We live in an age where punditry and commentary is less about educating and more about entertaining. Sometimes, this includes saying wildly controversial things for clicks and attention, regardless of how inaccurate or unfair it may be.
"Quite frankly, it's less about their form and it's more about just how awful some of the other teams have been... You can't turn around and say that they've turned their fortunes around or things have changed." - The words from Jay Marriott that created quite a storm on social media last week when asked about the Scorchers' recent form.
Marriott achieved his goal of engagement as the clip was widely shared, even by members of the Scorchers squad. This week he followed up his comments by posting "I’m saying go and grab that 6th spot Surrey and make some noise in the playoffs that’s the gauntlet" It's difficult to read that and not ask yourself why that's being set as the standard for the Scorchers this season.
As ever, context is important when we evalauate where a team is, whether they should be doing more or if they're meeting expectations. Surrey have not been to the play offs since 2017/18 and came into this season on the back of winning two and four games in the previous two campaigns respectively.
There's no denying that Surrey have been the worst team in the BBL for several seasons before this one and all anybody wanted to see from this squad was signs of progress. They currently occupy the final play off spot with an 11-16 record, a vast improvement by any metric.
Along the way they have enjoyed road wins against the Newcastle Eagles and the Bristol Flyers, as well as picking up wins against the Sheffield Sharks, Manchester Giants and Plymouth City Patriots.
They also had a productive BBL Trophy campaign, where they won their opening two matches before narrowly missing out on qualification. Despite the disappointing ending, there was no shame in losing on the road against the Gladiators and at home to the eventual winners of the competition.
In a subsequent podcast Marriott seems to dismiss Surrey's wins against the Patriots and the Giants as games that they "should win" - I think it's fair to say that a team that's won so rarely in recent seasons doesn't take any win for granted, so I think we'll disagree with that take as much as the idea that their opponents have all been "awful".
When the Scorchers travelled to Newcastle and won back in December, the Eagles shot 43% from the field, which is right around their season average. They were slightly down on rebounds, but up on assists. During their two wins over Manchester, the Giants shot slightly above their season's average, got more rebounds and more assists, yet Surrey still emerged victorious.
Across all five of Surrey's beaten opponents this season, the only noticeable drop off is the Bristol Flyers who have averaged 37.03% from the field in their three defeats. This is down from their season's average of 42.12%, but their rebounds remained at the expected level and their assist numbers were slightly higher.
These teams haven't played awful games against the Scorchers. Surrey got the version of them that everyone else in the league did and managed to put some wins on the board.
Anyone who watches this team knows that Surrey live and die by the three-point shot. They shoot it more than most teams in the league and when they go in, they tend to win. When they don't, they tend to lose. In all competitions the Scorchers have averaged 38.38% from beyond the arc in games that they have won, this number drops to 32.59% in games that they have lost.
Lloyd Gardner inherited a laughing stock that had just gone 2-25 in the 2021/22 season. In his first season in charge the team improved modestly to a 4-32 record. Now the team is off the canvas and is putting together a respectable campaign.
A play off spot is a real possibility and other teams around the league are no longer looking at games against the Scorchers as a chance to get an easy win. They have some real talent on the team, with the likes of Saiquan Jamison and Padiet Wang both having magnificent seasons and the team has shown real, tangible signs of progress.
Does a team that won four games last season really need to finish in the top six and win play-off games to gain any credibility around the league? Absolutely not. Some good wins, fun matches and a play off apperance will do just fine.
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