Basketball: Bears rock Swanson's confidence

The Scottish Rocks coach Steve Swanson is hoping for "third time lucky" when he takes on Brighton Bears in the BBL Cup final at Birmingham's NIA tomorrow afternoon, to settle the first piece of silverware of the season.

The Scottish Rocks coach Steve Swanson is hoping for "third time lucky" when he takes on Brighton Bears in the BBL Cup final at Birmingham's NIA tomorrow afternoon, to settle the first piece of silverware of the season.

Just as fervently, he will be trying to put out of his mind that the Rocks have already lost three times this season to the Bears. Swanson said: "Those losses definitely affect our confidence. We have forgotten the first one because we had a different line-up at that point. The last two will because we should have won at home and we had a chance with the game on the road."

Swanson was assistant to the Bears' coach Nick Nurse when Brighton won the National Cup in 2003, but had stepped up to the head coach role with Rocks when they lost last year's final to Sheffield Sharks.

In between the wins for Brighton and Sheffield, BBL clubs pulled out of the National Cup after the owners refused to comply with the eligibility rules laid down by the sport's governing body, England Basketball, for what had been the sport's premier knock-out competition since 1972.

Tomorrow's schedule also includes the EBL's National Cup final between City of Sheffield Arrows and Reading Rockets, but the impasse between the governing bodies has cost them television coverage by the BBC.