So here we are, Christmas time, the season of goodwill to all men. Not that you would have thought so if you had been following the various basketball gossip of late.

I've heard tales of gloom and doom, I know of one prediction that the BBL will collapse in two years and I'm aware of people making comments about how certain ambitious clubs market their games.

I know attendances are down at some clubs but take it from me, this league is stronger financially than it has ever been. I know that for a fact. You have got several clubs moving to new venues and the infrastructure is getting stronger.

You know what one of the problems is with the BBL? People not working hard enough to get crowds into their games. There are plenty of people who want to come and see basketball but we are not doing a good enough job of telling them what is happening.

Here at the Bears we have maybe fast-tracked and done some really creative things. We are trying to spread the word. We have done that and the Bears are very popular in Brighton because of the way we have treated our fans.

Some people would rather bitch about that than get off their backsides and bring in fans to their own clubs. They make comments about the Bears giving out free tickets. Well, if you really want to know how we do it, come and ask us. Ask us how we get 3,000 people at the Brighton Centre and we will tell you.

Those of you who were at The Triangle on Sunday, and what a noisy crowd you were by the way, saw Errol Seaman sit the game out through injury. Errol has torn a bit of cartilage and, while there is no surgery required, he will need to rest and go through rehab.

I would not expect him to be fit until after the cup final. The obvious next step for me is to go out and sign a player, which I intended doing anyway. I'm not having a whole lot of luck on that right now but we will step it up, even if it means bringing in someone just for the short team.

I thought our six senior guys did a great job in beating Birmingham and Thames Valley. Every team seems to get up to play us and Birmingham were certainly ready. They made some great plays. They hit about eight straight shots that had no business going in and we were trading baskets with them. It was a big win for us and we got lucky breaks towards the end.

Thames Valley are beating good teams and are up near the top of the league so that too was a great win on Sunday, especially to come from 11 points down.

It took us a while to get our legs going but it was a tremendous mental effort in the second half. That's what I was going on about at half time.

I just thought that mentally we weren't executing our plays right on offence but, man, was that an awesome performance in the second half?

I gave the players Monday off, we got back to work on Tuesday, rested on Christmas Day and were working today ready for next weekend's tests by London Towers and Birmingham. That doesn't give us much time off for Christmas but the guys are all over here to do a job as professional basketball players.

We have plenty of incentive with some big league games and the cup final coming up and we need to stay focussed. Training on Boxing Day is not so bad. In fact, I would love to have a home game with the Bears on Boxing Day. And you know something? We would pack the place out.