Senior women's team down to 18

Mario Bowleg

An 18-women roster was submitted to the Bahamas Basketball Federation (BBF) by the three national head coaches, who have had the task of preparing the squad for the upcoming Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championships. Coaches Larry Tidwell, Felix Fly Musgrove and Kayla Campbell were originally supposed to hand 24 names in, but that became impossible after players decided not to continue participating in the training sessions. Musgrove explained that the 18 persons who came out, their names were added to the roster, which was handed over to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) by the federation. The annual championships will tip-off on August 3-7, at the Kendal G.L. Isaacs National Gymnasium. The mens affair has a July 23-29 slating. Those matches will also be held at the national gymnasium. Head coaches for the mens squad are Larry Brown, Mario Bowleg , Quintin Three Ounce Hall and Dexter Cambridge. Musgrove said: We are down to 18 players right now. We didnt cut it to 24 because some of the players cut themselves by not coming. Coach Tidwell is out of town right now, so the final cut to 12 players, will be done when he returns. The names are not due in until July 22. I think the team is pretty strong. We are small but we are going to be quick. Our style of basketball is going to be an uptempo one. Defense? We are going to play a lot of person-to-person match up with some trapping also. We have a few collegiate players. Most of the players we have are based here locally. We have about four or five collegiate players who are trying out. The team is coming together pretty well. The integration of local and collegiate based players has paid off, so far. We had persons come home early from school so that gave us an opportunity to look at them and see how they will fit into the program and what we are trying to run.
This will mark the first time in 10 years The Bahamas is playing host to the event. The BBF will welcome teams from Jamaica, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic.
Unlike the men, the women will play a round-robin format while the men will be divided into pools. The game schedule has already been posted on the FIBA Americas basketball website, for both championships. The womens setup has The Bahamas playing the feature game, against St. Vincent and the Grenadines, on August 3. The opening match will see Dominican Republic and US Virgin Islands battle, followed by the Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago match-up.
Day two, Team Bahamas will go up against Trinidad and Tobago. This will be the last game of the evening. The game with Cuba and The Bahamas will be played on Saturday, August 7, the last day of the round-robin competition. Also playing on that day are Trinidad and Tobago, Dominican Republic, US Virgin Islands and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Only the top three teams from both tournaments will advance to the Centrobasket Championships, which is made up of eight countries from around the Central American and Caribbean region.
The mens championships will be played July 23-29. The host country, The Bahamas, will play out of Group B with British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Cayman Islands. Group A will have Jamaica, US Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The mens first game will put them against Cayman Islands. This is the third match on the schedule. Jamaica and Antigua and Barbuda will be the feature game with Bermuda and St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the opener. Taking to court second are US Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
When you go to compete, there is only one reason for entering, that is to win, said Musgrove. So we are not going out there looking for any other position other than the number one spot. If we fall short then that is something that we will have to work with. But basically when you compete you want to win. That is our goal.
The thing that needs to be noted is the last tournament that was held was in 2006. So basically, most of these teams coming in, we dont know what they are bringing. Cuba always brings a strong team, Trinidad and Tobago is basically rebuilding and the Dominican Republic has to do the same thing, rebuild. We dont know how the US Virgin Islands team looks or who they are bringing, but I can say that this is a very strong team and we are getting ready for the challenge or battle that is before us.
Teams will be staying at the SuperClubs Breezes Resort. Officials from the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and CBC will be housed at the Wyndham Nassau Resort.
Courtesy of: thenassauguardian.com