FAB Flournoy admits events back home in New York have put his Newcastle Eagles issues into sharp perspective.

Flournoy, who was born in the Bronx, has spent the week nervously watching the TV for news of the tropical storm Sandy which wreaked havoc in the Big Apple at the start of the week.

Luckily his mother, brother and close friends and family have all emerged unscathed, but it has been a long and emotional week for the Eagles player-coach.

He also took the chance to speak at length to two former Eagles hall-of-famers Lynard Stewart and TJ Walker and admits a combination of those conversations helped him to forget the crushing loss to Leicester Riders which brought Newcastle's perfect start to the season to a grinding halt.

Flournoy said: "It has been a long week. There have been a lot of phone calls to friends and family checking up on them but thankfully, everyone I know is OK although they tell me it is very bad in Jersey.

"The whole thing gave me an opportunity to switch off and to think about something more important than losing a basketball game.

“It also gave me an opportunity to speak to Lynard and TJ, with whom I'm still in regular contact.

"We talked about everything and the defeat came up as well.

“They said themselves a loss is sometimes what you need to get that perspective back, to send you back to the drawing board and to make sure you learn something about yourselves.

"The conversation always comes back to basketball and it means that I'm going at it tomorrow with a fresh perspective."

Eagles take on Worcester Wolves tonight in the a BBL Cup quater-final at Sport Central (7.30pm tip off) that is sudden death for Flournoy's men.

Wolves were downed earlier in the season in the league but gave the Eagles a scare, as Flournoy acknowledges.

He added: "They came back really strong like Leicester did so we have to be very wary of them.

“It will be a difficult game and the intensity, because it is the Cup, will be even more apparent.”