Sade steps in to fill Mitchell’s giant shoes
WHEN Newcastle Eagles released John Mitchell the day before their final BBL Cup North Group which they needed to win to confirm a third-place finish, they were looking for the remaining players on the roster to step-up.
Sade Aded Hussein did exactly that.
Moving smoothly in to the starting five, the 6’ 11” Centre banished all thoughts that Newcastle would miss Mitchell with 22 points, 16 rebounds, three assists, three steals and one block in a performance that deservedly won him a place in the BBL Team of the Week.
But Hussein, whilst delighted with his own performance, was also very keen to point out how important the 104-71 home win over Manchester Giants was for the team and that he’d just played his part.
“It was a great win with a lot of points. I really like the way we showed up,” he said.
“It was a tough game mentally because they had nothing to lose and whilst we had already qualified for the quarter-finals we wanted to put on a great performance in front of our own fans.”
“I’m happy that the guys went into the game focused and did the job. We learned about John on Thursday morning coming to practice.
“It’s always hard to have someone lose his job but we showed a lot of professionalism and focus and got things done.”
None more so than Hussein himself, who has endeared himself to the Eagles faithful since his arrival and is now really finding his feet in The BBL.
He said: “That was probably my best evaluation in my career. I’ve been figuring out things with myself lately.
“How I should play in this league and I think it’s getting better and better.
“I think my shot selection is getting better as the guys keep finding me.”
“Playing with great guys like Fletch (Rahmon Fletcher) and Mike (Morsell) they create a lot of space for me to move into. It’s kind of easy when the defence focuses so much on other guys it gets me easy buckets so credit to my team-mates for that.”
Now the Eagles have another week to prepare for that Cup Quarter-Final which will be away at Worcester Wolves next Friday night. Hussein is not phased about having to travel.
“Luckily since the start of the season we’ve been playing better on the road so it’s not too much to worry about.
“We’ve got two weeks to work on ourselves and I can only go hard in practice at the five at the moment.”
Hussein talked about concentrating on his own game and what he can do and allowing the coaching staff and management to worry about any new player coming in. That new player has been announced this week as the Eagles have brought in 7’ 0” Centre CJ Gettys to join the roster.
It is a mouth-watering prospect for the team and the fans to have so much size and power in the frontcourt and it is hoped Gettys will make it into the country in time to play alongside Hussein in that vital fixture down at Worcester.
“We have a tough schedule coming up with those back-toback games and Friday, Sunday sort of thing which is quite new to me so I’m hoping we can use these two weeks to prepare ourselves correctly and we just have to stay focused and be ready.”
It will be the biggest test and game of the season so far for Hussein and his team-mates but one that should be looked forward to and not feared.