Here Comes The joy pt 2

First stop today is Sunday Breakfast on BBC Radio Manchester. It will be good to have the team back together since one member was snowed-in last week and couldn’t get into the studio.

The show goes well and at 9 almost on the dot I head out of the building. I can’t help but remember my last trip to the NIA on the day that the M6 was closed…OUCH!

Read about that M6 closure

Just one stop this morning and that is at Sainsburys to pick up my bagles & diet coke and it’s off down the M6 heading for the NIA.

I arrive safe and sound and the first thing that greets me brings me joy indeed. The lay-out of the Arena in fantastic.

Those of us who remember the old days of the Birmingham Bullets playing here at the NIA will remember that this is how it was laid out at times.

This set up means that we will have fans on three sides of the Arena. I am due to do the commentary on the Dunk Final and on the 2010 BBL Cup Final.

The Cup Final will see the Cheshire Jets take on the Sheffield Sharks. Both of these teams have won the BBL Cup in the past but not in recent years.

In my 3am update of mikeshaft.com I suggest that the veterans Todd Cauthorn and James Hamilton could be key to this one. These guys have years of experience between then and more importantly they both know how to win.

Game 1 today is a BBL Trophy meeting between the Worthing Thunder of the BBL and Manchester Magic from EBL Div 1. It has to be said that when I saw Brandon Kimbrough in his walking clothes I knew this was not going to be pretty.

Manchester Magic are probably the top team in EBL Div 1 with a number of talented players, but their 1- 2 punch is Kimbrough and and Stefan Gill. In this game Gill was awesome but there was no Kimbrough at his side and after the first quarter it became obvious that it was going to be a long day for the Magic. Had both teams been at full strength it could have been a heck of a ball game.

Talking about a heck of a ball game, this week Manchester Magic must make the trip to Leeds Carnegie in EBL Div 1. This could be one of the EBL games of the year.

So the game ends and we begin to get ready for the Arbtech Slam Dunk competition. Last year the Dunk competition was won by Tafari ‘TAP’ Toney who at the time was with the Eagles but he would not be able to defend his crown. Since last year ‘TAP’ has made the move to Sheffield Sharks and since they are in the BBL Cup Final he would not be able to take part in the Dunk contest. This is an on-going agreement between the BBL and the teams.

About an hour before the contest was to take place I was in the BBL office when in walks these guys who I don’t recognise. One of them who I now know to be Guy Dupuy suggested I should take his picture now because he was going to win the Dunk contest. I didn’t know him from Adam as I have not yet seen the MK Lions play this season.

It is amazing to be this far into the season and still not seen one of the teams.

Well the Dunk contest was truly amazing but I have to say that once we saw the first dunk from Mr Dupuy, it was all over. I am not sure I have ever seen a dunk contest in the UK where one contestant went through the whole contest without dropping a single point.

Usually at the end of most contests there would be some discussion as to whether the right person or team won.

Well today there would be no such discussion about the Dunk contest. There was only one winner and it was Guy Dupuy.

Speaking to the Lions Head Coach later, he said that people are coming to MK Lions’ games earlier and earlier just to catch Dupuy dunking in the warm-ups. One of these days I am hoping to see him.

I also spoke to ‘TAP’ after the contest and I think even he had to admit that Dupuy would have been hard to beat on this performance. He did say that he (TAP) was still undefeated as he didn’t get a chance to defent his title. I had to give him that one.

After more spectacular entertainment it was time for the Main Event…The 2010 BBL Cup Final.

I will at this point comment on the crowd which had grown to fantastic numbers. The atmosphere had been building through-out the day and the scene was set for a great ball game.

At the back of my mind was last years BBL Cup Final which saw victory for the Everton Tigers by a scoreline of 103-49 over the Plymouth Raiders. It was as one sided a final as there had ever been.

That one had broken records for all the wrong reasons but we should take nothing away from the performance of the Everton Tigers. (Read the 2009 blog here).

Both teams today are at full strength and ready to play …the ball is up and we are on the way. When Marks nailed a triple we had the first score of the game. After a 2 by Toney, Hamilton drains a two followed by a Patton triple and we were tied at 5. At the end of the first quarter the score was 18 to the Jets and 22 to the Sharks.

Toney and Patton were rocking the house for the Sharks and had 18 points between them. Patton led all scorers with 11 including 3 threes while ‘TAP’ had 7.

The last time that the Sharks played the Jets Patton went for 41 points including 10 – 3 pointers. At this rate he could do even better here. Chez Marks had 6.

Mike Cook, who has been dominating in the BBL had just 2 points.

Into the second and the Sharks are just too strong for the Jets. most people think that if you stop Mike Cook you will beat the Sharks but people who believe that don’t know about the team game that is Sharks Basketball. It has been the philosophy of the organisation since their first season under Head Coach Jim Brandon.

It is a philosophy that has continued ever since.

At the half the Sharks led by 33 points to 41.

Perry Lawson had a big three while Mike Cook added just 1 bucket in that quarter to take his total to 4.

New Jets signing Jerrah Young had moved on to 7 points and was all over Cook on D. Top scorer for the Jets was Marks with 8.

Into the third and I began to fear that we were going to have as one-sided a game as we had last year. The Jets simply had no answer to the Sharks offensive machine. Again it was the way in which the Sharks spread it around that was joyous to everyone who wasn’t wearing the yellow of the Jets. The massive Jets crowd was almost silent. When Mike Cook nailed back to back 2s the score was Jets 42 Sharks 60.

This season I have been lucky enough to have seen the Jets on a number of ocassions and in one write-up, I think after the Rocks game I suggested that if the Jets wanted to be successful they would have to realize that if you didn’t let yourself get in a hole you wouldn’t have to dig yourself out.

The Sharks were unstoppable. At the end of the 3rd it was all but over with a score-line of 48-64. James Hamilton led for the Jets with 12 hard earned points while the Sharks had 3 players in double figures, Patton with 15 and Toney & Cook with 13.

In a number of games this season the Jets have had some incredible comebacks to win games or run opponents close. If they were going to get close in this one they would have to dig themselves out of yet another hole.

And so it is that we head into the final stanza and what a quarter we were in for. The Jets finally realized that so far they had let their massive crowd down. They had not performed as well as the could but there are some guys on this team who refuse to go down without a fight. One of these is James Hamilton and the other is Steven Gayle. Chez Marks also stepped up to the plate in the 4th.

And what a 4th quarter we had.

This is the Joy that we had been waiting for. It was simply wonderful. Two teams really going after each other. Oh BABY!

James Hamilton would go for 12 monster points in the 4th while Chez Marks would go for 13 including one triple. O’Reilly added 7 in this quarter while Gayle chipped in with 5.

Oh how I wished that O’Reilly had taken a few more three point attempts. Against the Rocks and the Eagles in recent games he hit some wonderful triples going down to the wire.

But despite all their efforts, which gave us a wonderful climax to the game, the Jets were never able to get their noses infront. Perhaps the biggest play was Tuck going to the line for 2 and missing both, however he was the first to react getting the rebound and putting it away for two.

Despite numerous time outs and shuffling of the pack, the Jets would come up just short and it would the Sharks would lift the BBL Cup for the 5th time in their history.

It had been a number of years since the Sheffield outfit last lifted some sliverware and congratulations must go to everyone concerned.

The final score was Cheshire Jets 86 – 89 Sheffield Sharks.

The MVP of the game was announced as James Hamilton of the Jets and there has been much chatter as to whether this was correct.

As you may or may not know I have nothing to do with the decision but I have to say I think it was absolutely right. On this fantastic day no individual Sharks player stood out . The Jets did not win the Cup but James Hamilton was awesome. The Sharks won because of their team play and I do not know of any rule which says that the MVP has to come from the winning team.

I say congratulations to the Sharks for their well deserved victory and congratulations to James Hamilton who fully deserved his MVP award.

This had been another fabulous day for British Basketball and it was a pleasure to be a part of it.

Later

Mike S