The Body and Mind Kent Crusaders take on University of Birmingham in National League Division 2 play this Saturday December 8 at 5.15 in Birmingham.

University of Birmingham won promotion to Division 2 this year, and have started league play with an impressive three wins in five games, only loosing to top two teams Cardiff Celts and Plymouth Raiders.

Crusaders head coach Mads Olesen expects a tough game, as University of Birmingham plays through their big men inside: ”We’ve struggled against size this year, and we’ll have to get our big men to be really solid to have a chance. University of Birmingham plays a team oriented offence, relying on their big men, and it will be a battle inside”.

Crusaders have lately relied heavily on their two young big men 17 year old Dan Garrad and 21 year old JP Djimandja, and coach Olesen singles the two talented youngsters out as keys on the defensive end.

Offensively the Crusaders will look to repeat last weeks performance, where sharing the ball got the Crusaders a lot of open looks and easy baskets. “We’re without top scorer Robbie Parker, who will be in Spain trying out for a professional team, but several players have showed over the season that they’re ready to step up. If we share the ball and play together, I’m confident we can overcome the loss of Robbie Parker”, says coach Olesen.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 11:46 am and is filed under Game Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.