48 hours: Coach survives a texting time

By DAVID LEGGAT

Frank Arsego has every reason to set off for work today with a smile and a spring in his step.

And that would be a far cry from what was probably the case when he reached for his cornflakes on Friday morning.

Back then, which must seem an age away for Arsego, he was coaching a Breakers team with one win from their first four games in the Australian National Basketball League, one of his leading players had owned up to sending Arsego's predecessor a derogatory text message about his current boss' abilities, there were some whispers that his position was shaky and back-to-back games against last season's second best team, the West Sydney Razorbacks, were coming up.

Now, after two confidence boosting wins over the Razorbacks on Friday and Saturday nights, the world will look a different place to the amiable 42-year-old South Australian.

As a smiling Arsego remarked after Saturday's nine-point win at the Trusts Stadium in Waitakere: "Adversity is a funny thing. It can either bury you or inspire you to greater things."

He might not have seen the lighter side of the Breakers' predicament before the weekend, and certainly wouldn't have appreciated Tall Black Dillon Boucher letting his fingers do the talking to former Breakers coach Jeff Green after their whipping in Adelaide the previous weekend.

But now the Breakers are 3-and-3, lie fifth in the 12-team league and have titleholders the Sydney Kings coming to Waitakere for what should be a standing room only clash this Saturday night. Although it's still early days in the 32-game regular season, they are right back in the playoff frame.

There's an old saying about there being only two types of coaches, the sacked and the about-to-be-sacked. The Breakers management have vigorously denied there was any disharmony in the camp before the weekend.

Yesterday they fined Boucher an undisclosed amount and gave him a verbal volley, franchise chairman Keith Ward saying the player is "extremely fortunate to have a coach of the character of Frank Arsego".

Boucher's beef with Arsego apparently related to his lack of court time. In the two games over the weekend, he was on court for just over 14 minutes.

Perhaps Arsego was proving a point. Victory can be achieved without a high-profile Tall Black having significant input.

But if Arsego was - or still is - furious at what he called a "peripheral" issue, he won't say so.

"These things happen. As a team they put certain things behind them and did what's required: a great job for themselves, their club and their fans."

One of the keys to the winning weekend was that the responsibility of getting the Breakers home was shared by a cluster of players. It wasn't just a case of one or two big names making the running. Classy individuals will do classy deeds, but rarely win games alone.

Big centre Ben Pepper drilled 21 points and bagged 17 rebounds in Friday night's 90-83 win. Twenty-four hours later, American Mike Chappell notched 23 points, Australian Ben Thompson pocketed 19, Pero Cameron and Aaron Olson 13 apiece.

A case of all hands taking turns manning the pump. The trick now for the Breakers is to make sure the good work of the weekend is not wasted.

There is a school of thought that the events of last week pulled an emotional lever within the squad, fuelling a desire to show strength as a unit to get them through an awkward time. That will only work for so long before they will need to get back to using cool, clinical minds to play quality basketball.

"We've made a committed pact that we're going to come in Monday and start working all over again. We can't rest on our laurels. We can still do things better," Arsego said.

Roll on the Sydney Kings.

High point

The Breakers fight back from a stressful few days with back-to-back wins over last season's runners-up the West Sydney Razorbacks. A case of triumph out of adversity.

Low point

Fired-up English league commentator Mike 'T-R-Y' Stevenson posing the vital question in the second half of the Tri-Nations loss to the Kangaroos: "When will they bring on the superstar: Danny McGuire?" I can think of a handful of superstars but, errr ...