Glasgow Rocks

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Glasgow Rocks
LogoGlasgowRocks.png
Founded 1998
Hall Emirates Arena
(6,500 seats)
Homepage http://www.glasgowrocks.co.uk/
Chairman Ian Reid
Trainer Sterling Davis
league British Basketball League
2012/13: 3rd place
Colours Navy blue / sky blue / white
Jersey colors
Jersey colors
Kit shorts whitesides.png
Kit shorts.svg
home
Jersey colors
Jersey colors
Kit shorts whitesides.png
Kit shorts.svg
Away
successes
BBL play-offs 2003

The Glasgow Rocks are a professional basketball team from Glasgow , Scotland . The Rocks was founded in 1998 as a franchise of the closed professional league British Basketball League (BBL) in Edinburgh and took a license that was no longer available through the merger of Crystal Palace and London Towers . Four years later they moved to Glasgow and competed under the name Scottish Rocks . After a long-term agreement with the City of Glasgow, the name was changed to Glasgow Rocks in 2009.

history

Edinburgh Rocks (1998 to 2002)

At the beginning of the BBL 1987 there was with the Murray BC Livingston a Scottish club in the BBL, which grew to two teams in the second season 1988/89 by the move of the Kingston Kings as Glasgow Rangers to Glasgow. The two clubs played in the 1988/89 BBL season in the play-off final of the title from among themselves. David E. Murray , owner of both teams, then lost interest in basketball and concentrated his activities on the football club Glasgow Rangers , which he had taken over as chairman in 1987. While the Rangers basketball team returned as Kings to Kingston upon Thames , Murray BC was deregistered from the BBL and the BBL played from then on as a league in which only teams from England competed.

After the 1997/98 season, the two London clubs Towers and Crystal Palace joined forces in the London Towers . This provided the welcome opportunity to bring a BBL franchise back to Scotland with the support of a consortium of Scottish businesspeople. The Meadowbank Arena in Edinburgh was chosen as the home ground and the team was named Edinburgh Rocks. In their inaugural season, the Rocks won a third of the season's games and were “best of the rest” in ninth place, but clearly missed eighth and final qualifying place for the play-offs . Already in their second season the Rocks threatened to run out of money, but Ian Reid as one of the managing directors bought the franchise and was able to stabilize it financially for the time being. A regional structure was introduced in the BBL and the Rocks achieved third place in the “Northern Conference ” with a positive season balance of more wins than losses. In their first play-off participation they lost the semifinals against the eventual title winners Manchester Giants , against whom they had previously lost the semifinals in the National Cup.

In addition to the economic difficulties, sporting turbulence joined in the following 2000/01 season, which resulted in the dismissal of the new and very controversial coach Greg Lockridge. He was succeeded as player- coach by the future Scottish national coach Iain McLean, who, as a former player of Murray BC, had been in the squad since the beginning of the Rocks franchise. However, he was initially unable to alleviate the chronic lack of success and the team ended the season after only five wins in 36 league games with the worst record of any team in the BBL. In the following season 2001/02 they were not much more successful and reached with 13 season wins in the league, the third worst record of all BBL teams. As fourth in the Northern Conference, this was enough to participate in the play-offs, while the season ended for two southern teams with a better record. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why the BBL abolished the system of conferences and again kept a common table in the following season; for the Rocks the season lasted only slightly longer when they were eliminated in the first round.

Scottish Rocks (2002 to 2009)

The 2002/03 season began with the move from Meadowbank Arena in Edinburgh to Braehead Arena in Renfrew on the outskirts of the most populous Scottish city of Glasgow. With the Paisley BC there was already a team in Renfrewshire that had participated in European club competitions in the 1970s. After moving from the Scottish capital Edinburgh, the club renamed itself and adopted the name Scottish Rocks as the only Scottish BBL franchise at the time. In the new hall, the Rocks first had to build up a new fan base, but the Rocks knew how to convince in terms of sport. In the course of the season they improved and reached the play-offs again with a positive season balance, in which they presented themselves in top form and successively defeated the teams with the three best balance sheets of the regular season. With the victory in the BBL play-offs in 2003, the club won the first title. Then the left from the United States dating coach Kevin Wall, the Rocks and returned to his home country.

Although the Rocks with Jerry Williams put the " Most Valuable Player " (MVP) of the BBL in the 2003/04 season, they could no longer follow the success of the previous season. It was enough to take part in the final in the BBL Cup, but it was lost to the Sheffield Sharks , who also won the BBL play-offs, in which the Rocks "flew out" as fourth in the main round and defending champion in the first round. In the 2004/05 season, the team, including LaMont McIntosh , who later played in the German basketball league , missed the title success this time against the Brighton Bears in the final participation in the BBL Cup . In the league it was enough to participate in the play-offs in sixth place despite a negative season record. As in the previous year, the Chester Jets were again the team that brought the Rocks to an early end of the season. This time, however, the end was only in the semi-finals after the Rocks had surprisingly defeated the London Towers in the first round. In the 2005/06 season they were in the league as second in the table only one win away from the best record of the Newcastle Eagles , which ultimately dominated and won all the titles of the BBL, including the play-offs with an 83: 68- Victory over the rocks.

For the 2006/07 season, the Rocks signed Thorsten Leibenath, the first German coach in the BBL. While Leibenath was able to lead the Rocks again into the final of the BBL Cup, which this time was lost to the Guildford Heat by three points , they reached fourth place in the championship. In the semifinals they won against the main round first heat, lost in a new edition of the previous year's final again against the Newcastle Eagles. Leibenath then became head coach of the Gießen 46ers , which in 2003 had already brought Chris Finch as coach from the BBL, whom Leibenath had assisted in Gießen. Leibenath's successor at the Rocks was Sterling Davis as player-coach, who, however, had to accept a play-off in the first round after finishing fifth in the championship. The move to Kelvin Hall and a longer-term agreement with the Glasgow city council in the following season did not bring any sporting improvement. Instead, with a negative season balance, they only reached the play-offs in seventh place, which ended early with the end in the first round.

Glasgow Rocks (since 2009)

Due to the bond with the city of Glasgow and the move within the city limits, the name was changed for the 2009/10 season in Glasgow Rocks. With the new name, there was also new sporting success. This time they reached the play-offs in third place and beat cup winners Sheffield Sharks in the semifinals. In the play-off final, the Rocks was again denied a triumph when they lost this time to the Everton Tigers . In the following season you could not build on it, especially since Kieron Achara left the Rocks after the start of the season for the financially strong southern European leagues, instead you were eliminated as championship six in the first play-off round. The 2011/12 season also remained without significant success for the Rocks, although they could improve by one place in the final table and this time the play-off only took place in the semifinals. The following season saw the move to the much larger Emirates Arena , which was built for the 2014 Commonwealth Games and can accommodate 6,500 spectators for basketball games. In the first round of the BBL Trophy 2013 they defeated the Scottish visiting team Edinburgh Kings, but retired as in the BBL Cup in the next round. In the championship 2012/13 they finished third, but in the knockout games of the play-offs they lost in the first round two-way leg against the Plymouth Raiders , so that the 2012/13 season was one ended unsatisfactorily.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 1988–89 BBL Championship & Playoffs. British Basketball League , accessed June 8, 2013 (English, season overview).