The Head Coach of the Bristol Flyers, Andreas Kapoulas, has won the Kevin Cadle Molten BBL Coach of the Month award for November after his team rose to the summit of the BBL Championship table for the first time since joining the top flight in 2014, and also reached the BBL Cup semi-finals.
Coach Kapoulas led his team to a perfect 4-0
record for the month, and in doing so they beat two of the league’s early
frontrunners to establish themselves as contenders. Ending November top of the
BBL Championship with an 8-3 record, they rose above pacesetters London Lions
after beating them 75-71 early in the month, as his fired up team were fast out
of the blocks with a 20-2 first quarter surge meaning that they led for all but
three minutes against the powerhouse Lions.
The month ended with another statement win, and
another fast start, as Bristol knocked Manchester Giants out of the BBL Cup and
reached the semi-final stages, looking to lift the Cup for the first time
having been beaten finalists in 2020. They led from tip-to-buzzer after hitting
the opening seven points in one minute in front of a raucous home crowd.
There were also league wins over Caledonia
Gladiators and Cheshire Phoenix in November, showing great resilience in the
latter as they came from 10 points down in the fourth quarter with a 26-11
finish.
Coach Kapoulas returned some key components to
his team this year in American guard Mike Miller and Brits Malcolm Delpeche and
Corey Samuels, adding to that exciting talents such as former New York Knicks
NBA Summer League and G-League star VJ King, who is currently sixth in the BBL
in scoring and fifth in rebounding.
It’s another team built around his philosophy as
Flyers lead the league in rebounding, offensive rebounding and second chance
points, while also boasting among the best defences in the BBL, something else
that improved a notch in November as they didn’t concede 80 points or more in
any game.
Flyers now look forward to a six-game schedule in
December, which includes huge back-to-back clashes with London Lions in the BBL
Championship and BBL Cup in the middle of the month.
