Basketball: Return of the Bull as Maclean looks to steer Kings onto the horns of Glasgow Storm

But Kings centre Simon Flockhart can rest easy in his bed for the former Scotland captain and coach, who often made life hard for him in his playing days with St Mirren, is not making a court comeback. Maclean, a former clubmate of Kings coach Doug Reilly and Flockhart, has returned to the Scottish basketball scene to coach the West coast side and he has already made an impact, steering them to a narrow 76-71 opening win over Glasgow Rocks last weekend which he described as “ugly”.

But Maclean took comfort in the positives of being able to blood three young players for a club which have decidedly underachieved in the past.

Strangely enough, they have often proved something of a bogey team for Kings, but going on the evidence of last Saturday’s opening 87-52 romp over Stirling Knights, the champions should run out comfortable winners.

There was apparently much soul-searching at Stirling over their performance at Portobello which was not helped by their ex-Peregrines’ and Scottish international Capital guard Grant Gibson suffering a reaction to playing perhaps too soon after suffering a serious leg injury in a Scotland training game last June.

Boroughmuir Blaze found themselves seriously exposed by St Mirren thanks to their lack of height on their return to the league at Paisley last Friday night and could be in for another hard time at the Peak Centre tomorrow where Knights’ Swedish centre Rob Jansson could mop up. Blaze centre Chopper Pettett has enjoyed a few jousts with Jansson in the past and will share marking duties with another ex-King, ex-Peregrine Adam Johnstone and ex-Perth junior Ben Warrington.

Glasgow University look like having too much strength at home to Dunfermline Reign tomorrow, judging by Reign’s 30-point defeat at the hands of Troon Tornadoes in their opening sortie.