With Edge so busy, English gets night off
Dunlap decides it’s more important for St. John’s star guard to rest rather than play a fourth road game in five days
It didn’t show in the team’s performance in its first three games, but you know the road has to be wearing on the St. John’s Edge.
It was patently evident in the Edge’s lineup for Wednesday night’s National Basketball League of Canada game in Moncton against the Magic, with the revelation that star guard Carl English would not be dressing for the contest — St. John’s fourth road game in five nights.
The word from the club was that English wasn’t sidelined because of injury, but because head coach Jeff Dunlap had decided the 36-year-old from Patrick’s Cove needed a night off, especially given the team had only arrived in Moncton hours before Wednesday’s game after a five-plus hour bus trip from Sydney, N.S., where the Edge had defeated the Cape Breton Highlanders 106-98 on Tuesday night.
So put it down as a coach’s decision.
It couldn’t have been an easy one — English is averaging a team-topping 24 points for the expansion Edge, who carried a 2-1 record into the game against the Magic in what was Moncton’s season-opener. He had been St. John’s leading scorer in two of the first three games, and the Edge’s offence was clearly running through him.
But with so much of a 40game schedule still to come, the Edge still having one game left on a season-opening five-game road trip — Friday night in Saint John, N.B., against the Riptide — and probably even looking ahead to his team’s home-opener Dec. 1 at Mile One Centre, Dunlap obviously felt it was best to give English an early-season battery charge.
The Edge are already missing centre Grandy Glaze, who is on assignment with the Canadian national men’s team, although in Glaze’s case, there was a roster replacement in the form of rookie Zach Gordon, who was activated for Tuesday’s game against the Highlanders.
There was no such fill-in for English; St. John’s had 11 active players, one short of the norm, in Moncton.
Dunlap said the decision to travel Wednesday rather than leave immediately after Tuesday’s game in Sydney came at the behest of the players.
“We asked them and they said they would prefer to play and stay get a good night’s sleep,” said Dunlap.
One thing resulting from the compressed road trip and those hours in the bus — the Edge played also Saturday night in Charlottetown, P.E.I. and Sunday afternoon in Halifax — is an acceleration of the development of team chemistry.
“I think it’s one of the reasons we’ve played well (so far),” said Dunlap earlier this week. “It’s incredibly important… chemistry (and) that one-for-all, all-for-one mindset.
“I’m not dealing with any selfishness. I’m dealing with a bunch off guys who want to win, want to be successful.
“It all helps you grow as a team. And what we’ve already accomplished says a lot about the direction we’re heading. It says that we’re going the right way.”