Phil Waghorn today gathered the eight Genesis Brighton Bears and told them: "Don't worry about the opposition."

Waghorn remains in charge of training as Bears wait for the return of head coach Nick Nurse from a throat operation and trip to the States.

Bears have played just one home game in the last five weeks and face another tough weekend on the road as they visit Guildford Heat tomorrow (7.30pm) and Chester Jets on Sunday (5.30pm), both in the British League.

Waghorn is convinced his team can cope with the best in the BBL on their day and they might have a helping hand from the fixture list this weekend.

Guildford could have their minds on their BBL Trophy semi-final, which they play on Sunday, while Chester could be jaded after tomorrow's trek to Plymouth.

Heat are in talks with Ajou Deng but the former Bear insists he will not be playing tomorrow.

Waghorn said: "I'm a great believer in that it's about us, not the opposition.

"I'm more worried about us producing consistent performances. When we play as well as we can, we compete with anybody in the league.

"Of course there are aspects of the opposition you focus on but you never know where the danger is coming from.

"Against Guildford last time, it was Marlin Capers shooting threes and we didn't expect that.

"Then we went to Newcastle, shut down Andrew Sullivan and found Perry Lawson couldn't miss. We won't worry too much about the other side."

Bears, without a win in their last five away games, are likely to have decent support on their first trip for several years to Guildford.

Until Nurse returns, some key questions over the rest of the season will remain unanswered.

The club have yet to indicate whether they expect to add to the squad, whether they will make Yorick Williams an offer to re-sign or what plans they have to cover for Ronnie Baker should he go to the Commonwealth Games with England.

Bears must wait another two weeks to hear whether Baker will miss a month of the season.

Baker is the most capped England player of all-time with 149 appearances but his place in the Games could depend on whether Newcastle star TJ Walker secures a British passport.

Even if Walker misses out, Baker faces hot competition for a place.

He did not feature in a recent three-game tour to Belgrade, though England coach Peter Scantlebury insisted his absence was not particularly significant.

Scantlebury said:

"We didn't take Ronnie because he missed a couple of camps and everybody knows what he can do.

"The games were basically practices against club teams.

"It was a good chance to look at 15 guys.

"We will have to decide on our final selection of 12 over the next week or two but TJ is still waiting on his passport and having him seems to be a long shot now."

Baker, not a noted three-point marksman, has been shooting at better than 50 per cent from behind the arc this season, putting him top of the BBL rankings.

Andrew Alleyne is highly unlikely to feature in the Commonwealths for Barbados having shocked the sporting world on his home island by quitting international basketball in 2004.