Murray Wins First BBL Teaching Award

After an unbeaten run of outcomes for Caledonia Gladiators, Head Coach Gareth Murray has received the Kevin Cadle Molten BBL Coach of the Month award for February, the primary such award for the 38-year-old Scot in his third yr teaching, after he retired from enjoying on the finish of final season.

Going 5-0, the spotlight in latest weeks was a BBL Trophy quarter ultimate win over league-leaders London Lions in a gritty defensive recreation at Emirates Area, that has since been adopted on the primary day of March with a highway win at Derby Trailblazers to achieve the BBL Trophy Last of their house metropolis. It’s the first time in 9 years, and solely second time total, that the membership has reached this stage and provides them a chance to carry the Trophy for the primary time of their historical past.

There have been additionally 4 BBL Championship wins in February which have propelled Gladiators into the highest 4 of the league desk in a hotly contested battle for play-off positioning. Most notable amongst these was an important house win over Cheshire Phoenix that secured the head-to-head towards one in all their closest rivals for these high 4 spots – Gladiators acquired off to a quick begin in that recreation, after which produced an on the spot third quarter response after briefly falling behind.

They’d opened the month with a giant win of close to equal significance, beating the fifth-placed Manchester Giants on the highway stay on Sky Sports activities. Murray’s teaching mettle was examined as they trailed by as a lot as 18 factors within the first quarter, prompting an early timeout, however some line-up tweaks and large performances from the bench helped ignite a run of 16 straight factors within the second stanza, they usually constructed from there and by no means trailed once more.

Notably pleasing for Murray – particularly primarily based on his career-long fame as a participant – would be the vital latest enhancements in Caledonia’s defence, as they averaged simply 68 factors conceded in February’s 5 video games, quantity two within the BBL and in comparison with 82 factors beforehand, holding opponents to a stifling area objective proportion of simply 38%.

Murray was away representing Nice Britain as an Assistant Coach on the finish of the month – trusting his personal Assistant, Darryl Wooden, to supervise the victory towards Surrey Scorchers – as he continued his proud affiliation with the nationwide group, having received 58 caps as a participant and because the nation’s high three-point shooter.

Murray and his Gladiators now face an enormous month of March, that can embody with the BBL Trophy Last on Sunday twenty sixth March at Emirates Area, Glasgow, stay on Sky Sports activities, in addition to a tricky schedule of 5 league video games on the highway.