Hey,

Good morning! Lockdown is for sure getting pretty damn tiring at this point but hopefully it works as intended and we can get out of it ahead of the summer...regardless, in between the snow and rain, we keep it moving!

This week's 3-pointer:

🎙 Podcast: Marc Mulholland

Been wanting to record a pod with Marc for well over 2 years so was super happy to get this done and don't think it disappointed. Him and Gareth Maguire have done an amazing job bringing the first NCAA tournament to Europe, the Belfast Classic, which happened in 2017 and 2018, and it was great to go behind the scenes and get a better understanding of how they managed to pull it off!

🏆 Newcastle Eagles claim Cup

The Newcastle Eagle claimed the 2021 BBL Cup after defeating a London Lions side that had been struck by a COVID-19 outbreak at the 11th hour (the WBBL Cup Final was also postponed). Luckily, the game still proved to be entertaining and thoroughly competitive, but ultimately, the Eagles were able to get it done in a game that was a stark reminder of the conditions teams are trying to play through this season, which brings us to the next point...

🦠 Lions out of Europe

Thought it was worthy to separate this as it's such a huge blow to the club and British basketball. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, although Lions re-structured their roster and had 8 guys ready to go, FIBA deemed them too high risk so effectively kicked them out of the competition. The optics are definitely not great that they were able to compete here but not in the FEC, but regardless, with their whole season having been largely focused on European competition, you can't help but feel for the team/club to have had that opportunity taken away from them - Vince Macaulay did not mince his words when asked about it.

🇬🇧 Bonus point: The GB Senior Women's squad is out ahead of their EuroBasket Women 2021 Qualifier next week.

That wraps up another week, as always hit reply with any thoughts, questions or anything else!

With gratitude,

Sam

P.S. As always check out the weekly BBL Top 10 Plays, and the BBL Power Rankings.