Terry Deroover visits familiar territory with Brussels: “As a little boy, I went to every Ostend home match with my father” (Brussels)
Basketball BNXT League Circus Brussels
At Circus Brussels, they are anxiously awaiting the away game on Saturday evening at national champion Ostend. The national champion made mincemeat of Brussels in the first leg, but also dropped a few stitches in the meantime. For Terry Deroover, the trip to the coast evokes childhood memories.
“As a little boy, I went to every Ostend home match with my father. So as a species I was a supporter of Ostend and also of Jean-Marc Jaumin, who played there at the time. If I had known then that he would one day become my coach… When I was fifteen I got the proposal to go international in the youth academy of Ostend, but following the lessons at school in Dutch was a stumbling block. That’s why I decided not to. Otherwise I would have already ended up under the wing of Jean-Marc Jaumin. So the trip to Ostend always brings back some memories of my youth.”
Bad luck, bad luck, bad luck
At Brussels, they secretly hope for the return of Jaylin Airington on the trip to the coast, although he is not expected to be fully fit until next week in the home game against Liège. Terry Deroover was declared completely fit. “At the start of the season I was out with a foot injury that was supposed to be gone in one week, but in the end it slept a lot longer. Just as I was reaching cruising speed, disaster struck again. I scored 24 points against Limburg and 17 against Kangoeroes Mechelen, when Kevin Tumba landed on my knee forty seconds from the end. Two days later Tumba signed for Liège, while I was in the rag basket and the club had lost two players in one fell swoop. It’s kind of symbolic of the bad luck we’re dealing with this season. For example, Domigoj Proleta with a bacterial infection is still out until the end of February. And the biggest problem was still in training, where we could often practice five against five. Similarly, exercise intensity took a partial plunge. We really didn’t have an ounce of luck this season. If we are complete, we can nevertheless have a well-educated core with enough players who can make individual differences.”
However, Deroover also learned that Ostend is a size too big on a top day anyway. “In the first leg, Ostend accounted for sixty percent of three-pointers. Well, then we’re just out of luck. Nevertheless, some teams such as Charleroi and Liège have already made Ostend difficult this season. So we have to believe in it. Otherwise we don’t even have to travel.”