EXPRESS LOOK TO PAST FOR BRIGHT FUTURE
Familiar faces rejoin NBL team, adding experience to talent in renewed title bid
There was an old feel to the Windsor Express on Thursday as the team opened training camp at the Constable John Atkinson Memorial Community Centre. While Anthony Ottley Jr. is the only player back from last year’s team, the club does have some familiar faces in guard Ryan Anderson, forward Juan Pattillo and centre DeAndre Thomas. Those additions were by design by Express head coach and vicepresident of basketball operations Bill Jones.
“What I needed to do, and what we’ve kind of needed to do, is we wanted to bring back our culture of old where we had veteran guys that were here for a purpose,” Jones said. “Guys that wanted to win a championship instead of just players.” Anderson, who won his second-straight NBL of Canada title with London last season, said it wasn’t a question of talent with the Express last season. “Last year, they had the right pieces,” the 30-year-old Anderson said. “They beat us four times. I think they were lacking some veteran guys.”
It’s an observation that didn’t go unnoticed by Jones, who said more than talent is needed to be successful.
“They were good players, but when you leave home, you’re a professional, you have a lot of distractions,” Jones said. “You only practise two hours a day where in the other 22 hours, you’ve got to find something to do and be constructive, and constructive to being a pro and to being a veteran pro is going to the weight room, going and getting extra shots in, not hanging out at night.
“We had some younger guys that, if you look back in hindsight, it wasn’t a priority for them to do the extra work to make us great or championship calibre. That’s why we were mediocre last year, in my opinion.”
With this season’s group, Jones sees a little of the championship days in Windsor with players like Chris Commons, Ton Bennett, Darren Duncan, Stefan Bonneau and Quinnel Brown. “Those guys, they had chips on their shoulders,” Jones said. “They wanted to win because at some point in their career they were tossed aside.”
And the chance for a championship drives several of the Express, who are willing to sacrifice individually to win.
“My main goal is to always compete for a championship,” the 30-year-old Pattillo said. “I think the main thing is you have to find guys committed to the main goal. You have to find guys willing to sacrifice a little bit of themselves because, in order to win a championship, you have to be a team first.
“Like me and Ryan, Dre (DeAndre Thomas) and Horace (Wormely),” Pattillo said. “We’ve all been in the league, but we understand we might have to sacrifice a little of what we’re used to doing for the greater good of the team.”
It’s a message that was pushed on Thursday’s first day of camp and will continued to be pushed throughout the season.
“It’s about the right pieces, and the right leaders to put it together,” Pattillo said. “Sometimes, it’s not all about talent because, when you become a team, you understand the main goal.”
It will take this group, which opens the season at home on Nov. 17 against the Sudbury Five, some time to find a rhythm as a group, but Anderson said that comes with putting in the work on a daily basis.
Those guys, they had chips on their shoulders. They wanted to win because at some point in their career they were tossed aside.
“It’s about repetition,” said Anderson, who also won titles with the Express in 2014 and 2015. “You have to have the reps, the belief and confidence in yourself, but being able to compete with somebody that takes their job very serious.
“On the court, you can tell sometimes. Over time, it’ll manifest itself and be a factor if you’re not taking it serious.”