Surrey Heat’s Creon Raftopoulos talks about how to improve the BBL… (Part 2)

In the second of a two-part UKASF interview with Surrey Heat Head Coach Creon Raftopoulos, Coach Creon explains how the BBL and Great Britain could work together to help the league improve…

KF: Is there increased pressure to get players signed and construct your squad when you see teams like Newcastle announced their squads earlier this summer?

CR: “The pressure you get is in not knowing the chemistry you’re going to get with new players you’re bringing in.
“One of the strengths that clubs like Newcastle has had over the years is continuity and you’re always trying to strive to get that continuity. Obviously, as time goes on players go in search of bigger money or better offers and you’re unable to hold onto them. But at the same time, it seems to be the norm in the BBL (that) you get one good season with that group and you try and win some silverware because you know come the following season you’re going to have to start from scratch.

“What people might not be aware of is that you seldom give out two to three year contracts in the BBL.”

“It’s the same thing as taking young players and developing them as they go along. If you look at Tayo (Ogedengbe) for example: I’ve known Tayo since he was 16 years old and last season was by far his best and most productive season in the BBL. There were still aspects of his game that we were working on to make him a better player so to have him for one more year, Tayo would have benefited from it and so would the club. But someone comes in with a higher offer and so forth and you can’t match it and then you’ve got to start from scratch.

“I’ll probably try and bring in a young guy, similar to Tayo, but it’s going to take a number of years. As a coach you don’t get that time to develop and that’s why people wonder why more British players aren’t given an opportunity. As coaches we don’t get given the time.

“If you look at a lot of teams, they run seven man rotations, eight man rotations, which means the young players – the 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th guys – they’ve got to gain experience in the practice sessions.

KF: What do you think the solution is?

CR: “A lot of money that goes into team GB. if somehow they were given that big sponsorship they could work with the top league – maybe the top teams down to Division one level – they could fund junior players to be on our teams (and) then you can put a structure in place.
“I’d love to have a structure where player 11 and 12 have to be under 18’s, player 9 and 10 have to be under 20’s and player 7 and 8 have to be under 23. Then that way, if GB are able to say ‘these are the top 20 GB players, we need them playing, we don’t need them playing in the lower divisions, we need them playing in the higher divisions” we’ll be able to develop them.

“There are two guys who are up and coming who have been part of the GB programme, these are both guys who are 6’10 and 7’0 tall and they’re going to play Division 4 in Spain. There’s got to be something wrong.

“This is what I’m saying with GB coming in: as coaches, we’ll give them the best chance to progress because they’ve got that size. But it just doesn’t happen.”

“I think it’ll take Team GB working with the BBL in order to help the clubs do it. As you know, the owners just don’t have the funding to build from 1 to 12.”

KF: On a more personal level, how far do you think you can take the Surrey Heat?

CR: “I definitely believe there is more to come. It’s getting that magical group together. If you get that group together, then you get the chemistry, then you go for it.

“In my first season, I managed to get a good core of guys – British guys – brought in the right American guys to go with them, we got to a cup final, made it back into the play-offs and had a pretty good season.

“Last season we never had a good nucleus of players until the second half of the season when we picked up Frank Holmes and Drew Lasker and then we got a couple of wins and made it back into the play-offs. This year I lose Mike Martin, I lose Tayo so I have to start all over again. A lot depends on how the guys are going to gel and kick on.

“I believe I can go further but as any manager would say, the more money I have available, the stronger I can make the team. Until that TV money starts coming in, it’s always going to be a big struggle.”

KF: The name change from ‘Guildford’ to ‘Surrey’, does that signal the intent of the club to expand?

CR: “Last season we averaged between 650-750 people a game and for the big games we’d get over 800-900 so it’s just a matter of being out there.

“The rebranding process will obviously open some people’s eyes as to what’s going on. We can try and branch into more schools, get more people in the community programme to be involved and hopefully, in turn, that puts more people into the stadiums.”

Thanks to Brithoops.com for the statistics.