After joining fellow legends Drew Lasker and Mike Tuck to select his pre-season favourites to win the Championship title and other major awards, Ant Rowe is now flying solo to name his four coaches to watch ahead of the inaugural Super League Basketball campaign.
Keep reading to find out who made the cut in Ant’s rankings!
Ben Thomas – Cheshire Phoenix
Picking Cheshire to finish outside of the top four is likely the thing I’m most wrong about in these predictions… and it will be my own fault. I should learn to never bet against coach Ben Thomas!
He consistently recruits top-level talent into British basketball, but I think now more importantly, he has evolved into a championship calibre coach. I thought he was incredible last year and his talented roster fought for him every game. If he’s able to motivate this group this year then I’ll expect them to finish higher than fifth, however it’s hard for me not to notice what they’ve lost, who I believe to be their three best players last year. Navigating that will be one of Ben Thomas’s biggest challenges to date, as well as trying to match the incredible previous 12 months he masterminded for the Ellesmere Port club.
Andreas Kapoulas – Bristol Flyers
Another one of the more experienced coaches in topflight British basketball who has consistently produced competitive teams… I’m going to go out and say it; the Bristol Flyers were the unluckiest team in the top flight last in the last 12 months with regards to injuries. I felt like they had one hurdle after the other and with the increased fixtures of European competition this hurt their consistency domestically. Kapoulas’ Flyers play an exciting brand of basketball with a highly intensive and athletic defensive approach that often overpowers their opponents. He never fails to instil a team-first culture and it will be interesting to see how this year’s roster takes on the challenge of Super League Basketball.
Marc Steutel – Newcastle Eagles
He’s likeable and his passion for coaching is evident which is a joy to watch. This will be Steutel’s third season in charge and from year one to year two he was able to improve the Eagles’ fortunes significantly. Balancing the challenge of domestic and European basketball last year was a tall order, but the Eagles acquitted themselves well under Steutel’s guidance and only fell short in the European North Basketball League to eventual winners and continental heavyweights Bakken Bears. A young British coach that has accumulated a vast amount of experience both domestically and internationally with the British National Team, I’m interested to see how Steutel approaches extracting the best out of his talented roster on a consistent basis.
Lloyd Gardner – Surrey 89ers
There was a time when you felt that there was a black cloud hanging over the Surrey organistion but Coach Gardner has cast away the clouds and introduced some sunshine! He’s a resilient coach who finds a way to keep his team battling despite the results and/or injuries. Surrey impressively made the Play-offs of topflight British basketball last year for the first time since 2018 and this was a huge credit to Gardner. For this new campaign – the first under the 89ers banner – he has been able to bring back some key pieces including Cam Gooden, who found his best basketball on a consistent basis towards the end of the previous campaign, and Gardner will need to keep his team punching above their weight in order for Surrey to climb the ladder in the SLB.