West Brom Basketball Club captain Cash Evans believes players have ‘bought in’ to coach Tim Rudge’s philosophy as he hopes to push on this season.
Rudge came in to coach the senior men’s team at West Brom at the beginning of last season, helping to guide the club to a successful fourth-placed finish in a winning 11-10 record.
That timeline echoes that of Evans, who similarly came to join the club at the start of the campaign, before being named captain.
Playing a key role in the side and quickly establishing a starting spot, Evans believes that the players have ‘bought in’ to the brand of basketball Rudge is hoping to play.
“It’s fantastic to have some structure and have somebody who is implementing some things that we haven’t done before and it’s really great to see how throughout the training sessions and throughout the season how people have bought into his philosophy.” Evans said of Rudge.
“Some of it is unorthodox and unusual. It kind of goes against things kind of learned from young age, but once you see the impact of what he pushes has it’s a good place to be in.”
Evans linked up with West Brom alongside Sam Rudge and Arjun Chauhan, joining LukeHatfield – all of whom featured at different levels at collegiate level for the Solihull Sixth Form College academy, run by Richard Parker.
The former teammates have all featured for the first-team at West Brom, and Evans is delighted to be able to play alongside his former teammates once again.
“It was a nice introductory season. It was fun. It was nice to obviously play with some of the guys that I’ve played with for years.”
“Ultimately, having not played for however many years it was, I knew I was going to be rusty, but knowing that quite a large percentage of our team are in the same boat obviously helps as well.”
Being named captain at the start of this season, Evans has quickly taken on a leadership role at the club despite only returning to the sport 12 months ago.
Whilst it’s an honour to take on that role for the team, he admits that it’s not something that he thinks about consciously on-court, instead focusing on trying to win games and improve as an individual.
“To be honest I haven’t really given it any thought [the captaincy], We’re all just trying to push each other and work hard. So I don’t feel like there’s any additional responsibility on myself.
“The first season for me was a bit of a warm-up, blowing out the cobwebs. This second season now I hope I can push on.”
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