Early test will gauge Lightning mettle

A 3-game week, with trips to Sudbury and Montreal, will allow the London Lightning to see where they stack up against top competition in the Basketball Super League. Will they sink or swim? Go Around the Perimeter …

Mike Nuga leads the Lightning with 18.7 points per game through the team’s first three contests. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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STARTING FIVE

1. Technically speaking. Expect a little culture shock when it comes to technical fouls during these first few weeks of the BSL season. Bringing together teams from the NBL Canada and TBL into an all-new setting has not been without challenges for league officials as they seek to create a new league culture.

“We will have much less tolerance for ‘conversations’ between coaches and players, and, in particular, between players,” explained BSL President David Magley.

By “conversations,” Magley means the player-to-player, coach-to-coach, and, occasionally, coach-to-player jawing that the NBL Canada was known for at times. London knows some of those incidents well — be it rather harmless technical fouls, or players losing control and sparking fights with players, coaches, and officials.

The BSL, however, plans to nip these behaviours early on so they don’t become patterns or problems.

Magley cited the Lightning-Titans matchup on Jan. 2, when KW forward Jaquan Lightfoot was called for a technical foul for blowing a kiss to the Lightning bench during a dead ball. Officials were quick to call the foul because they knew it was coming.

“The problem is, that same player blew a kiss the game before. We knew that was his go-to irritant that he’s going to use,” Magley said. 

Judging by the shocked look on Titans faces, there is still a lot of education among the players to do. But the officials were on board, as Ronnie Nunn, BSL Vice President of Basketball Operations, and a 19-year NBA referee veteran, had taken that first ‘kiss’ clip and circulated it to referees. They were on the lookout.

“We’re not going to allow players to have this kind of behaviour. We’re going to be much quicker on techs. We’re going to collect money on fines. And we’re going to suspend offenders. Our fans deserve to watch a game that’s entertaining, not a game that’s nothing but conversation going back and forth and guys beating their chests.”

There will be growing pains, Magley admitted.

Anyone who watched the NBL Canada knows it was a chippy league – so this could be an interesting few weeks to see how things settle in. 

“Once players and coaches understand that we will have very little tolerance, it will take the pressure off them, and they can play. But over the last 10-12 years, things have evolved – or devolved – to the point where if a guy gets away with it in one game, then it can become a pattern. We’re going to set a different tone so that they know this is a real basketball game. Every league has points of emphasis about things they won’t stand for. The NBA and flopping, for example. But by placing emphasis on (a behaviour you want to stop), coaches and players start to get more aware.”

Magley continued, “I want them to play the game. I want teams to win because they were better, and not because they won the mind games to try and psych somebody out.” 

Jeremiah Mordi has been a steadying presence for the Lightning in the early going, averaging 15.0 points and 10.3 rebounds through three games. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

2. Sophomore surge? He was named Canadian Player of the Year in the final season of NBLC basketball for good reason. Mike Nuga had a solid rookie season in London last year, averaging 11.8 points and 5.2 rebounds in a team-high 39 games, including playoffs.

Is the Lightning guard taking the next step in his progression? We’re only three games in, but it appears he’s ready to make a leap. Nuga leads London with 18.7 points per game across those three contests, including a career-high 27-point game (10-of-17 shooting)  in London’s loss to KW last Tuesday.

He’s averaged 31.7 minutes per game thus far, and he’s expected to play a significant role all season – combining his ability to drive to the hoop for athletic buckets with adept shooting from three-point range. 

3. Time on your side. If it seems BSL games have been a touch more drawn out early on, it’s not your watch. Early on, the BSL has deployed four TV timeouts during its broadcasts (two per half), each running 2 minutes and 45 seconds. That’s 1 minute and 15 seconds longer than during an NBL Canada broadcast last season. BSL officials are likely to drop the TV timeouts to 1 minute 30 seconds in the near future to speed up the games a bit.

It certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed on the court, and players and coaches alike are reportedly not thrilled with the extra time. From icing a foul shooter completely to killing the momentum of a scoring run, the extra-long timeouts have irked some. We’ve seen players looking up at the videoboard waiting for the time to count down, long after strategy has been discussed.

4. Fresh faces. Well, that didn’t take long. Lightning coach Doug Plumb can never be accused of sitting on his hands. After just three contests, London is making a couple of roster changes. Gone is Marcus Ottey, who won a title with the Lightning last year. The guard and Plumb had a visible disagreement on the bench last Tuesday, although it wasn’t that specific incident that led to the player’s departure. The coaching staff and Ottey had simply been at odds on the latter’s role with the team, his minutes, etc. – and, in fact, Plumb has been working to land Ottey a job with another team in the league.

Replacing Ottey will be Shadell Millinghaus, a familiar face to Plumb and London’s returnees this year. Millinghaus was the primary reason the Lightning lost to the Albany Patroons last March in a game at the Washington Avenue Armory. Playing in his first pro game in three years, the point guard produced 15 points, 12 rebounds and four assists and was generally a thorn in the side of the Lightning, who lost to Albany for the second straight year.

Also joining London this week will be big man Andrew Gordon. A 26-year-old Florida native, Gordon split his collegiate playing days between West Virginia and Louisiana Tech. Since then, he’s gained three years of pro experience under his belt, most recently in Bulgaria, where he’s averaged nearly 10 points and six rebounds a game in 19 minutes per contest.

5. Playoffs? Playoffs? Yes, the season just started, but it’s never too early to understand what the path to the championship will look like, as BSL officials did not clarify it immediately when the regular season schedule was released. This season, the league’s top four teams based on winning percentage will square off in the playoffs. Both the BSL Semi-finals (No. 1 vs. No. 4, No. 2 vs. No. 3) and BSL Finals will be best-of-five series.

As it was last year, standings will be based on overall winning percentage – including games against BSL opponents and TBL teams. This adds a quirky nature to the process, as BSL teams won’t be playing identical schedules – neither the same TBL teams nor the same total number of games (Windsor is starting the year later than other BSL squads).

UPCOMING GAMEDAYS

7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11 vs. Montreal (1-1)
7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 12 at Sudbury (3-1)
2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 14 at Montreal (1-1)

Singer and poet Leonard Cohen once said “I feel at home when I'm in Montréal — in a way that I don't feel anywhere else.” We’ll soon see how the Lightning feel about The CIty of a Hundred Steeples when they square off against one of their newest BSL opponents, the Montreal Tundra. Sandwiched between that home-and-home (Thursday and Sunday) is a return to Sudbury, a city that Leonard Cohen had nothing to say.

If the Lightning survive the short turnaround trips this weekend, they will return home for seven straight games at Budweiser Gardens, and won’t hit the road again until a final regular season trip to Sudbury on Feb. 10. It’s strange how the schedule started off that rivalry with three straight in the Nickel City, before finishing with two in London.