By Jamie Thomas
When you think of the Manchester Mystics, chances are Georgia Jones is who you thought of before or immediately after that – such is how synonymous both club, captain and the Jones name are with each other – and when we previewed May Madness with the GB international recently, the star guard’s passion for the club, her area and its success really shone through.
Going into the post-season courtesy of a respectable mid-table finish in perhaps the most hotly-contested WBBL regular season to date, Jones is hoping to lead the Mystics to fulfil their potential when their season is laid on the line in the playoffs.
“This is the business end of the season, isn’t it, so you’ve got to sharpen up your focus and know that every detail and practice matters. I don’t think we’ve underachieved, but I think we have so much potential and we should be up there with the best teams, which is why we’re so looking forward to the playoffs to show what we’re capable of.
“We say it often that we need to stretch the 25-30 minutes of our good play to be 35-40 minutes, because that has proven to be the difference against the top teams. Against those teams you know they’re not going to dip, so we can’t afford to either, and I think that has been our biggest struggle for whatever reason.
“We know what we need to do to win and progress in the playoffs, it’s not new to us and there are no excuses – we have to get it right and be ready. I hope the one-and-done situation helps bring the best out of us. We need to know that we have to perform. We’ve got one opportunity and that’s it.
“We really need to value the moment we have here.”
Yet to progress beyond the playoff quarter-finals as a club, Jones feels confidence will be key if the club are to break that duct this time around.
The experienced guard admits she expects this year to be an even tougher challenge for everybody to achieve the success they feel they deserve in the post-season, given how much more motivated the context of the season has made clubs to be victorious at its conclusion.
“When I think about playoffs, I always think that we’ve underachieved in the past. We need to be confident in what we’re capable of doing and not allow any frustration to take us away from the good things that we do – the belief is the biggest thing we need to work on.
“This year is one of those years where you really want to make the most out of it. I’ll be really disappointed if we don’t get past the first round, but it’ll be tough because everybody wants it even more this year. We’ll definitely be using those past experiences of struggling to motivate us.
“We’re not going to be playing basketball forever and this year has shown that. We don’t want to waste it, these opportunities don’t come around very often, and we really need to value the moment we have here.”
“I love it when we’re the underdogs.”
One of the many highlights of the current WBBL season has been the tremendously strong class of lead guards that each team has to call upon, with Jones amongst the likes of Holly Winterburn, Kennedy Leonard, Cat Carr, Chelsey Shumpert and others throughout the league who lead their teams with distinction on a nightly basis.
If the Mystics are to go all the way in the playoffs and achieve their ambitions, they will have to overcome some significant fixtures in which they may not be the favourites, but Jones elaborated on why that suits her and how much she enjoys competing against such high-calibre guards.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for all of those people, and I think that’s what so exciting about the WBBL that each team has at least one leader who is going to step-up, if not more, and that is exciting to watch as a fan, but also as a competitor because you know you’ve got to step up and match them.
“I love playing against the top teams, or anybody that we’re not ‘supposed to beat’ and love it when we’re the underdogs. You can’t take anybody lightly, you can’t slack, and whoever you play against you need to give it your best.
“I do tend to guard Cat Carr a lot, which is a tough match-up but one I really enjoy. I’ve played against her a lot over the years and I think we know each other pretty well, but she’s developing and getting better even now, at this point in this career, so it is always exciting to play against her.”
“Records are meant to be broken.”
The Mystics captain has continued to break records this season, recently becoming the first WBBL player to break 750 assists, but she’s had one taken from her as well as Kennedy Leonard snapped Jones’ previous WBBL record of total assists in a championship season.
Smiling as it’s mentioned that Leonard had surpassed her very impressive total, Jones professed her respect for the young Lions leader and discussed why the WBBL needs records like that to be broken, as well as the growth of the league in general.
“The league has clearly gotten better year-on-year, and it is great to see London up there. I have a lot of respect for Mark (Clark), they’ve got a very talented team there who are consistent and getting those results – and Essex have done incredibly well, so it is great to see the progression and development and I hope that’ll continue.
“There’s a lot of hoops we’ve had to jump through just to get to the playoffs, so everybody is going to be extra motivated to do well. Anybody can win on the day and I think everybody is very grateful just to be here and have the playoffs here now.
“I’ve played in this league for some time now and records are meant to be broken. I’ve got a lot of respect to Kennedy, she’s a great player and she leads that team so well which is a big part of why they’ve been so successful this year. We need people to come into the WBBL, break records and put the spotlight on the league and the talent here because we all deserve it.”