For a while it seemed the world had been turned on its head.

First Chester coach Robbie Peers rousing his men for a title challenge.

Then, a short filler story in a national tabloid with Bears chief Nick Nurse giving his views on the race for honours.

For basketball to be given even that space in a red top was a surprise. The shock though was Nurse conceding the crown to Sheffield.

If it was kidology it did not convince. It was far too early and came from the wrong man.

Peers might have got away with it. Who can forget his timeout in the cup final? He told his men: "If we're going down, we're going down fighting," then realised what he had said and rather meakly added: "Not that we are going down."

Nurse, by contrast, just does not do downtrodden and apologetic. He does upbeat.

His heartfelt plea in the cup final for his men to "rebound like your lives depended on it" was inspirational.

So too was the sheer energy in the timeout late in the recent win at Towers.

The Bears chief has since insisted he was not throwing in the towel when he chatted with a freelance after Sunday's defeat at Chester.

He had simply made Sheffield favourites because of their run-in.

The old spirit was certainly on view yesterday as he got his men playing the aggressive, trapping defence which has been the foundation of some of their best performances.

Fail to play tough defence in training and you have committed a cardinal sin.

When Nurse saw Oli Roche standing one pace off his man, he stopped the session and admonished the young centre for not being closer.

When training player Emmanuel Laroche gave Mike Brown a yard in which to move, it was Rico Alderson who wanted to know why.

Bears certainly did not look like they had given up the ghost. Nor did Nurse.

King of kidology? No chance. Master motivator? Very possibly. And that is why Sheffield are a long way from being crowned yet.