London Lions head coach Ryan Schmidt has won the 2022-23 Molten Ed Percival BBL Coach of the Year award – voted by BBL club captains and administrators – after claiming a double of the BBL Championship and Cup.
With a 32-4 record in league play, an 89% winning percentage, the Lions won just their second-ever BBL title with six games remaining—the closest point in a season in BBL history—and lifted the BBL Cup in January for the third time in their history, Having won both of them in 2018-19.
Fresh from a title-winning campaign with the Hamilton Honey Badgers of the Canadian Basketball Elite League (CEBL) and after four seasons as an assistant coach with the NBA G-League affiliate the Toronto Raptors, Schmidt took the reins at Copperbox Arena in the summer as The Lions embarked on a grueling EuroCup campaign alongside their domestic duties.
He soon got down to business and amassed perhaps the most formidable roster ever seen in BBL history, including former NBA talents such as Sam Dekker, Kosta Koufos, and Miye Oni – who between them have played over 1,000 NBA games – alongside With the BBL’s all-time points leader Vojtech Hruban, and elite British talent such as Luke Nelson, Mo Soluade, Tarik Phillip and Josh Sharma all playing in the BBL for the first time in their careers.
The title was fully secured by an impressive streak of 18 consecutive BBL championship wins throughout the year, beginning December 1st through mid-March as Coach Schmidt took home three Molten Kevin Cadle Coach of the Month awards. way, for September/October after a brisk start set the tone, followed by December and January.
Significantly for their title charge, the Lions won the BBL Championship 4-0 against Leicester Riders – the previous season’s treble winners and reigning champions – to seal their dominion in that competition very early with an 89-78 victory at the Copper Box Arena in Game 2 of the The season, while outscoring the Raiders by one shot, 83-81, in their last meeting at the same venue in early April.
The biggest day of the campaign came in January when the Lions beat Leicester Riders to win the BBL Cup for the third time in their history – the silverware they’ve won the most – and first time in four years, never trailing all the time but needing a pair of quarter-outs Fourth to pin the ship in a closely contested match in front of a sell out crowd at Utilita Arena, Birmingham, live on Sky Sports.
For the season, the Schmidt Lions by far boasted the league’s first defense as the only team to hold opponents under 40% shooting from the field, and that was a consistent hallmark throughout the campaign and regardless of personnel as a seal of Schmidt’s philosophy.
They are also the BBL’s No. 2 offense overall, and have improved further in recent weeks, with the best inside scoring percentage at 56% thanks to their pool of big talent, and with the most three points per game (9.3) of any team in the league led by Aaron Best. And Luke Nelson, both around and above the 40% mark.
Alongside all this domestic success, Coach Schmidt’s side proudly raised the BBL banner on the continent, becoming the first British team in history to qualify for the European Cup Qualifiers.
The full record of votes can be found below:
Bristol club manager vote | Ryan Schmidt |
Vote Captain Bristol | Ryan Schmidt |
Caledonia club manager vote | Ryan Schmidt |
Caledonian captain vote | Ryan Schmidt |
Cheshire club manager vote | Ryan Schmidt |
Cheshire captain vote | Andreas Capoulas |
Leicester club manager vote | Ben Thomas |
Captain Leicester vote | Ryan Schmidt |
London club manager vote | Gareth Murray |
Vote Captain London | Andreas Capoulas |
Manchester club manager vote | Andreas Capoulas |
Manchester captain vote | Gareth Murray |
Newcastle club manager vote | Andreas Capoulas |
Newcastle captain vote | Ryan Schmidt |
Plymouth club manager vote | Gareth Murray |
Plymouth captain vote | Andreas Capoulas |
Sheffield club manager vote | Ryan Schmidt |
Sheffield captain vote | Ryan Schmidt |
Surrey club manager vote | Andreas Capoulas |
Captain Surrey vote | Ryan Schmidt |