DREW'S DIARY: HEADING DOWN UNDER
Monday 27 February, 2006

A lot's gone on since I last updated you guys - and it's pretty much all been good news!

First up, we won the BBL Cup back in December. Then the other week we took the BBL trophy.
I was named MVP of that final - but I think my team mate Andrew Bridge was probably more deserving of the award. I wouldn't blame him if he thought he'd been robbed!!

I was, obviously, extremely happy with both results. Our goal was to win all 4 pieces of silverware this season and we're half way there.
We're also in with a very good chance of winning the league and getting home court advantage for the first round of the playoffs.

There's been a lot of buzz about the BBL lately thanks to the whole Dennis Rodman saga. I got to play against him the other week.

It was a great experience going up against him - he's a 5 time NBA Champion and was in the all-NBA defensive team more times than I can remember.
But despite his rep, once the ball goes up he's like anyone else - so from that standpoint there was no intimidation or anything, but there was a great deal of respect for what he's done in his career.

Rodman's appearances in the BBL caused a lot of controversy...but, to be honest, it was a Catch 22 situation and I could see both the positives and negatives.
On the one hand I would have liked to have seen the money they gave him to have been spent on allowing two English kids to play professionally.
But at the same time, if it wasn't for him British basketball would never have enjoyed all that attention he generated for those few games.
You have to look at it long term. If in the long run it means more people come out to games then it was a great move. I don't think it's something you can make a judgement on right away.

Things got even better for me recently when Olu Babalola signed with us.
Olu is basically like my younger brother. We went to high school together. We come from the same junior programme - we played for the same coach, Joe White - our roots are basically from the same place.
When the opportunity was there to sign Olu, I tried to do everything I could to get him to come over here.
I was on the phone constantly...my phone bill to him was ridiculous! When he decided he was coming over I was ready to do back flips.

The winning and having Olu come over has been great...but we've had some testing times at the Eagles lately.
First up, our captain Fab Flournoy got a ban for fighting. Then there was some controversy when Charles Smith left the Scottish Rocks and joined us.

A lot of people thought the problems would affect our game...but we have a group of guys who thrive under pressure. All the bad press did was force us to become closer as a team.

This year we've been through a lot - what with guys being hurt and other tough situations - and people have been like "that'll definitely break them". But it hasn't. The adversity has only made us a better and stronger team...and we trust each other that much more.

Looking ahead, and the Commonwealth Games are coming up.
I'm really excited - not to mentioned honoured - to be going out and representing my country.
I'm lucky that I'll be joined by two other Eagles - Andrew Bridge and Fab. The fact that I've got extremely good relationships with both of them makes it that much better.

Another team mate, Perry Lawson, was also a contender for the squad, but unfortunately he wasn't selected. However, I think that shows the quality of the Newcastle team - there were 4 guys in consideration for going out there. No other teams could even boast that.

As for how we'll do down under - my expectation is to go out there and not drop a game. Seriously.
People make a big deal about New Zealand and Australia, and rightly so - they've achieved a lot whilst we're still trying to build a successful international programme.
But the team that we've put together has got a really good blend of experience and young enthusiasm...and I don't see why we can't go over there and make a lot of noise.

Whilst me, Fab and Andrew are away we know the rest of the Eagles will handle business.
The Towers aren't going to lose any players, so I think they could well go on a winning streak during March - but when we get back we'll just take care of the remainder of the season. But so far, everything's pointing in the right direction.

Peace

Drew

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