The latest on the coaching job is that I was a bit trigger-happy with that last report about the coaching job. It isn't just a choice between Billy and Nick. Anyway, Billy's out of the running after signing a 3-yr contract at the Riders which leaves Nick Nurse and some mystery applicant- heavily rumoured to be Jimmy Brandon.

More lies I've been telling you

It turns out that reports of our position in Europe were somewhat exaggerated. There's still a chance we will be entered as the British entry to the new Supro League. However, at the moment, there is no British entry as such. The two remaining slots in the league will go to wild cards from minor basketball countries. That's hardly a certainty of European competition next year by any means, but hey, it's a lot better than nothing!

Junior Night

The annual Bullets youth awards are to be held at the Sports Cafe on Broad St (Birmingham of course) on Sunday May 21st. They'll start about 7 to 7.30pm and will be great to spot the Bullets top stars of the future so go along if you can!

Taken direct from the official website (and snipped a bit). There's no reason I should paraphrase it is there....

"Now who will it be that will takes Mike's position as head coach of the Bullets? Well the list of coaches that applied for the place has been narrowed down and now we can officially say that next season the Bullets team will be conducted by either the current Leicester Riders coach - Billy Mims - or the ex-Bullets and current Manchester Giants coach - Nick Nurse."

And if that wasn't enough, check this out....

"The Bullets owner Craig Bown has been speaking to the EBBA CEO - Simon Kirkland - and what has resulted is that next season the Bullets will be entered into one of the European competitions. It is well known that Craig's ambitions for the club are European bound but perhaps not this early. The reason why we have accepted the offer is to give the players, coach and franchise the experience of what basketball on the continent is like. We do not expect much success but the experience will definitely help our quest for European glory."

Wow!! It's a tough choice between Nick and Billy, but Nick definitely wins my vote. I know the Dorsey link is pretty unlikely now- he's probably going to Europe instead but, Nurse can still put together a decent side- just look at Manchester. However, who would be the best man for the job taking Europe into account? Neither are particularly proven on the continent, so let's just wait and see. But cast your vote on the poll to the right.

Get your chequebooks out

And Euro Competition! That's great news and a biiiig well done to Craig for arranging it! As the statement says, it is unlikely we'll get too far, but then if Leopards can play in Europe so can we!! The only drawback is the price of travelling, but if you're mad enough to go to Barbados, you're easily mad enough to cross the channel for a day or two!

I think we all knew this was gonna happen, but that doesn't really help does it? The terrible thing was that we were right in it up until the last 0:57. According to the 'experts' we should have been dead and buried well before then.

We started amazingly well. Shawn worked their defense to perfection and got baskets, free shots and fouls on Holley and Craven. The Giants fans couldn't believe it and we went off to a 9-3 lead. They did manage to pull back to 22-18 by the end of the quarter but Bullets seemed to want it a bit more and were marginally the better side.

The second quarter was a joke. The referees ruined it. For some reason they decided that Giants were incapable of making a foul and that Bullets were the dirtiest players ever and deserved everything they got. Even when Craven had Shawn in a headlock and was punching him in the head the refs decided it was all Shawn's fault. Not surprisingly the Bullets players weren't too pleased and there were a couple of times the game threatened to explode into a brawl.

It was the refs fault as they just didn't call it at both ends. I thought Shawn was going to get ejected the way he was reacting to the officiating. Personally, I would have walked off-court. All-in-all this allowed Manchester to score 10 straight points and Bullets didn't score for 7 minutes. The quarter ended 39-37 and the refs finally decided to give us some free throws. To Clive Allen. I guess they weren't expecting him to hit them both!!

Every other report of the game I've read has ignored the refs incompetence (or bribery). Even the Beeb's so-called highlights decided only to show the second half. If Shawn Jamison trash talking mouthy Travis Conlan face-to-face after a massive dunk isn't a highlight, I don't know what is.

By the time the second half got underway, the lads appeared to have calmed down a lot but that might have been what allowed Giants to break away to 52-43. At this point I'm sure a few people wrote off the Bullets but they stormed back to level at 54 apiece with some superb team spirit and play from pretty much everybody.

The fourth quarter was close- neither team got ahead by more than 5 until the very end. Justin Phoenix will be disappointed by his display. We kind of needed him to make some baskets- but they just wouldn't go in for him. It might have been those silver letters putting him off- who knows.

The game was decided when Tony Holley, I'll say that again, Tony Holley, hit a 3-pointer to give them a 6-point lead with 0:57 left. You might ask how, or say I was lying, but nope, I was there, it happened. It killed off the game and we were reduced to fouling.

Dorsey was named MVP (surprise) with a game-high 22pts, but it wasn't really a great award- look at that ugly trophy! The 'medals' they handed out weren't much better either. Surprisingly, Bullets top scorer was Emiko with 13 followed by Shawn and Fab with 12.

What would have happened if we'd had Yorick?

Thanks

I've got to commend the whole team for the performance throughout the whole playoffs. The team defense was on a different level to the regular season and I can't really single out any one player. For the whole season, I'd like to say thanks to Mike and Craig as well as Corey and Yorick!

Despite all the criticism Mike has got recently, I think Bullets fans will be sad to see him go, epecially now. The fairytale ending was Mike riding off into the sunset with a medal but this time- it just didn't happen.

Fantasy League

Congratulations to Ballerno1 and Naughty Nick Nurse who finish as joint-champions of the very first Fantasy Basketball League. Look out for it next year. It will be back! And the poll works again now.

Yet more psychological warfare as the two championship finalists battle out before a ball has been tipped. With the reports that Yorick will make an appearance comes the news from the Giants camp that they have some injuries. Forgive me if I take it with a pinch of salt. Nick said:

"Tony Holley is probably the biggest question mark right now. He is our main inside defender and with Shawn Jamison at the Bullets, who makes you use a lot of fouls, we are going to need all the big guys we can muster. I hope he will be able to play some minutes on Saturday and help us out in that department."

"Phil [Handy] has had some problems. He has sat out for the last few days, because he's still nursing that knee injury that he had before the play-offs, and Danny Craven hasn't trained for about eight days because he has a problem with his eye - he scratched about 85% of his retina."

I think Nick Nurse has been getting some tips from Sir Alex. (Except he can win trophies)

In what could be seen as an attempt to upset the balance of the tie, Bullets supremo Craig Bown announced that his man for the coaching job next year was none other than the Giants' Nick Nurse.

Craig was also thinking of the respect that former favourite Tony Dorsey has for Nurse and that he'll probably be willing to follow him back to Birmingham. Said Craig of the pair: "We very much see them as a package, so once Nick is hooked up we'd very much like to talk to Tony as well."

Exciting news which certainly puts an extra special spin on Staurday's final. However, Manchester were quick to warn off Bullets. "We categorically refuse Birmingham's request to talk to Nick while he remains the Giants coach." Of course, that means Nick can always quit.

The psychologocial factor is important. Just take a look at the quarter-finals with Sheffield. Bullets were making noises about Chris Finch- and went on to beat Sharks in the playoffs.

Tickets for the final are still available from the BBL and there are some coaches being run by the supporters club to Wembley. If you want more information, call Chairman Simon Plumbe's mobile on 0860 948296.

Yorick's back in action

It looks like the rumours are true! Yorick will make a surprise comeback in the final match of the season! Don't know how much of a part he'll play but he's been training so that's a good sign. Apart from giving the Bullets a boost, he'll probably be appearing at Rough and Ready at the end of May so he needs to sort his wrist out ASAP.

Although this is good news, of course someone must make way for Yorick. The obvious choice is usual bench-warmer Myron Riley which might disappoint a few fans travelling to Wembley.