NEWCASTLE Eagles chief Paul Blake has backed a devastated Fab Flournoy to re-focus on retaining their BBL title after suffering one of the biggest setbacks of his career.
Player-coach Flournoy was left close to tears on Friday night after his own careless pass late on in the game helped the Mersey Tigers dump the Eagles out of the BBL Trophy.
The Eagles were just seconds from their seventh straight Trophy final – a marquee match they were desperate to play in after it was announced it would open up the second day of the NBA London weekend.
Afterwards an emotional Flournoy said he shouldered the blame for the defeat completely, emphasising there could be “no excuses” for the turnover that helped the Tigers take a crucial late lead.
It was typical of the hyper-critical Flournoy to highlight his own role in the Eagles’ downfall, which in truth owed more to the fact they sunk just four of their 23 field goal attempts during a game that swung back and forth.
Now, after a period of analysis, Blake believes the club’s talisman will be back to his bubbly self in time for the visit of the Guildford Heat on Friday.
“Fab was hit hard but he sorts himself out – in fact he tends to come back stronger from this sort of thing,” the Eagles owner said.
“It usually takes him a little bit of time and he’ll talk things over with (assistant coach) Dave (Forrester) but he’ll be back because he is the ultimate professional.
“I think the most disappointing thing for us all is that the final is at the O2 and before the NBA game, and all the guys wanted that on their CV.
“That makes the defeat more bitter than it would usually be but the positive thing is that we have played them in two games now where they have chased us throughout. We now just have to execute those little things better.
“It is not the end of things for this team. We know how good we are and we know that the league is still there for the taking.
“The Tigers are probably the best team in the league on paper but we have to take some encouragement from the two performances against them – they are certainly not unbeatable.
“And we still have them to play twice in the league – so much will depend on what happens in those games.”
There are bound to be mixed feelings in the Eagles camp about the re-emergence of the Tigers as their main challengers this year.
While on the one hand it is good for the sport and Newcastle that their Mersey rivals are providing genuine opposition in their bid for a hat-trick of titles, the fact that they are doing it with so many ex-Eagles is tough to take.
Indeed while opponents have pushed the boat out to bring in international players, the Eagles continue to bring back a majority of the players who have performed so well for them in recent years.
And Blake insists that even if they do suffer a season without silverware, the club will continue to take a long-term view of things.
“The league needs stable clubs and I really hope that the Mersey Tigers are on the right path to being a stable club.
“If they can put that level of competitive side out on a year-by-year basis then it is all the better for the league.
“It may give us more problems on the court but it has to be better for the league.
“I hate losing but I came away from Friday feeling much better than I usually do after a defeat because it was such a fantastic event.
“We had 2,800 people in the building and it was really a terrific atmosphere. The new scoreboards were terrific, along with the player introductions and it felt like a really partisan crowd.
“Probably until Friday the jury was out on whether it was the right place for us but everything about the evening was fantastic.
“I think that convinced us that we’re really in the right place to play basketball – it really convinced us of that.”
Now the Eagles must dust themselves off and make sure they are in the right frame of mind for a league campaign that is still very much alive.
“We’ve got so much to play for,” Blake said.
“It is shaping up to be a fantastic end to the season and we are still in with two shots at silverware.”
