Episode 14 - Coach Ian Macleod, Head Coach of the Newcastle Eagles

Coach Ian Macleod is in his second year as the Newcastle Eagles head coach, having taken up the helm after Fab Flournoy, the former player/coach of the Eagles left to join Nick Nurses staff on the Toronto Raptors in 2018.

Fab’s input helped the Newcastle Eagles become the winningest franchise in BBL history - winning the treble three times since 2005, with star players such as himself, Charles Smith and Darius Defoe.

The Eagles record boasts 7 BBL Championships, 6 BBL Playoffs wins, 5 BBL Cup wins and 7 BBL Trophy wins. In addition to this, Fab leads the Eagles in all-time, assists, blocks, rebounds and steals so not a bad mentor to have!

When Charles Smith retired in 2016, this left the door open for the newly recruited PG Ramon Fletcher to take the helm for the clubs new era.

Coach Macleod was an academy coach with the Eagles for over a decade before being given the chance to become an assistant coach by Fab in 2013, the year before Fletcher came to the team.

Macleod had ambitions to become a coach from the age of five, initially in football but this quickly transitioned to basketball.

In this podcast, we’ll discuss his successful first year campaign, winning the BBL Trophy against the up and coming NBL team, the Solent Kestrels - where he became one of very few coaches to win silverware in his first season. We’ll discuss what it’s like to build a team in the BBL, where year to year contracts are the norm and take a trip down memory lane to discuss his basketball journey as well as his aspirations for this year’s side, who have come out strong in the BBL Cup with a 3-2 record.