New Lease Of Life
Tagged in: NBL
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Coach Chris Sparks and his Scenic Circle Canterbury Rams have had nearly a fortnight to savour their first win of the Dominion Finance NBL, but are determined not to rest on the laurels now the drought is over.
Through yet another quirk of the draw – there have been so many this season – the Ramsí 72-64 televised home win over TET Taranaki Mountain Airs on April 12 has been their only outing in almost a month.
ìEveryone was happy with the way we played,î recalls Sparks. ìIt was nice to get that first win and take a load off.
ìDefensively, we hung in there and down the stretch, guys like Jeremy Kench, Mychal Green and Michael Joiner made some plays offensively.î
The latest bye week has probably come at a bad time for Canterbury, who havenít been able to take full advantage of their success to build any kind of momentum.
ìIt hasnít been ideal, but at the same time, the guys are getting rest.
ìWhen you play six games in two-and-a-half weeks like we did, you get worn down. Even if the players say theyíre OK, theyíre often not.
ìThis bye has enabled us to give them a full weekend off to get their legs back. In practice, weíve been doing a lot of up-and-down to keep their game shape.î
It has also enabled Sparks to add a few new wrinkles to the Ramsí play book. Their opening six losses were often due to one or two periods each game where the points simply dried up and allowed opponents to get away on them.
ìOffensively, weíve put in a couple of new sets Ö things that, when we have those dry spells, we can go to these sets right away.
ìThey are designed to get people shots, and Jeremy is becoming good at recognizing when things arenít going our way and calling a set play.î
When their schedule resumes in Round Eight, the Rams get a chance to start again where things first began to go wrong Ö against northern rivals Blue Chip Nelson Giants on Wednesday.
When their season tipped off in March, Canterbury were on the wrong side of a 71-84 trouncing by the Giants, who are currently 5-3, but coming off a surprise loss to U Park it Waikato Pistons over the weekend.
Last week, Nelson coach Nenad Vucinic replaced veteran import Faron Hand with a younger, more athletic Marcus Watts and the defeat may have sown some seeds of doubt in the Giants camp.
ìI think they are obviously a different team without Faron,î observes Sparks. ìAnd weíve come a long way since we played them last time.
ìA lot of times when you lose a player, it hurts a team and sometimes it helps. Itís hard to tell what overall impact it will have.
ìBut they are coached by Nenad Vucinic, so you knew what youíre going to get every time. They rebound extremely well, they execute offensively and play great team defence.î
Handís departure will affect the Rams, though, particularly Joiner, who did not enjoy their previous match-up. Joiner had only been the country a few days when he allowed his compatriot a ìdouble doubleî of 18 points/11 rebounds, scoring only six points himself.
ìFaron was definitely someone we were keying on for this game,î says Sparks. ìMichael really wanted to play him Ö he was outplayed last time and Faron was letting him know about it out on court.
ìWhen I told Michael Faron was gone, he was very disappointed.î
Dominion Finance NBL Guide (Round Eight) (pdf 1.2MB)
