SAMG Verve Scottish Rocks

Well Rocks fans, we have come to the end of the road for season 2008/09. The Rocks put up a valiant effort against the Everton Tigers on Friday evening but ran out of gas in the fourth to go down by 20 points. The score does not truly depict the closeness of the game and the Rocks were always in the hunt until the fourth quarter where the Tigers seemed to step it up a gear, and our guys just could not hold on. It was the perimeter players who stepped up for the Tigers and stole the show as Front-runner for league MVP Andre Smith had a very quiet game only registering 9 points. The front-court of Midgely, Jones, and Bailey punished the Rocks from the perimeter connecting on 11 occasions from beyond the 3 point arc. The Rocks had no answer for the barrage of three’s from the Tigers and the only stand-out performance for the Rocks came from veteran Wilbur Johnson who shot 6 of 8 from the field including 2 from 4 from the perimeter. Johnson scored 18 points and pulled down a game high 14 rebounds for the Rocks, but it wasn’t enough.  

With the Rocks finished for the season, we have to remember that there are four teams that will still be battling it out for the Playoff Championship this coming weekend in Birmingham.  The scenarios look interesting and I feel that we will be in for some intense basketball action. The Newcastle Eagles will be taking on the Plymouth Raiders, while the Everton Tigers face the Leicester Riders.  

With the four teams remaining all have a chance of winning the championship on any given day. I do, however, feel that Newcastle look to be the team to beat. After their playoff scare against the Jets they will be ready to fire on all cylinders come first weekend in May and I do feel for the Plymouth side as they will have to find a way of stopping the Newcastle Juggernaught. The only concern is that Newcastle are current Trophy and League Champions, therefore they are expected to win and the pressure will be on them to perform. You can almost say that the Playoff Championship is theirs to lose. 

The Everton vs Leicester game is the game that I am really excited about. The Tigers have a dynamite roster and have spent HUGE this season to get a team on the floor that will win them the Championship and anything less then a Grand Final appearance would be considered a disappointment. Leicester on the other hand, are riding high after some amazing performances and truly are one of the Cinderella stories of the BBL this season. After losing Wierzbicki and Missere in the same week earlier in the season, no one gave them a chance of making it this far, but I guess what people think doesn’t really matter, and the Riders believed in themselves. You have to hand it to them the whole team stepped up and right now are playing some of the best basketball in the BBL. Confidence is a vital part of any teams success, and Leicester are full of it at present, and with nothing to lose the Riders will throw everything at any team they meet.  

If you ask me, I think that the final will consist of the Newcastle Eagles and the Leicester Riders. Two teams that are in great form, full of confidence, and seem to have that hunger that a team needs in order to make an impact in this league. Whatever happens this upcoming weekend, there will be some very entertaining match-ups, and hopefully some intense basketball action. The team that wants it the most will take home the Playoff Championship Trophy. Unfortunately for Rocks fans we will have to wait another year before we get another chance at Championship Glory.  

Well everyone, here we go, its Playoff time and we face the Everton Tigers!!

It won’t be easy, especially playing down in Everton in their gym. But to be honest not many people gave us a hope of taking the Tigers on the Sunday just gone, and look what happened. It was only a matter of time that we would get a win and I feel that our recent lack of wins does not truly depict the way we have been playing, all that has been missing is our ability to finish off games.

Let’s look back to the 22^nd March when we played the Worcester Wolves at home, we were behind the whole game but made a couple of huge runs that should have seen us win the game. However, some questionable calls by the refs went against us and ceased all momentum that we had to get that game. The following week we played Guildford and we were an inch away from sending that game into overtime against a team that has now won 9 of its last 11 games. The Leicester Riders game was overshadowed by the sparkling shooting display of underrated BBL player Brad Wierzbicki, who has been on fire since returning from injury. We simply had no answer to his barrage of 3 point shots, and to be honest no team has found a way to stop him in recent games, with Plymouth being an exception keeping him to 9 and 12 points respectively in their past two games. The away game at Newcastle was never one-way traffic as we were in it all the way until the 3^rd quarter. The final score line was flattering for the Eagles and the game was much closer then was lead to believe, especially considering that the Eagles were playing at home in front of a full arena and playing for the League Title. To this point the Rocks had been playing quite well and beginning to adjust to life without Shelton and Davis, the only thing missing was that all important win and some confidence. I think I can be certain in saying that many people thought that the Milton Keynes game was going to be the game that the Rocks would regain some momentum, get the win and start their run for the playoffs. It was not meant to be and I have to be honest, it was probably the worst performance by the Rocks in the 2008/09 season, but I feel that this game was the turning point for the Rocks, as we had hit rock-bottom. We all had a strong feeling that we would make the playoffs no matter what would happen in the final week of the BBL regular season, but we also knew that we did not want to make it after losing 12 games in a row.

The Sheffield game was a good indicator that the Rocks were back to playing some gritty basketball only losing by 4 and keeping the Sharks to 66 points. The final game speaks for itself and I think relief was the biggest thing to come out of that game. Finally things went our way and we got the win. Understandably, the final game was in affect meaningless in the whole scope of things, it did, however, prove to everyone that the Rocks can still do it, and most importantly I think it showed the players that they can do it, and that they have nothing to lose going into the Quarter Finals on Friday.

You would think that a loss like that may have been a wake up call for the Tigers who have not had the best run into the playoffs winning only 5 of their last 9. One of those games saw them go into overtime, and if it was not for the heroics of Andre Smith then it would definitely have been another loss. Another win was against the Newcastle Eagles, however this was the night after the Eagles had just claimed the League Championship, and we all know how they like to party in Newcastle.

So things have not been going as smoothly as they should for a team like the Everton Tigers who spent big in the off-season to produce a team that theoretically, should have won ALL the Silverware this season. (Hats off has to go to the Eagles who have clearly been the premier team in the league this season)

After the Rocks inflicted a comprehensive defeat of the Tigers on Sunday they will be full of confidence going into the game on Friday in the do-or-die grudge match. The fans will definitely be ready and hopefully we get a lot of them to head down to Everton and make some noise at Greenbank Sports Academy. I know I will be.

 GO ROCKS!!!