Well it is a weekend off for the Bears and I suppose it is a well-deserved one.

We have been going at things at a frantic pace both on and off the floor due to our late start to the season and the problems in getting our players because of the tragic events in America.

So, the players who have done a very respectable job get the weekend off. In fact, everyone in the organisation has the weekend off, except me that is.

My weekend will be pretty laid back. I will meet our new player, Rich Aigner, who flies in to Heathrow early Saturday morning.

Rich is a nice player who I have known for some time and should really help our squad in many ways. Rich is an Irish-American, and will replace Dave Wahl who left us earlier this month. Rich has spent the last five years playing in the Belgian First Division though he averaged more than 20 points a game in this country for Leicester back in the 1995-1996 season.

I was coaching the Birmingham Bullets in those days and Rich and I both departed for Belgium after that season. Rich to a team in Bree, and myself to a team called Sun-Air on the northern coast in Ostend. Rich stayed much longer than I did, as I enjoyed my one season stint on the continent only to return to the BBL coaching for Manchester.

Keeping on the Belgian theme for a moment. The Bears' assistant general manager Steve Swanson and his wife Sandy are off to Bruges this weekend for a well earned short holiday.

It is Steve's first day off since joining the Bears back in August. I hope they enjoy it as they both wanted to do a trip in Europe and I recommended Bruges to them after living in Belgium three years ago. I wish I were going with them to enjoy the waffles, chocolate, frites, seafood, and of course, the Belgian beers.

But I must go to Coventry on Sunday to do a little spying on the rest of the league.

Eight teams play this weekend in the quarterfinals of the ntl National Cup all under one roof at the Coventry Sky Dome. It makes for a pretty good day of basketball with four games one after the other but I can only imagine how sore my backside will be after sitting for eight or nine hours watching hoops. Anyway, like they say, "coaching beats working, and it also beats not working."

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend and gets ready to catch the Bears next weekend against this year's best team in the country, the Chester Jets. They are unbeaten in all competitions this season and will be tough to beat.

We play them at the Brighton Centre on November 3, and the tip-off is at 7pm. Come join us as we try to knock off another unbeaten team like we did last weekend against the Sheffield Sharks. Until next week, Go Bears!