Wembley Delight for Wolves Coach

It’s only been a few days since Worcester Wolves confirmed their standing as the country’s premier side by adding the British Basketball League Playoff title to the BBL Trophy they won in March. While obviously wanting to soak in all the pleasure of what his side has achieved, Wolves’ Director of Basketball Paul James is also already laying down plans to maintain the successes, saying:

“I came here with the intention of helping to give the city of Worcester a basketball team they can be proud of. The players have been so focused throughout the year in delivering success. Clearly we don’t want to change a winning team so, ideally, I would like to have all of the players return next season. I think we could be even stronger in one or two areas so, if it is possible to address that, then that’s what we’ll look to do.”

Sunday’s 90-78 victory over Newcastle Eagles was played out in front of over eight thousand people at Wembley Arena. A substantial number of those spectators travelled over from Worcester, thrilled to be able to witness their team’s dismantling of the Eagles. James paid tribute to their support, saying:

“I’m so impressed by just how many people came along to Wembley to support us. It was fantastic to see several hundred fans travel up to Glasgow to see us, but there were all those people and many more as well who came out on Sunday. The noise they made had us almost thinking we were playing back in Worcester. They spurred us on; they were awesome.”

This season’s move to the University of Worcester Arena has seen a huge boost in attendances, with near-full houses for games at either end of the campaign, the season opener against Leicester and the Playoff semi-final against Sheffield. In-between times there have only been a couple of occasions when the crowd has dipped below 1,200. James is aware that a new level of expectation has been established at the club, saying:

“We’ve obviously raised the bar this year with what we present off-court, with the Arena and the match-day experience. At the same time we’ve also managed to match this with what we provide on the court. We most certainly want to do all we can to continue the successes and put out the best team we can.”