DURHAM Wildcats coach Dave Elderkin says his BBL new boys would rather inspire fear than make friends in their debut season in top flight basketball.
The Wildcats have collected plenty of plaudits for their performances in a trio of Trophy defeats in the opening fortnight of the campaign, not least their narrow loss at Glasgow Rocks last week.
They complete their Trophy campaign against the same side at Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre tonight with Elderkin looking for his side to turn the screw on the Rocks and knock the Scottish side of the competition.
“There’s some nice things being said about us but to be honest, that doesn’t mean a lot to us,” he said. “It won’t mean anything to us until the doubts that we have about ourselves are removed and put on others. It was interesting this week because on the BBL website, I noticed a comment from (Newcastle Eagles captain) Andrew Bridge. He said nobody would be coming into our house to get 40 or 50 points – he believes that we’ll give plenty of teams a game.
“That has to be the aim for us this season and I think we are progressing towards that first win.”
Although the Wildcats hopes of progressing to the last four of the Trophy died last weekend with defeats to their two North rivals, Elderkin is adamant this is no dead rubber.
Pointing to the need to maintain the steep progress achieved so far this season, he says getting the inaugural victory of the BBL era is absolutely critical. And he also feels they owe Glasgow Rocks one after sloppiness cost them dear.
“We were disappointed not to get the win,” he said. “But in fairness our defence wasn’t consistent enough and we were made to work too hard for our points, which are two areas we’ve been working very hard on in training. We have been working hard on consistently challenging our shooters and not becoming over-reliant on Ralph Bucci.”
Meanwhile Paul Elderkin could be set for his debut in November after starting rehab for ruptured shoulder ligaments three weeks ahead of schedule.
“It has given Paul a real lift because he was understandably down that his dream of playing in the BBL had been taken away from him,” said Dave.
