Next five games will shape our campaign (From Worcester News)

Next five games will shape our campaign

10:00am Saturday 21st January 2012 in Paul James

AFTER our next five games, we will have a clearer picture of whether we can win the British Basketball League title or claim a top-four finish.

At the moment, we try to take things one match at a time and don’t think about winning the league.

But we are approaching an important stage where we have fixtures coming up against the likes of Sheffield Sharks, Newcastle Eagles, Plymouth Raiders and Milton Keynes Lions.

These next few games could well be make-or-break for our season.

We have the points on the board and, although teams like Leicester Riders and Plymouth have a few matches in hand, I’d always rather have the points in the bag.

Preparations for tomorrow’s league clash with Cheshire Jets at the University of Worcester have been going well.

Although there is only one game this weekend, we haven’t done anything differently and we have been working hard both on and off the court.

The Jets will be a pretty tough test and I don’t think their record this year reflects how good they are.

They have two players in the league’s top 20 points-scorers, so we will have to be careful with them. Matt Schneck and their new signing Bill Cole have been impressive this year, as has forward Colin O’Reilly and those three will have 99 per cent of the court-time.

However, our modus operandi all season has been to ensure we execute what we do well and that our defence is as strong as it can be, so we can restrict teams to 60 or 70 points.

I have almost a fully-fit squad to select from for the Cheshire match but the only worry is Callum Jones, who has a swollen knee.

The swelling has been going down on a day-by-day basis, though, so I am hopeful he will be able to play some part against the Jets.

We go into the game joint top of the table with Newcastle, but I don’t think our position puts us under extra pressure. We are playing like a team who are having a lot of fun and enjoying what goes with that.

It was important to claim back-to-back wins against Mersey Tigers and Durham Wildcats last weekend, because they are the kind of teams you can’t afford to slip up against.

It was one of our most nervous weekends of the campaign because we didn’t want to lose against a lower team, but we did a professional job to collect two wins.

Richie Gordon was named BBL player-of-the-month for December and he has been in unbelievable form for us.

For a young man of 22 in his first professional contract, it is brilliant to see him take the league by storm.