WITH the BBL Cup final a mere 15 days away, Tayo Ogedengbe has claimed Glasgow Rocks are out to prove they will not simply be cannon fodder for Newcastle Eagles when they get a dress rehearsal for the showpiece at the Emirates Arena tomorrow.
Three league reverses in a row have dropped Sterling Davis' men down to eighth place and on the brink of falling out of the playoff places. However that means the Rocks have nothing to lose and everything to gain against the league leaders, Ogedengbe insisted.
"There's no pressure on us," said the England internationalist. "But that's a good thing. We can play loose and jump on them more than they had expected. Newcastle are the best team in this league but we can look at this as an opportunity.
"If we beat them, it puts us in that conversation. Whatever the result, we want to shake them up and show them they're going to have a fight next month in the Cup."
Davis, whose side were forced to take three days off over Christmas due to a lack of practice facility, will sweat on the fitness of point guard JaJuan Smith whose calf injury could keep him on the sidelines.
His influence was illustrated in a horrific display last weekend against Sheffield in which the Rocks could muster only 55 points. "We've gone through some adjustments in practice in case he's out again," Ogedengbe admitted. "Because we need to find ways of getting our offense going when he's not there."
Undefeated since the opening night of the campaign, a 17th consecutive win for Newcastle could send them as much as six points clear and drop their rivals into the bottom four going into 2015. And with both coaches urging their charges to banish thoughts of their showdown for silverware in Birmingham, Davis has insisted league points must be the immediate priority.
"I look at it as a chance to climb up the table and get towards where we want to be," Ogedengbe acknowledged. "But also to address some of the changes we need to make. Last time we lost to them by 10. We want to go in there and find a look that's going to work in the final."
FIXTURES
Saturday
BBL. Surrey United v Sheffield Sharks (7pm)
Sunday
BBL. Glasgow Rocks v Newcastle Eagles (5pm), London Lions v Sheffield Sharks (4pm), Manchester Giants v Surrey United (6pm), Plymouth Raiders v Bristol Flyers (4pm), Worcester Wolves v Leeds Force (3pm)
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article