THUNDER MAKING PROGRESS, BUT THERE IS ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT SAYS COACH SMITH
By John Hobbs.
Worthing Thunder head coach Gary Smith is looking to build an identity, and his side’s undefeated start shows that he is heading in the right direction.
Saturday’s 93-74 victory over the London Cavaliers handed Thunder a fifth consecutive win of the Championship, as they extended their lead at the top of the BCB league table.
The off-season signings of Justin Hopkins, Adrian Scarborough, Matthew Bryan-Amaning, Elliot Dadds and Danny Evans certainly give Worthing a fearsome offensive lineup, averaging 91.8 points a game in their five games played.
But for Smith - who won the Molten Coach of the Month for October - it’s the defensive end that he wants his guys to focus on, and so far, so good as his troops have boasted the best defence in the league, conceding just 75.4 points a game.
The Birmingham-born tactician is adamant that’s what he wants his team to be known for.
“We are trying to be known as a defensive team, that’s where it begins,” Smith said after Saturday’s win over the Cavaliers.
“The offence comes naturally, with the calibre of players that we have; we have to share the ball, and the guys have bought into that, and everyone is getting their shots up.
“That’s why we have multiple players with 15 or 20 points most game nights. And it starts with the defence that we play that creates that freedom for us on the offensive end.”
In addition to being the best defensive team in the league, the Thunder averages 46.4 rebounds and 31.6 defensive rebounds per game; again, no team in the BCB comes close to Worthing in these two statistics.
With defence comes solid offence, where Hopkins leads the way with 21.4 points a contest and Adrian Scarborough has posted three double-doubles in his four games played, narrowly missing on his fourth in Saturday’s win over London, instead settling for 24 points and nine boards.
But for Smith, always a coach who keeps matters close to his chest, he knows that there are still improvements to be made and work to be done.
“Being undefeated in the league, we are making great progress as a team,” Smith says.
“I always look at things, though, and I ask the question of what do we want? What’s the outcome going to be? So we’re around a quarter of the way through the season, we’re looking at the other teams, and we have a plan for each team in terms of how we’re going to approach them and how we are going to improve every single game?
“We’re going great now, but I know we can do better. I’d rather be 5-0 than 0-5; there’s no comparison, but there’s still a lot of work to do.
“What those things are, I’m keeping them internally between me and the players, because they know what to do. We continue to work hard in practice and on game days. If we take care of the defence, the offence will come naturally.”
