With the short-termism of sport ever-present, for some fans a few losses can mean that the sky is falling.
For Milton Keynes’ head coach Billy Beddow-Patel, he prefers a more pragmatic approach.
“The Breakers losing games is something that is new, but that’s obviously an amazing position to be in!” he says with a smile.
For a club formed in September 2017, and establishing their senior men’s programme in 2022, the Breakers have experienced a lot more ups than downs.
Undefeated across their maiden D3 season, the team also stormed D2, albeit against some stiff competition from the equally impressive Team Solent Kestrels. That league and playoff success in 2023/24 also included MK becoming the first non-D1 team since 1973 to win the NBL National Cup, a historic feat for the fledgling programme.
Understandably, the speed of their ascent and the teams they've beaten along the way - including multiple D1 sides across their various cup runs - made the Breakers a much-anticipated entrant to the top flight for 2024/25.
That momentum only snowballed as they aced the group stage of the KitKing Trophy, enjoying a 3-0 record before reeling off two further wins to book a spot in next year’s Final.
Two wins from two to start their debut league campaign followed, but what happened from there wasn’t on script. Milton Keynes lost four league games in a row, with the Breakers currently residing outside the top eight with December’s mid-season break fast approaching.
Results are what they are, but as Beddow-Patel points out, context is key: “What’s going wrong? Well, we’re in the final of the KitKing Trophy. We’re in the quarter-finals of the National Cup. In the KitKing, we beat a team [Hemel Storm, 8-0 in D1M] that are still undefeated in the league.
“But we have lost four in a row. In between those league games though, we’ve won a Cup game, or we’ve won a KitKing game, so although the league record doesn’t look brilliant, we’ve been winning, then losing, then winning, and that isn’t the end of the world.”
When pinpointing one reason why his side has fluctuated in the early going, last summer’s GB U16 assistant coach was clear on where his team has come up short, but insists that it’s a problem that can be overcome as the season goes on.
“If you look at the teams that are doing very well and winning, at the top half of the table, they look to me to be teams that have returned a lot of guys. Like Hemel, like Derby, like City of Birmingham, a lot of familiar faces. I think returning players and continuity are huge and they help you get off to a good start,” said Beddow-Patel.
After steamrollering their way through the lower tiers of the NBL pyramid with a largely settled roster, MK have experienced some unfamiliar turnover ahead of the current campaign.
Long-term captain Jordan Spencer departed for Newcastle Eagles in Super League Basketball (SLB), with only three players are returning from a season ago. One of them, Luke Gregory, has played limited minutes so far this term, meaning the MK roster needs some time to settle.
“I think sometimes you go through stretches like this, and actually, it’s probably going to help us kind of form a better group, long term, and come out of the other end in a better place,” admits Beddow-Patel.
“We’ve got two first year Americans, our point guard (KJ Johnson) and our four man (Adrian Scarborough), and they're going to take some time to get used to things as well.”
Admittedly, both Johnson and Scarborough have settled in well to their new surrounding, collecting a selection NBL weekly accolades for their production thus far. But that productivity, along with results, haven’t been consistent, and that is due to what Beddow-Patel calls the 'different beast' of D1M.
“After a sustained period of winning to get this far, we’ve now dropped some games, and it's probably a new experience for fans and the people around the club.
“But I think that NBL Division One is a different beast. Just the way that you put teams together, the experience of it, the fact that every single game is a tough game.
“Every weekend is gearing up for a challenge, and I think that's especially true this year in D1. I think this is the strongest I've seen D1M in a long time, and that takes some adjusting to no matter where you’ve come from.”
Recent losses against pace-setters Reading, Hemel and a surprisingly strong Bristol Hurricanes have demonstrated that strength through the recent fallow period. The horizon isn’t much easier, with upcoming clashes against Derby, CoB and another meeting with Hemel Storm in the National Cup, but Beddow-Patel refuses to see their recent stretch as a bad thing, or that positives can’t be taken from their current plight.
“I actually think this has been a very good test for us, playing the best teams in the league in consecutive weeks and going through some adversity and experiencing some things that the club hasn't really experienced before," he said.
“I think ultimately it will set us up to hopefully win later on in the year. If we can respond to it well, if we can take on these challenges, if we can handle all of these things, it'll be good for us long term.
“It’s a bit of pressure on the team but pressure makes us better. Pressure is going to help us in the long run. So from a head coach perspective, I'm not worried. We're not going back to the drawing board or panicking.
“It's something that we have to confront, get better at, and ultimately enjoy the challenge.”
