THE Symes Motors Bendigo Braves have talked the talk, now it’s time to walk the walk.
After a poor season on and off the court last year, the Braves start 2010 with a clean slate.
An old favourite in Ben Harvey returns to the club as coach, two highly-rated US imports in Luke Meyer and Ivan McFarlin have joined the club and Ricky Daniels, one of the club’s greatest players, is back on deck.
Throw in the controversy surrounding a new black uniform to replace the Braves’ traditional blue and gold strip and you can see why there is plenty of hype surrounding the club heading into the South East Australian Basketball League season.
The hype and talk means little now as the Braves prepare to tackle old foe the Ballarat Miners at the Bendigo Stadium tonight.
Harvey is desperate for the Braves to regain their mojo on and off the court.
“The team was a little flat last year, but this year it is one in, all in,” he said.
“There’s no favourites, it’s all about the team.
“This club has a long history and I was lucky enough to be a part of it for seven years as a player.
“I’m very keen to get some of the old faces back around the place this year.”
Harvey is well aware his side needs to start the season strongly.
“There’s been a lot of hard work put in,” Harvey said.
“One thing I know is we’re very fit. At this level you need to have your body right and we’ve done a lot of work on fitness.
“We’re ready to go. Obviously, playing Ballarat first up is going to be very tough, but I’m very happy with the way we’ve prepared for the season.
“First game you want a big crowd and we couldn’t ask for anything better to have a home game against Ballarat.”
Harvey’s coaching debut is against arguably the premier coach in the SEABL - Guy Molloy.
The new Miners coach has a wealth of NBL and international experience.
“It’s very exciting to come up against someone with the experience Guy has,” Harvey said.
“I’ve got a lot of faith in the players that they’ll get the job done and we can get the win.”
In his playing days, Harvey thrived on up tempo, aggressive basketball and he said we can expect similar traits in his coaching style.
“The Braves will up tempo, in-your-face basketball,” Harvey said.
“We’ll be exciting to watch . . . and play that college style of basketball.
“We’ve set our team goals about defence and defence is what will win us games.
“Offensively, I’m very confident we have the talent to post good scores.
“We have four big guys who can play inside the paint which means we should get some good looks outside.
“I think our team is very well-balanced for the style of basketball we want to play.”
With a talent-laden squad the Braves are expecting to march straight back into the play-offs.
“To start with, it’s important that we win all our home games,” Harvey said.
“We want to finish top-two. We have a squad that’s good enough for us to be a top-two contender.
“We’re playing in a very tough competition . . . but we’re confident we’re going to have a good season.”
Tonight’s game starts at 8pm at the Bendigo Stadium.
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