Darius taking centre stage

Jan 2 2010 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

NEWCASTLE Eagles player-coach Fab Flournoy has hailed Darius Defoe’s coming of age this season, billing him as one of the top three centres in the BBL.

Defoe has made a big contribution to the Eagles’ mid-winter revival and was a key player in their encouraging post-Christmas victory over the Guildford Heat – a result that keeps Flournoy’s men in close contact with league leaders Sheffield Sharks.

It was just the latest encouraging display from the 25-year-old, who is in his fifth season at the Arena after being recruited from Hackney White Heat as a teenager and has now arrived as a major force in the league.

“Darius has been amazing for us over the last few games and to be honest over this period of the season,” Flournoy said.

“When we brought him in at 18 as a young kid we were hoping it would come to fruition for him and now I think that has happened.

“At this time I think he is probably in the top three in the league. I think there is probably Tafari (Toney), Flo (Larkai) at the Everton Tigers and then Darius. He deserves to be mentioned in that company.

“His progress has been amazing and Darius deserves a lot of credit for the hard work he has obviously put in. He always had the raw ability and was an athlete but you need to learn well and he has.” Defoe’s excellence is by no means the only positive to emerge from a run of seven wins in eight games that has gone some way to reasserting their dominance of the league.

Andrew Bridge’s consistency has returned while the Eagles are now beginning to see the best of summer recruit Joe Chapman, who took a while to settle in the North East.

Reggie Jackson’s contribution at Guildford would suggest that he is now comfortable with the responsibilities of playing point guard and Lynard Stewart and Charles Smith are rolling back the years.

“We’re starting to get to where we want to be now. We’ve got our defensive awareness back and we’re starting to believe that our defence will be enough to win us games again,” he said.

“We had our little blip but maybe we made a bit of a mountain out of a molehill, looking back at it. But I don’t regret that – it’s better to have these problems early in the season because then you can address them and make sure it doesn’t happen during the business end of things.” The Eagles are not back in action until a January 10 engagement with Cheshire Jets but Flournoy warned his players not to cut loose to celebrate New Year.

Slightly annoyed to have such a long break following a fine set of results, Flournoy gave his players a couple of days off this week but expects them to return at full throttle next week and maintain the momentum they had at the end of the year.

“This little break has come at the worst time for us because we were just beginning to get all of those things that have made us such great champions going again,” he said.

“The last thing we want to do is lose that focus and determination that we’ve had over the last few weeks so the players will be working hard again next week even though we’ve got another free weekend. There’s no reason for us to drop off now.”

And as for Flournoy, he is making his annual New Year’s resolution.

“I just want to be a better man than I was last year,” he said.

“I say the same thing every year. Whether that means win more basketball games or just be a nicer person, that’s what I want to do in 2010.”