In this edition of The Post Up from MVP, Great Britain guard Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye opens up on his French side and why he’s determined to keep adding oo-la-la to his game, as we look ahead to this week’s two opening World Cup qualifiers.
We talk to Sevenoaks Suns forward Jamila Thompson on coming home from the grind overseas.
Sheffield Sharks big Bennett Koch outlines the influence of his personal brotherhood in shaping his career – and life.
And there is, we reveal, a new deal on the table in the BBL.
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DLO driving on the right side
The French wanted him. But Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye said ‘Non, Merci!’
Their attraction, Great Britain’s young gun acknowledges, was stirred by his surname: inherited and double-barrelled from a Mum from across La Manche and his Nigerian father.
“After I played against France at Under-16, they did not approach me to play (for them) but asked: ‘your name is Lautier … are you French? Why are you playing in England?’
“And then after that, when I was 16, I ended up going for a trial for a team called SIG Strasbourg, in France. And they actually offered me to come there and play in their Espoirs team and, in essence, go to school and go through the system in France.
“But I ended up turning it down.
“Because later down the road, I thought I might want to go to college.”
Their loss, Les Rosbifs’ gain.
Last season, the 25-year-old still made himself right at home in the land of his mother, Catherine, with ample evidence available online from a season with Poitiers of how he can merrily converse like a native despite choosing a largely Anglophone route map in his hoops career.
“I was able to actually talk with the referees and understand what was going on,” he smiles. “Talk to my teammates. No-one was able to say anything behind my back. I was integrated for everything.
“So it was cool. It was definitely cool. Something I always wanted to do: play in France.”
Just one of many ways that make him far from the archetypal Brit abroad.
Then again, as the 25-year-old – presently plying his trade in Italy’s Serie A2 for Latina – prepares to return to GB duty in the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers against Greece and Turkey, he presents ample evidence of a thirst for choosing his own path.
Growing up in London, Lautier-Ogunleye began his odyssey at Westminster Warriors whose long-time home at Moberly Sports Centre was a mere five minutes’ walk from his house.
“I used to actually play football there,” he reflects. “And during half-term camps, they started doing basketball. My mum would take me to it and all the other sports that they had.”
A few familiar coaches broke away to form the London Pioneers, and he followed suit.
Later, he sensed the need for a greater challenge, and switched to NASSA, inconveniently located on the opposite side of the capital.
“Which at that time was crazy,” he reflects. “Because I was 15. Living in west London, going to school in northwest London. And then commuting an hour and a half to Newham just to play basketball.
“My mum thought I was crazy.”
Prodigious already, it rankled a little that he was not invited into the Barking Abbey programme when his peers were seemingly heading there in droves. “I took it on the chin. I kept going. And it's crazy because in my life, a lot of times when one door is closed and others opened.”
However it came just as Gary Maitland, now skills coach to the stars but then a new face locally, stepped into his life. “He was the first person who believed in me basketball-wise,” he reports.
They would head together to a gym at 7am, keys in hand, basketballs in bag, pupil and mentor, a mutually-respectful relationship that continues to this day.
Maitland did not sugar-coat. ‘You come across uncoachable,’ he said. ‘But when I talk to you, you have your head on your shoulders. And that's the first thing we're going to have to change.’
An understandable assessment, the teen realised. “I was just always complaining. Always angry. A lot of people said I had the reputation of being a show-off.
“In my younger years, everyone just thought I was big-headed. Me? I just saw it like a chip on my shoulder because I wanted to prove to everybody … ‘look, I can play, I'm good.’
“Like, I felt like I was always being overlooked. So I always made a point that when there was people watching, I would be remembered, no matter what.”
Almost forgotten now was that DLO began his ‘adult’ career in the British Basketball League. A strategic move, one that came out off a determination that his development would be best served by playing against grown men rather than his youthful peers.
An England youth cap at that time, he surprised many when he decamped to the Westcountry, for Bristol Flyers Academy.
He is recalled there as a brash young pup. I loved the faith shown by Andreas Kapoulas and his staff, he reflects. Justified when he didn’t blink when he was summoned into the BBL and given a starting role when Flyers lost starting playmaker Doug Herring Jr to injury just three months into the season.
Lautier-Ogunleye confidently filled in until an experienced replacement arrived but he had made his case for extended minutes. Memorably, in one game, he teased Drew Lasker of Newcastle Eagles into his only career ejection.
It secured a scholarship to Bradley University in the States, and subsequently a shot in the pros.
He is still proving himself. Still sporting a useful chip that pushes him through this life.
“Do I try to? No, does it happen? Yes. I can't explain it,” he chuckles. “Like I could wake up and be in a good mood. And I just go on Twitter. And I see something and it just triggers me. And I say 'ok, I'm just locked in again'.
“Because I don't think I've reached anything yet. I don't think I'm anywhere near where I should be so I can't really be satisfied because I haven't done anything yet.”
He has time on his side. “I'm good,” he adds. “But I'm 25 years old now and the world's my oyster still. So now, I’ve got to keep going.”
He has a comfort level in central Italy, where he began the season with Udine, an club with lofty ambitions to match his own but with a trio of imports – one more than was allowed in any game.
Instead he opted for a rapid switch. Game time the priority. A place of his own rather than sharing two among three.
It is still not where he would like to be, where he was before at university across the Atlantic where the pampering included charter flights to every game.
Italy, narrow and long, means hours of road trips in coach.
“Charters are reserved for EuroCup and Euro League teams right now,” he laments. “Pretty much buses. But a nice bus.
“We have tables, have a TV, everything that you need. And then usually the day before, if it's a longer journey, you might take the train.
“Or if you play in a team from the islands like Trapani, you will take a flight.
“Ryanair probably. So not much leg room. But you make it work.”
Greece have booked a charter flight to arrive in Newcastle ahead of Thursday’s start of the path to qualify for the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
The hosts, lest you were wondering, are set to fly onto Turkey with the public along for the ride.
GB and the goliaths, residing in different worlds.
Still living the dream, Lautier-Ogunleye insists, among a squad of 14 that will be finalised in the next 72 hours.
Their back-up guard will relish another shot at national service. It helps his cause.
“Playing more basketball, playing against better teams, better players, I think it's just all cool,” he says.
“I was fortunate enough to be a junior national team player. And I remember looking at the men's and saying I wanted to be a part of the future.
“I mean, only few people actually make the junior ranks. And even less make it to the seniors.
“I came into camp fresh out of college, summer 2019. And I was able to impress a little bit, enough that they brought me along for the games against Luxembourg and Kosovo.
“And they liked my toughness, my energy - and they brought me along for a couple of other camps. And as they've gone on, my role increased.
“I kind of paid my dues, worked my way up the totem pole a bit, like carving out a bigger role.”
Already qualified for EuroBasket 2022, there is every incentive to keep nudging head coach Nate Reinking as he observes and takes notes from afar.
Eight caps, seven wins, the coming man has proven his worth as a lucky charm if nothing else.
Yet I’ve been told to come ready and take my opportunities, DLO affirms. As the French would say .. en garde.
“Everyone knows that basketball is a business,” he underlines. “So there's going to be some tough decisions that need to be made.
“But I just look at it like I need to keep doing what I need to do in order that when they think of me, it's a no-brainer.
“Like Dwayne's in the team. It's not a matter of ‘oh, should we take Dwayne or should we take someone else?
“I want to there be no debate applied, now and for the future. Hopefully they see it that way.”
Listen to the full interview with Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye on the next edition of the MVP Cast. Subscribe via your preferred podcast provider or ask Alexa or Google to ‘Play MVP Cast’.
New campaign, old habits
Teddy Okereafor is set to break GB men’s record for consecutive international appearances against Greece on Thursday, surpassing the current mark of 49 he holds with Bill McInnes that the late Scotsman set in 1976.
It should be noted, of course, that there were streaks of similar length (but not well-recorded) set by those playing for England and Scotland in the many non-GB eras.
But it does attest to some of the continuity that has emerged during Reinking’s era with eight ever-presents under his watch.
This time, there is one significant shift with Gareth Murray omitted from the initial 24 purely on a selectorial basis (he chose to miss two games last year) for the first time since 2013, potentially creating extra room for Akwasi Yeboah or Carl Wheatle to solidify a spot as the back-up three.
It would be terrific to see Devon van Oostrum – playing well in Spain’s LEB Oro for Huesca – finally get a recall but it may hang on whether Reinking and Marc Steutel, the two-man selection committee, choose the former prodigy over the current young pup Jacob Round.
And while it would be nice to see Sacha Killeya-Jones included, his naturalised status puts him in direct competition with Tarik Phillip whose scoring from the backcourt (particularly with Ben Mockford not yet hitting his best stride following a belated start to his campaign) would be useful against a Greek team that has been able to select some fringe players from Olympiacos despite the usual fixture clash with EuroLeague.
GB are quietly talking up their chance of catching out a below full-strength guests in the same manner as they did with France earlier in the year. However any win in the lions den of Turkey is likely to be a long shot.
“We’ve been playing at a high level over the past couple of years and we want to take that momentum into November which I’m confident we will,” Okereafor said.
“Our last four games against Greece were really close. We know them pretty well, and we’re much improved since the last time we played them so hopefully we can win those games moving forward.”
Possible squad (14)
Guards: Okereafor, Nelson, Phillip, van Oostrum, Lautier-Ogunleye, Round
Wings: Hesson, Soko, Hamilton, Yeboah, Wheatle
Bigs: Olaseni, Clark, Bigby-Williams
Watch GB v Greece on Thursday, 7.30pm, via mvp247.com
Jamila keenest on the right fit
“I'm just really happy to be back,” Jamila Thompson tells us.
Back in the UK, in the WBBL with Sevenoaks Suns. “I'm just wanting to be home, closer to family,” she adds.
In an ideal situation, she trusts as well, with her 30th birthday fast approaching next summer.
The centre has bounced around without hanging in any one place too long, her two campaigns with Leicester Riders where she was a presence without being a primary focus being the longest residency since she graduated from Drexel/
And that – unintentionally – is just the way it is, she acknowledges – only averaging over 25 minutes per once (her second year in Leicester), not breaking through the ten points average, all despite boasting ridiculously high shooting numbers while with GB and on club teams from the USA to Spain, Portugal and the Czech Republic.
It hints less at ability and more at not finding herself in the ideal spot to shine.
“It's just whatever fits me,” Thompson concedes. “Whatever team kind of puts me in the right positions to actually score and just do well. And I think that's usually good for my team as well.”
Sevenoaks, on limited evidence, could be her best year yet, notching 6.3 points and 11.7 rebounds so far (she missed a couple of games with Covid). No coincidence, when head coach Len Busch had promised to place her at the centre of his plans to defend the WBBL Championship rather than as a complementary piece.
It is a better fit, she concedes, than some of her overseas spells which have proven to be hit and miss.
“Spain, it was satisfying,” she says. “But once I went to Czech Republic amid the whole Covid situation, it was a bit disappointing. It was very hard, just being locked down as well.
“Not really knowing the language and people not really talking to me in English as well. It's very difficult.”
Safer ground now. With a Masters in Business in her locker, there is a fallback but Thompson retains ambitions. We have not seen her best, she confides. That is something to watch out for.
“I still have a lot to achieve,” she underlines. “It's still the beginning of the season. So I think people have a lot to look up to, once they see me past December and January.”
Perhaps even GB too, after falling off the international radar in the last few years?
“Who knows? I just keep playing hard.” Has she enjoyed that in the past, even with a limited role? “Definitely, yeah,” she asserts.
Still, time marches on. To get back, she must impress, with newer faces in the front court lining up.
With GB’s losses this month to Greece and, more unexpectedly, to Estonia starting off the campaign to qualify for EuroBasket Women 2023 with a whimper, rather than a bang, there must surely be some case for examining other options.
Thompson maybe is one.
“There's a lot of potential,” she says diplomatically. “I think Kennedy (Leonard) should definitely get a chance to work her magic for the GB team.
“But I mean, like we've all been saying, it's just up to what the coach wants and how the team works together.”
An intriguing question: will Sevenoaks eventually be subsumed into the Surrey University / Sports Park family to join the Scorchers and its Netball Superleague franchise? Watch this space.
Refs whistling to work?
A revised deal between the British Basketball League and its referees is close to completion, MVP can reveal.
Negotiations had been ongoing since before the start of the current season between the refs and the league over improved terms, including a raise to match fees which had been unchanged for several years.
Although referees agreed to begin the campaign with an interim uplift, The Post Up understands that the process took an unexpected turn when the British Basketball Federation asserted its newly-acquired role as the licensing body for officials to assume control of the talks.
That has meant an additional push for better pay for table officials as well, conducted between the BBF and BBL.
With the league thought to be keen to conclude a fresh arrangement before 777 Partners formally assume a central role, expect a satisfactory conclusion within weeks.
The Brothers with Arms
The brotherhood toughened me up, Bennett Koch admits.
Rough. Tumble. No quarter given.
“Some of my earliest memories are of playing basketball with my two older brothers,” he says of days and nights hooping with his siblings Jake and Adam, both of whom played professionally in Europe while he was still proving himself back at home.
They had a basement in their house and before it was converted, it conveniently had a concrete floor that doubled as their private court.
“And I remember having a little tykes hoop for three year old, four year olds, and like the small rubber basketball.
“I remember doing drills with them on a concrete floor of dunking on each other, and trying to get like the coolest and one that you can get.
“But naturally, then being the older two, I would always end up on defence. So it's more of just run into each other as hard as you can and try and finish the ball.
“I mean, I love them, love them to death. I did get quite competitive sometimes. But more than how competitive it got, it was more supportive than anything. We always looked out after each other and made sure that we were happy and in the right place.”
All three went to the University of Northern Iowa – alma mater to the BBL legend that is Nick Nurse – with Adam passing through the NBA G-league and Czech Republic before becoming a dentist, and Jake venturing to Germany and Romania before becoming a coach.
Prior to landing in Sheffield three years ago, the baby of the bunch spent his rookie campaign in the Netherlands – with the amazingly-named Dutch Windmills.
Even with the pair’s wise-to-the-world advice ringing in his ears, it was a year that shaped and tested him like no other
“I was very excited to start my professional career,” Koch says. “And talking to my brothers about it, they both had warned me that some teams, they're not as honest as they like to say.
“And being the young ignorant me, I was thinking that the Dutch Windmills couldn't be them. It's going to be the best year of my life.
“Once I got out there, the first month was pretty standard. You're trying to learn your way around the country, learn your teammates, get to know them, build that rapport.
“But after that first month, everything just kind of fell apart. They stopped paying the players, they stopped paying the gym venues, the apartments, the car companies, and somehow they kept the team afloat up until about April.
“A good chunk of the season. I remember the place I was living was like a trailer park. I didn't have any Wi-Fi, the only time I was able to connect with the outside world was for the 15 minutes before practice and the 15 minutes after practice. So I felt pretty isolated out there for the entire year. And I had to really look inward.”
That had its upsides, he adds. To ask himself “uncomfortable questions” about he was and where he wanted to be.
“And it was also a challenge to try and find a love for the sport, when you're in a situation like that. But fortunately for myself, I had great team-mates, and they were all going through the same thing….that collective suffering, right, you can build a bond through that.”
In Sheffield, he has found a home from home, close to the Yorkshire Dales and Peak District where he spends off days hiking highs and lows.
His numbers have dipped a little from last term, when he started just 10 of the Sharks 31 games after being a regular in the curtailed Covid campaign. But he is an efficient shooter, a willing colleague and a good fit in a rotation around Marcus Delpeche and Mike Tuck on a team which has four players in the BBL’s top 12 for PER.
And he underlines: “I don't really care about my stats. The coach trusts me. Management trusts me.
“And they know I'm going to do whatever I can, you know, try my hardest during the game to help us get a win.”
Listen to an extended interview with Bennett Koch on the MVP Cast.
BBL Betting
Sheffield are 22-25 on with one bookie to win at Cheshire on Sunday with the Nix averaging a mere 77.2 points per game in their five championship contests so far – offering a toughie when Sharks have notched 95.0 per in their two.
Delve deeper and Ben Thomas’ side are a formidably poor -25.5 in efficiency rating (Plymouth, the next best, are only -18.6) and that is predicated on a defence that has been consistently leaky.
Some options on Sharks on a -6.5 handicap at over 2-1 look tasty indeed.
Images: Ahmedphotos/BBF, Riders