Basketball. St Mirren McDonalds will play Midlothian Bulls at Linwood Sports Centre next Friday night in what is clearly the top tie of the Scottish Cup quarter-finals.
For Saints it is a chance for revenge following their defeat at the hands of the Dalkeith team in the final of the Boroughmuir Invitation earlier this month. But Bulls will now believe they have the measure of their West opponents, who were lacking only their big centre, Scott Devine, on that occasion.
Devine is certainly a big miss, not just for his size but also for his passing, as his ability to get the ball back out to Saints' outside shooters has been one of the features of the St Mirren play this season.
The league's top scorer, Alasdair Rae, is one of those to benefit, as he did again at Wester Hailes last Sunday, when the Possibles whipped the Probables in a trial for the European Promotions Cup in June. Rae should join Saints playmaker Danny Souter in the Scottish 12 for Andorra, and there might be a place for Devine if he could improve his fitness.
Good shooters such as Rae are at a premium and national coach Toni Szifris could do worse than look at Duncan McAllister of the Aberdeen Buccaneers, who are at home to Edinburgh Kings in their cup quarter-final next Saturday. McAllister has scored as many as 11 three-pointers in one game this season and had seven against Troon Tornadoes last Saturday.
The other two cup quarter-finals, which will take place a week tomorrow, are perhaps more predictable, with Paisley at home to league champions Glasgow d2 and Boroughmuir at home to Falkirk's Clark Eriksson Fury. Glasgow and Fury should progress.
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