Make no bones about it, winning is what every sports team wants to do. Coaches like RDC Kings Basketball Head Coach Clayton Pottinger is placed with the task of guiding his team to the top of the standings. But sometimes it’s just not that easy.
And for the first half of their season the Kings were in and out of sync. “I can’t put my finger on what it was but the dynamic wasn’t quite right,” said Pottinger. “We struggled as a coaching staff to get the team to do the things and buy into the philosophies we wanted.”
The Kings record before the break was 4-5. Pottinger felt a change was needed so he made adjustments like a coach is supposed to do. “We have four new players in the line-up and the chemistry has changed big time from the time we added these guys.”
In order to bring in those four players, Pottinger and his staff had to let go of some of his best players — it wasn’t easy. “It was a lot of sleepless nights I can tell you that much,” said Pottinger.
The team is undefeated in 2012 and are coming off a pair of weekend victories over ACAC South Division rival SAIT. “We stuck with it through four quarters both nights and we were able to put away a pretty good team.”
The Kings are now in second place and if they continue to win, they could find themselves hosting two playoff games at home. But home court advantage is not big concern for the Kings’ rookie coach. “We don’t try to put a whole lot of stock into the home and away thing, other than to say we have great fans here and great fan support.”
Hosting playoff games is one thing. Getting to the championship game is the tough part. It’ll be tougher if they face the best college team in the nation on the way there. Lakeland College beat the old Kings team by 25 points in the first half of the season.
“If we get to where we want to get to this year, we’re going to be on a collision course with Lakeland. They always say to be the best you have to beat the best. For us to have some success, we’re going to have to keep the pace of the game down a little bit. We don’t want to get into a shootout with them.”
The Kings have a lot of basketball ahead them before they face Lakeland again, but the important thing right now is they’re winning — consistently.
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