pre-season and first BBL Trophy game, unbeaten.
“It’s important for us to understand that we need to improve” explained Paternostro “For us, our goal is to look at what we do each time and be able to say ‘Yeah, we’ve improved since last week”.
For a veteran of the game like Paternostro, preparation is everything. The Riders went to work early in the off-season to secure the services of players who could improve the team and their pre-season games have reaped the benefits of those moves, with win after win coming for Coach P’s team.
The real test, however, was always going to be in the competitive fixtures and the win over MK Lions is exactly what was required to prove Paternostro’s ‘quiet approach’ is extremely effective.
The second leg is going to be on the Lions home floor where the home side will be buoyed by their own set of fans as they look to overturn the eight point deficit suffered in the 81-73 loss in Leicester.
Demarius Bolds gave everything he had for the Lions in the loss as he scored 28 points but it wasn’t enough as the combination of Cameron Rundles, Ayron Hardy and Bradd Wierzbicki combining for 53 points, saw the Riders overpower the Lions.
Fans can expect much of the same physicality from both sides as there is no love lost between them and with the comments by the Lions still fresh in the mind of the Riders, there is no doubt Friday’s battle will be epic.
Leicester Riders travel to Milton Keynes Arena to play the MK Lions in the BBL Trophy. Tip-off is at 7:30pm.
Follow Keith Firmin on tiwtter @keiththejourno
