You would forgive Ben Thomas for feeling a little emotional about leading Cheshire Phoenix out in today’s BBL Cup final against Worcester Wolves at Arena Birmingham (3.30pm tip-off).
He was a fan of the club during its glory days as Chester Jets and, after being appointed head coach in the summer, he could now lead the Ellesmere Port and Chester outfit to their first silverware since the BBL Championship title success in 2005.
But, for Thomas, it is strictly business. For now at least, anyway.
“I can’t speak for the players about how they’re feeling,” said Thomas, who first joined Cheshire’s coaching set-up in 2012.
“But I’m putting all emotions aside for the moment.
“If you ask me how I’m feeling after the game on Sunday, I might be able to answer that.
“But right now I’m just focused on the game in hand and focused on getting that win.”
Worcester will go into the eagerly anticipated showdown as slight favourites.
They have won 12 of their last 13 games in all competitions, which included a 97-90 victory over the Nix at their Cheshire Oaks Arena home in the BBL Trophy earlier this month.
But Thomas said: “That was a close loss. We didn’t walk away from the game thinking, ‘wow, they’re a better team and they’re going to beat us again’.
“We came away from that game thinking, ‘we shouldn’t have lost’.
“We know what we’re in, we know we’re capable of it, and we’re there to do just one thing.”
The reverse to the Wolves was followed by a hard-fought 79-72 loss at home to title-challenging Newcastle Eagles in the BBL Championship last weekend.
That means Cheshire will go into Sunday’s final on the back of three straight defeats.
But Thomas, who is hopeful of having a fully-fit squad, said: “We’ve got three losses but the performances do not match up with the results.
“We turned Newcastle over 19 times on Sunday, for example. They are a top team and they don’t do that – and that’s a huge positive.
“We’ll learn from the small mistakes we made during those losses so come Sunday we’ll put our best foot forward.
“We’re going there to win.”
