Tigers-Sharks preview: Bigley downbeat but not out

The dust has somewhat settled, but the damage left in the wake of Mersey’s BBL Trophy defeat to Worthing Thunder has been pretty clear for all to see. The response on social media, on forums, in private conversations; it was damning in every possible way and at many different angles.

We’ll be looking at those issues more in depth at UKAmericanSportsFans.com over the coming weeks, but Chris Bigley gave us a quick catch-up and his look ahead to this Friday’s showdown against Sheffield Sharks, which comes ahead of what will no doubt be their most daunting game in a fortnight’s time – away to Newcastle Eagles.

Bigley first spoke, very candidly and without pulling any punches, of the feeling inside the squad as what has happened within the last week: “Well we’re all obviously gutted. We don’t want pity, we don’t want people making excuses, we simply were, and have not been, good enough this year.

“As I’ve said before, I think there are guys on this team that can genuinely help other teams in the league – but that’s no consolation right now at all. We need to focus on an identity. We need to identify our strengths and weaknesses on an individual basis, then fit it in to what we need as a team.”

“My personal feelings are this – we can go one of two ways. We can either carry on feeling sorry for ourselves, lick our wounds and get pounded by guys I know for a fact we can at least compete with, or we can cut the b***s**t, work the hell hard and try and earn some respect as a collective.

“Other teams get asked ‘Who are the guys on the other team that can hurt you?’ – and I don’t blame them one bit for finding a it difficult question to answer – we don’t seem to know ourselves. Of course I know what guys on my team can do, and I try to play to that, but we’re on different wavelengths throughout the team and that’s what’s killing us right now.”

Turning to the attention of this Friday’s game, he felt once more, it was just another chance at keeping quiet the critics of the Tigers: “Sheffield? Its another chance to turn some heads. Another chance to go out there and stop the corner of people’s mouths turning up in laughter. We have to look at it like that – its a matter of professionalism.

“Does a lawyer go to court and enjoy being laughed out of court? Hell no,” finding an analogy closest to home for Bigley off-court to surmise his side’s attitudes going into games, “he reads his books a little better and applies the law to his case better than he did last time. He gets up earlier to prepare, he goes to bed later because he has to get every detail. That’s the way we need to be. We have to know what were up against, we have to know how to stop it, and we need to know how to puncture the other team. We’re not the most talented, so we need to be the most organised.

Quite direct and to the point there from Bigley, but what about the Sharks’ view point on all of this?

A collective swing of five points in two games could have seen them on a five game winning streak at this time, a huge response from their second leg semi-final 75-45 defeat in the BBL Cup to Leicester Riders. The last time Sharks visited Tigers, it was the scene of some very dubious decisions that ultimately changed the entire mood of the game.

The odds will no doubt be truly in favour of the South Yorkshiremen, and Nick Lewis feels positive that they can collect the season whitewash over the Merseysiders: “I believe that if we keep doing what were doing and continue to emphasise the little things on offense and defense, we will continue to win games, I’m very confident that we will get this win against Mersey on Friday night.”

Micah Williams also added: “We are looking forward to getting back out on the court against Mersey and keep the run going! We have been playing well as a team and just want to continue to play well as a team and try and to extend the run.”

Tip off is at 7:30pm at Knowsley Leisure and Culture Park this Friday evening.