LEOPARDS Basketball team start their pre-season campaign on Friday when they meet touring side Team USA Select at Capital City Academy.
Jon Burnell’s team will face a side of players who are looking to gain professional contracts, and with the Leopards coach still looking to add a big man to his roster, he will be running the rule over the opposition as well as looking at several British-based trialists.
The teams met at the same venue three years ago, and the American side ran out 80-72 winners.
Friday’s game tips off at 9pm, and is part of a double header as Team USA will bring a 24-man squad for their England tour, and will start at 7pm with a game against hosts London Capital.
The Big Cats will make a quick return to the Neasden venue to play Capital the following afternoon, tip-off 2pm.
Capital had a torrid time in the BBL last season, finishing bottom of the table and winning only one of their 38 games in all competitions.
The two sides last met in the 2006/7 season, and Capital – under the coaching of former Leopard Pete Deppisch – proved to be a bogey team for the Big Cats as they won five of the six games against them, including dumping them out of the National Cup and play-offs.
The weekend will be the first of two tough pre-season weeks for the Big Cats, with Burnell’s team competing in the Worthing-based Thunder Cup on Saturday September 19 before they stage the Leopards Trophy competition at the Brentwood Centre on Sunday September 20.
Meanwhile, former Leopards junior Dan Clark (pictured) has been included in the Great Britain squad for the European Championship in Poland.
The 21-year-old will face Slovenia on Monday, Spain the following day and Serbia on Wednesday as Britain compete in the finals for the first time.
Clark was water boy for the original Leopards when they won back-to-back BBL titles in 1997 and 1998, and went on to play for Ware Rebels – who morphed into the current Big Cats – at junior level before making his senior debut aged just 13. He currently plays in Spain.