Consistency Key To Wolves Making A Play-Off Run, Says Jordan Williams.

By Jamie Thomas – British Basketball League

In an already disrupted season, the Worcester Wolves’ preparations for this crazy 2020/21 BBL term was hampered quite significantly by late arrivals of key players – particularly their American imports – but that gives talisman Jordan Williams confidence that fans will see another level of basketball from his side in the playoffs.

Matt Newby’s side have shown they can compete with anybody in the BBL this season, and Williams feels if they can find some consistency when it matters most, success could follow for the Wolves in the Playoffs. We caught up with Worcester’s star forward recently to find out more.

“There’s definitely more to come from us in the playoffs. We got together late as a team with our imports only joining us in December, so we’re months behind everybody else in that sense and we’re trying to build chemistry still as a group. We’ve done well so far but there’s much more to come.

“When we’re at our best we can compete with anybody on both ends of the floor, but it is about consistency for us. We can have one performance where we’re at our peak then the next one we won’t be close to that, so coming into the playoffs we have to find that consistency to be successful.

“I’m very excited for the playoffs – our main goal is to chase silverware so if we can come into the playoffs, make some noise and compete to reach and win the final then that’s great for the club.”

“There will definite be some upsets.”

Having beaten the Leicester Riders and London Lions themselves this year, the Wolves have proven they’re more than capable of upsetting the odds and the 25-year-old Londoner urged fans to expect more upsets across the board in the post-season.

For Williams himself, he confesses to enjoying the battles against the top teams the most, and that his team has to take some confidence from their strong performances against the league’s leading sides, whilst praising the extra competitiveness of the BBL this season.

“Battling against the top teams is what I’ve enjoyed the most. Competing against the likes of London, Leicester, Plymouth and Newcastle are the games where you want to show out as a team. We’ve been able to do that a few times this season and we want more of it in the playoffs.

“We’ll overcome whatever challenge when we get there. We’ve got to focus, lock-in and try to get the wins. There will definitely be some upsets. I feel like this year there have been a lot of teams beating the top teams. In previous years you could split the league up into top teams, middle-order and lower teams, but this year the lower teams are beating the top seeds so it’ll be very interesting.

“We’ve beaten some of the top teams already this year so we know we can compete and what we have to do when we come across those teams. We’ve got to take confidence from that, lessons from those games and lock-in, focus and give our best and see what happens.”

“I feel like I’ve improved my confidence this year.”

Averaging 13 points, nine rebounds and five assists this season in Championship action, Williams has shone once again as one of the BBL’s premiere bigs and credits Wolves Head Coach Matt Newby in particular for helping him deliver such strong performances with consistency, whilst also outlining his belief regarding the strength and versatility of centres and forwards across the league this year.

“They say the BBL is a guard-heavy league but I feel like this year in particular there are a lot of good, versatile bigs who are adding to their teams with more than just points, getting a lot of assists and rebounds too.

“I love the battles I’ve had with other bigs in the league, I just love being competitive and battling against the best guys in the UK as well as some great imports. Good match-ups just feed our competitive nature, and we’ve certainly seen some great battles this season.

“I want to get better every night and make the team better every night, I don’t really look at my own stats or anything like that – as long as I’m helping the team win, making smart plays, more assists and rebounding, that’s what I take pride in. I feel like I’ve improved my confidence this year, Coach trusts me to make the right plays and do good things for the team, so that really helps.”

“Every point counts and you have to be ready.”

A key cog in a young core group of players, Williams’ considerable talents will undoubtedly be leant on heavily if Worcester are to make a run deep into the post-season, but whereas other teams can claim to have more experience, perhaps, the 25-year-old forward feels the youthful enthusiasm of the group will make them play with a point to prove when the playoffs get underway.

“I feel like we should have the same mindset in every game, but when it comes to the post-season it is just time to get some wins. There are only two legs, every point counts and you have to be ready.

“We have a really young team, full of talent, and we’re probably the youngest team in the league. How we approach games and how successful we are depends on our system, we have to believe in our system, and when we’ve done that well and executed we’ve got a lot of big results this year.

“As a young group, everybody wants to prove when it comes to the big moments like this that together we can do something special. We’ve got some great pieces, there’s still more to come from us and hopefully we’ll show that in the playoffs.”