WORCESTER Wolves say no stone will be left unturned in their bid to remain a force in the British Basketball League.

Wolves endured a disappointing finish to the current campaign with a 180-142 aggregate defeat to London Lions ending the defence of their play-offs crown.

But despite Sunday’s loss, managing director Mick Donovan believes there are exciting times ahead for the University Arena club, who also won the BBL Trophy under head coach Paul James last season.

Wolves have risen to the pinnacle of the sport in the UK since their formation 15 years ago and are determined to stay there.

Donovan said: “Worcester basketball fans expect success, certainly since we’ve gone into the Arena. In the old days we would have been happy to make the play-offs, now the ambition is always to finish in the top two or three in the league and to be in finals.

“The fans need to realise that as a club we are as ambitious, if not more so, than them.

“We have got a good following and that really helps the team and I think we have a responsibility as a club to make sure that we put a team on the court and off the court — with hospitality and community work — that is the best it can possibly be.

“We will leave no stone unturned in terms of review and we are really ambitious to put a really strong team on the court again next year.”

Wolves finished third in the league for the second year running but lost in the quarter-finals of both the BBL Trophy and Cup.

Donovan says no decisions have yet been made on the future of players but believes the club has the financial pulling power to attract top talent and is also open to the idea of securing a team title sponsor.

The Wolves chief continued: “To beat Newcastle three times - and nobody else got near them - we have got the potential to do it.

“We have to ask some question about why we slipped up against some of the weaker teams when we had the ability to beat the strongest team in the country.

“That’s something that we’ll address with the coach over the summer.

“We’ll do a full review of everything related to the club so we can come back and be even stronger because we’ve created something really special with the basketball in Worcester.”

He added: “I think our playing budget is respectable and we should be able to attract a team that can compete.

“If a large company who had really good principles were interested we would be more than happy to talk to them about it but I think it would have to be the right title sponsor for the club.

“Because we now play in the arena, we’ve got a very professional organisation, companies do want to be associated with us.”