Games target achieved by Rocks coach
Glasgow Rocks head coach Gareth Murray says it’s brilliant news that he and his team have qualified to represent Scotland in 3x3 basketball at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Murray, 37, from Rutherglen, will take part in his third Commonwealth Games this summer, 16 years after debuting in the competition at Melbourne 2005.
The Rocks player-coach, Jonny Bunyan, Fraser Malcolm and former Rocks guard Kyle Jimenez progressed to the prestigious tournament after winning the European qualifiers at sportscotland’s performance centre in Largs.
They beat Wales 21-13 and Northern Ireland 21-4 in a round-robin format, before overcoming their Irish opponents in the final 21-5 to make their way through.
Murray said:“It’s brilliant news, it was exciting to play in those games.
“The main goal was to get to the Commonwealth Games, that was what the whole thing was about, and I’m excited for sure.
“It was good fun to play in those games, with guys I’ve been playing with now for a good few years.
“The competition wasn’t that difficult, but it was still unexpected for us, because we didn’t have any prior knowledge of the players or the teams we were coming up
against for Wales and Northern Ireland.”
While Murray has experience of the Games, he says not really being familiar with the new format provided some nerves.
“The guys I selected for this Commonwealth Games, all four of us played in the 2018 Games in Australia, so we have some experience of it,”he said,“but it’s a whole new format with the 3x3.
“It’s all new to us, that was the first actual competition we had played in 3x3, though we had played against each other in training.
“There was a bit of nervousness for these guys before, because of the uncertainty, but we did what we came here to do, and got ourselves into the Commonwealth Games.”
Meanwhile, Rocks took their impressive winning streak in the British Basketball League to six games on Sunday with a 83-75 home win over London Lions, which keeps the Glasgow in sixth place.
Murray said:“We’ve won six in a row now, and put ourselves in a good position to make the play-offs.
“We have four games still to go, there are other teams still around about us, so it’s definitely not a sealed position for us in the play-offs yet.”
Rocks were due to play against Plymouth City Patriots last night (Wednesday) , who are seventh. Murray added:“Right now every game we play in is important.”