Ian Macleod officially confirmed as Newcastle Eagles head coach

Image credit: Mansoor Ahmed / ahmedphotos

Newcastle Eagles have officially confirmed Ian Macleod will be the full-time head coach having held an interim role last season.

The long-time assistant with the North-East club took up the reigns following Fab Flournoy’s move to join Nick Nurse’s Toronto Raptors in the NBA, and immediately added to their extensive BBL trophy collection.

Macleod led the Eagles to victory in the BBL Trophy as they battled past NBL D1 champions Solent Kestrels in a dramatic final, despite a challenging build-up amidst the coronavirus pandemic as three players departed.

“After several seasons supporting Fab, Ian stepped into some very big shoes, inheriting a team that was literally making its way to Newcastle on the day he agreed to take on the interim role”, said Eagles’ managing director, Paul Blake.

“It’s safe to say it was a roller coaster ride from that point, with player changes, passport issues and constant injury problems, which meant the full squad was only available in two games.

“Despite that Ian navigated the team to a winning record and our 25th trophy before lockdown.”

Newcastle were in joint fifth position in the BBL Championship standings with a 7-6 record before the season was cut short.

The club confirmed recruitment for the 2020-21 roster is underway with announcements to follow.

Full BBL ins and outs with our annual rosters tracker, HERE.

Do you like our work?

We have a tiny favour to ask. In 2018 we set out to make Hoopsfix sustainable by building our relationship directly with our readers. Up until now, Hoopsfix has been creating editorials, videos and podcasts to provide sorely missing coverage of the British game and its distinct culture and community.

We have funded Hoopsfix with our freelance work creating basketball media, but sadly that means not only does it fall behind our client’s priorities, but some of those clients are the same organisations we need to report objectively on putting us in a conflicted position.

We want to devote more time to our mission of helping British basketball reach its potential, and produce even more content for the basketball community by making Hoopsfix a sustainable 100% independent business funded directly by our readers through Patreon.

If everyone who enjoys our content chose to support us, our future would be much more secure. For as little as $3 per month, you can support Hoopsfix – and it only takes a minute.

We are tremendously honoured and humbled to have a community of people who value what we do, and we look forward to being at the forefront of the British game as it continues to evolve.

Support Hoopsfix