It became a part of Leopards’ history – we’d battle all season to get a place in the play-offs (or usually to get a decent seed in them) and then it would all end in disappointment. The old Leopards won three trophies in nine years, the current ones have collected six pieces of silverware in 16 – neither of which are shabby records – but the post-season has generally ended in tears.
The first version of the Big Cats reached the post-season in seven of their nine seasons, but exited the play-offs at the first hurdle in five of those seven years. The first couple of seasons proved to be a bit bizarre with Leopards taking both series to game three despite suffering all three home games, going out to Towers and Manchester Giants respectively.
Leopards went into the 1997 play-offs having already won the National Cup and regular season BBL title and Leicester Riders were swiftly despatched in two high-scoring games to set up a first trip to the Wembley final four. Fifth placed Chester Jets were Leopards opponents in Saturday’s semi-finals and it turned out to be a classic with the Big Cats needing overtime before winning 102-101 instagram alte story herunterladen. The following day’s final saw home town Towers as the opposition (both finals Leopards played that season were at the opposition’s venue) and another classic went the wrong way for Billy Mims’ side as their cross town rivals won 89-88.
The 1998 play-offs again saw Leopards as the #1 seed in the play-offs and it was a trip to the frozen north in the play-offs as Giants were beaten 93-86 on a snowy April night. Game two at London Arena saw a surprisingly flat performance as they went down 107-98. A comfortable half-time lead in game three (also at London Arena) should have paved the way for another trip to Wembley, but somehow they let it slip to go down 90-81 for one of the biggest shocks in BBL play-off history.
Season five of the Leopards proved to be a difficult one as they took the final play-off berth – albeit nine wins clear of ninth placed Edinburgh – and sprung a surprise with a 83-76 win against champions Sheffield Sharks at Brentwood, but lost both game two and three in Yorkshire.
There was no place in play-offs the following year, and post-season switched to Coventry for Leopards’ final years. The 2000/01 quarter-finals saw Bob Donewald’s team beat Birmingham Bullets 89-84 before Sharks again ended their dreams with an 87-77. Chris Pullem was in charge for what proved to be Leopards’ final BBL play-off game as they lost a tight game 94-88 against Newcastle Eagles
The last season in the BBL saw Mike Taylor’s team never get close to a place in the play-offs, but after sitting out the 2002/3 season, the new Big Cats were back and playing in Division One download twitter gifs. Their opening two seasons saw eighth and sixth placed finishes and just to prove that nothing really changes, they went out in the play-offs at Sheffield on both occasions. This time it was Arrows – containing several of the Sharks team of the early 2000s – who ended their post-season hopes.
Home advantage was gained for the first time in Division One in the 2006/7 campaign but a poor performance saw fifth placed London Capital win 80-70 at Wodson Park, and the following year saw a 105-96 defeat at Bristol Flyers. A first post-season Division One victory finally came at the Brentwood Centre in 2009 when Coventry Crusaders were beaten 74-71 earning Leopards a trip to the final four in Manchester. Naturally fate decided that their opposition would be Magic on their own Amaechi Centre court, and Jeff Jones’ team ended their dreams with a 92-76 victory.
Leopards missed out on the play-offs for the first time in their Division One history but winning in the quarter-finals became a habit as the Big Cats made a record five straight visits to the D1 Final Four – but only managed to reach the title game once. Durham were beaten at Brentwood in 2011 before old rivals Reading ended their hopes with an 80-69 win.
2011/12 was undoubtedly the best season (so far) in the history of the new Leopards, and despite a 1-4 start to league play, the D1 title was lifted with 19 straight wins.. All three play-off games proved to be revenge missions as Leopards faced sides who’d beaten them in that early season losing run. Medway Park were beaten 93-75 at Basildon Sporting Village (yep, another new venue) in a game where Leopards were 83-51 up at the final break. David Buchberger led the scoring with 22 and Volskis adding 19 to set up the trip to a third straight Final Fours weekend in Manchester where the treble was completed in style. The semi-final saw Leopards face surprise side Leicester Warriors and they were pushed all of the way before recording a 82-71 victory. After David Buchberger had given them the lead with the final shot of the first half, they never trailed again, Buchberger scored 24 points off the bench for the Big Cats. much of the damage was done in the third period as Derby Trailblazers were beaten 95-82. Vernon Teel picked up his third MVP award of the season as he finished with another triple-double of 32 points, 16 rebounds and 12 assists to lead them to victory. Fellow American Ousman Krubally also had another stand-out game with a 34 point, 17 rebound double-double, with David Buchberger adding 17 points and nine boards.
Leopards three years with Robert Youngblood as coach followed a predictable pattern, a home win the in quarter-finals before disappointment in the semi-finals. The 2014/15 season was particularly gutting, Bradford Dragons were dispatched in a tight game at Brentwood to set up a fifth straight visit to the Final Fours but the afternoon before the trip to Manchester the Home Office announced that no import players who were in country on student visas were allowed to play in Division One basketball. While the other semi-final (Derby v Manchester) saw both sides robbed of their Americans, Leopards were left without Richards while Kent had their full roster. Richards hadn’t been dominant in the way Vernon Teel and Ousman Krubally had three years earlier, but he had been a key member of the team and an ever-present in the team. Without even a practice to work on things with Richards, Leopards produced a disjointed performance and went down 61-51 in a terrible game.
Youngblood departed in the summer of 2015 and his replacement Steve Ogunjimi’s play-off run with the Big Cats proved to be brief as a 20-point loss at Reading in 2016 was followed by the heatbreak of relegation the following season. While Division Two brought plenty of new opposition for the Big Cats, the play-offs saw old rivals Westminster Warriors arrive at the Brentwood Centre. In common with their previous play-off opponents, Rockets, Leopards had recorded narrow victories in both regular season games but once again they failed in the big game and their campaign ended with an 84-80 defeat.
Later that summer Leopards received an invite to return to Division One and after a tough start that saw them lose their first five league games, a place in the post-season looked like a pipedream. But an excellent run of form saw a seventh place finish and despite a depleted team going down 107-85 at a Worthing side who’d only missed out on the title on the head-to-head decider, it was a considerable achievement just to be there. Unfortunately they couldn’t build on that and missed out on the post-season for only the fifth time in 25 years. It never happened, anyway.

2012 and all that
Leopards reach final
LEOPARDS overcame a slow start to reach the EBL Division One Play-off final for the first time with a hard-fought 82-71 victory against Leicester Warriors, at the Amaechi Centre on Saturday.
The Big Cats struggled in the opening stages as a Warriors team who have proved to be the surprise of the Division One season produced a fighting display, but after David Buchberger had given them the lead with the final shot of the first half, they never trailed again.
Having hit some key shots in their National Cup final success, Buchberger again stepped up to score 24 points off the bench for the Big Cats.
Ousman Krubally had 15 points and 20 rebounds while Vernon Teel also had a double-double, adding 13 assists to his 24 points. Big men Zak Wells and Simonas Bublys also contributed well, adding 14 points and seven rebounds between them.
Dawaun Wells opened the scoring for Warriors on his way to a 16 point haul, and although Teel replied from the foul line, the Leopards found the going tough in the early stages. A jump shot from Eugene Pettaway – who led all scorers with 30 points – put the Warriros 11-4 ahead after four minutes of action.
Teel broke the run and Krubally added a couple of baskets as Leopards closed out the period with a 6-2 run to trail 13-10.
It didn’t get noticeably better at the start of the second period as a pair of Pettaway free-throws launched a 14-2 Leicester run to open the quarter. Only Teel troubled the scorers for Leopards as Warriors moved 27-12 ahead with six minutes in the half remaining.
Teel drained from the Land of Plenty to break the tear before Bublys hit a sweet jump shot and the big Lithuanian completed the 12-0 run off a Krubally assist to make it a three point game with 4:11 on the clock.
From there on it was nip and tuck, with Buchberger burying a trey to keep Leopards in touch, and he gave Leopards their first lead of the game with 1:53 remaining when he drained a pair at the foul line before hitting the buzzer-beating three which sent them into the locker room with a 35-33 lead.
The third period proved to be Teel-time as he hit 12 points, and he provided the assist for Buchberger to make it a double-digit game going into the final minute of the quarter before hitting a jump shot with seven second remaining to send Leopards into the final break with a 58-47 lead.