A different ball game for Fab

Jan 11 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

After three barren years, Newcastle Eagles are reaping the rewards of sticking with their coach. Stuart Rayner reports on a lesson the Magpies could learn from

WHEN the Newcastle Eagles step out at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena in Sunday’s BBL Cup final, it will be in pursuit of a seventh trophy in two-and-a-half seasons. But establishing the Tyneside club as one of the British Basketball League’s giants has been a slow process.

For the first two seasons of Fabulous Flournoy’s reign as player-coach, the Eagles were what the New Yorker likes to call a “fiddy-fiddy team”, winning as many games as they lost.

For certain other sports teams in the city, that might have been enough to spell the end of the 34-year-old’s career. The Eagles stood firm and are reaping the rewards. According to Flournoy 2002 to 2005 was the making of him and his club.

“The first three years were probably the most difficult on and off the court,” he reflects. “I was young, I’d never had any coaching experience. I had to find the right balance between coaching and playing and guys had to learn the system.

“I had to teach the system, learn how to work with budgets, talk to agents and players, recruitment, working in the community – so many different things.

“We decided we were going to do things the right way, as opposed to doing it fast and sweeping things under the carpet. In the long run it paid big dividends.

“I’m not claiming to be the best coach in the world but I know my team and my situation, what I need to do and what we need to do as a club, so much so that people think having a player-coach is the way in this country now.”

Before the cup final against Milton Keynes Lions comes the slightly more mundane matter of tonight’s league game at home to Leicester Riders. The secret to Flournoy’s success, however, is he looks at consistency rather than being sidetracked by glitzy occasions.

“The biggest challenge for myself and the club is to try and maintain a standard,” he insists. “In terms of football, if you look at Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, they’re always there. Whether they win the FA Cup or the league they’re always contenders. That’s the biggest thing we’re trying to do.

“I want to win every basketball game, every last one of them, but as a coach I can only hope we’re in a position to win. If we are and we do, great, if we don’t we had the opportunity. That’s what I look at.

“I don’t say I want to win this amount of trophies, it’s the groundwork before all that, setting up the standard, the system, getting guys to buy into the system, making sure guys know the system and continue to do it and we don’t become relaxed.”

Flournoy’s longevity has allowed him to build a culture he believes will outlast him. “If you look over the history of the BBL, every franchise that has been successful has gone bust or folded a year or two years after because they put so much into winning but don’t look at the longevity of the club,” he says. “That’s unique in ourselves. We’re growing stronger and stronger every year.

“We’re like the Royal Marines: 99.9% of people don’t need to apply because it takes special people and a special kind of commitment to wear a Newcastle jersey. Everybody knows I am a taskmaster and I expect everyone’s work-rate to be equal to mine and for them to never quit on and off the court.

“If we had someone else as a full-time coach I think it would still work because of the formula of how we do things on and off the court. It’s what attracts everyone here.”

The question is, then, what is this magic formula?

“We have a school of excellence and I always try to have a core of players around me who know the system, then I try to bring in new blood,” he explains.

“But I always try to have a strong core of veteran players who’ve been with me a couple of years. You always need that injection of new blood and leadership from guys who have been there. I think our team has a strong mix.

“Physically your veteran players can’t do the things they used to and some retire. I don’t want to bring someone straight in to fill their role, they have to learn and grow with it. Over the last couple of years we’ve been successful but everyone forgets about the three years prior to it to build up the situation where you have a strong core of Charles Smith, Jeremy Hyatt, TJ Walker, Andrew Bridge. With me they were the five who pretty much started on the court.

“Those first three years were real trial and error on and off the court but all of a sudden things just started ticking over and next thing you know we’ve arrived. We have to look at the bigger picture and the bigger picture isn’t necessarily trophies, it’s about standards.”

So what are the qualities needed to play for the ultra-demanding Flournoy?

“Number one you need to want to play defence; number two you need to be willing to make sacrifices; number three you need to work for the whole of the season on and off the court; four you’re going to have to be very ambitious but at the same time very humble because there’s a thin line between cocky and confident,” he explains. “We work hard and that’s the reason we’re confident.”

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How Eagles' patience paid off

WITH seven tropies in six years, Fabulous Flournoy is one of tthe British Basketball League's most successful coaches.

His first two years in charge, though, were a very different story. During that time the Eagles player-coach had a less than impressive record of 48 wins and 40 defeats, a win percentage of 45%. He failed to win a single trophy in his initial three campaigns with the Tyneside club.

The club stayed patient and the rewards since have been obvious. In the subsequent years Flournoy’s record is an impressive 96 wins from 131 games in all competitions, for a win percentage of 73%.

The highlight was 2005-06, when the club won a grand slam of the BBL competitions and Flournoy was unsurprisingly named coach of the year. The Eagles’ record in finals has been even more impressive. On Sunday they will be aiming to win their seventh of eight finals under the New Yorker, the only disappointment being last season’s BBL Trophy defeat to Plymouth Raiders on their home court at Newcastle Arena.

FLOURNOY’S SEASON-BY-SEASON RECORD (all competitions)

2002-03: P 46 W27 L19

2003-04: P42 W21 L21

2004-05: P49 W40 L9

2005-06: P52 W42 L10

2006-07: P46 W33 L13

2007-08: P19 W16 L3.