IT is getting to that stage in the year when I have to look at which players I want to keep for next season at Worcester Wolves.

Although the British Basketball League play-offs are not until April, I have had some informal conversations with two or three of our players about the 2013-14 campaign.

At the moment it’s just sounding them out as to whether they’d like to be considered to come back but the fact that I’m talking to them means I would like to keep them.

Those discussions will become a bit more formal in the next few weeks.

It will be nice to have some continuity going into next season but it’s going to depend on what they think they deserve and what I can offer them.

Between us we will be working hard to try and make sure there is continuity.

One thing is for certain, I won’t be dragging the talks out.

My summers are normally busy with international duties so if I can get the deal done while they’re still here that would be the perfect situation for myself.

If you drag it out you then start missing out on potential players that you might want to bring in to replace whoever the player leaving is.

Hopefully by the end of the current season we will be able to confirm players coming back.

We also have an exciting crop of young players and that was shown in the 119-64 victory over Mersey Tigers last Friday.

I was really delighted I only had to play the main players for 20 minutes and after that it was the bench players with the university first team out there at one point.

The fact the level didn’t drop and they continued to play hard and hussle was great and I was really pleased with the way they applied themselves.

It was great for them to get that experience.

With Kalil Irving, Harry Turner and Calvin Morante-Hudson, I think the future’s really bright for both the university and BBL teams moving forward because these guys are going to be around for three seasons at least.

With the programme we have got here and the university players coming through and getting court time in the BBL, it’s a great place for people to study and play.

Another who impressed against Mersey was Albert Ziwa, a former student here who is now one of our development coaches and I thought he played really well too.

We beat London Lions 98-91 the day after and, although we made the game a bit tougher than we should, we came away with the four points.

Our free-throw shooting was probably as bad as it could be, having missed 18 of them, but the main thing was to come out with the win and we got there in the end, albeit after two periods of over-time.

Now we look forward to Surrey Heat at home tomorrow (7.30pm) and Sunday’s trip to Durham Wildcats (4pm).