HEAD coach Paul James believes Worcester Wolves can challenge for the British Basketball League title next season if he can keep hold of his players.

James feels he has got “something very special” at Wolves after an “unbelievable” second half of the season which saw them put together a 12-match winning sequence.

With Worcester hosting Sheffield Sharks in the second leg of their play-off first round tomorrow (4pm) James admits some of his players want to hold off contract talks.

But he is hopeful of retaining their services as Wolves, who finished the regular season in fifth place, look to compete at the top end of the table next term.

“Obviously we have got the play-offs going on so we don’t want that to be a distraction,” James said.

“But we have started to talk to a few players about next season.

“Some of them want to wait until the season finishes so once it is over hopefully we will talk very quickly.

“They know we have got something very special here.

“The way we have turned the season around has been unbelievable and with Mo Walker and Trey Zeigler coming in it has completed the team.

“We would like to get as many of the players back as possible so we can build on what we have started this year.

“If we do that we will be up there challenging with the likes of Leicester and Newcastle next year.

“Hopefully they will all want to come back and do it again.”

James has spent the last two summers rebuilding his team with Ashton Khan the only survivor of the 2015-16 squad.

And Wolves’ boss admitted the raft of changes played a part in their “bad start” to the campaign.

“It was just a matter of time before we turned things around and understood each other,” James continued.

“We gave ourselves a chance of finishing in the top four. Unfortunately we just missed out on that but the way we turned our season around was great.

“The players understand they all fit in here and have an opportunity to develop their game and play within a system which suits their style of play.

“Obviously if they can come back next season and do it again then we will be starting off on a better footing than last year.

“Then it is about improving on what we have done this year. If we do that we could be an awesome, powerful unit.”

Wolves are hoping to progress to the semi-finals of the play-offs for the first time since they won it in 2014 and James is hoping for a packed-out University of Worcester Arena tomorrow.

“This is the business end of the season where you either win and go through or you lose and all of a sudden your season comes to a very abrupt end,” he added.

“Unfortunately for us that has happened in the last two seasons where we have not got it together in that first round.

“But the home crowd will give us a massive advantage. Hopefully we can play a lot better than we did the last time we were at home and get through to the semi-finals.”