The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Basketball Federation’s Summer of Thunder is just under three weeks away, and coaches of visiting NCAA programmes are eagerly looking forward to the early opportunity to evaluate their teams.

The BBF’s Summer of Thunder exhibition series is set to begin August 1 at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium, featuring 14 Division I programmes over the course of the month.

This year there are 14 Division I programmes that are expected to participate in this year’s event, including: The University of North Florida, Ball State University, Eastern Illinois University, Georgia Tech, Saint Louis University, Southern Utah University, Youngstown State University, University of Central Florida, University of North Dakota, Middle Tennessee St. University, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Bethune-Cookman University, West Virginia University and the University of Texas Arlington.

One of the most well known teams in this year’s field will be the West Virginia Mountaineers.

Head coach Bob Huggins put together what he considers a “brutal schedule” for their non-conference play and the trip to the Bahamas should prepare them while in Martinsburg on the WVU Coaches Caravan.

“We’ve got three games against national teams (in the Bahamas) and then we pretty much come right out of that into the start of school and it’s a long year. And we’ve got a brutal schedule,” Huggins said.

Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders coach Kermit Davis outlined the benefits the exhibition series will have on his club in an interview with the Daily News Journal.

“We’ll have eight of our top 10 guys back and then you add some of these new guys and it’s really exciting,” Davis said. “It really couldn’t come at a better time for our programme. It’s 10 extra days of practice and four games.”

MTSU’s last foreign trip came prior to the 2011-12 season.

“It’s going to lend itself to our team to be so much better early in the year,” Davis explained. “The last time we took a trip was the year before (LaRon) Dendy started playing and we went to Canada. That trip, those guys got to see our deficiencies. We got to grow as a team. The biggest thing was those guys really found out where they were.”

The Ball State Cardinals will compete August 5-7 as they also spend time practicing and touring the island.

“We are excited about the season ahead of us, and this trip will provide invaluable practice time and team-bonding experiences for our players,” Ball State coach James Whitford said. “It is a chance for us to develop as a team while also introducing our guys to a different part of the world.”

The programme’s most recent trip was to Vancouver, Canada, in August 2011.

The UNC-Wilmington Seahawks will compete in the series during the second week in August,

In an interview with Star News Online, UNCW Seahawks coach Kevin Keatts said the trip will be timely for his programme which welcomes a number of new players for the 2015-16 season.

“The great thing about it is you get a chance to find who you are early,” Keatts said. “It’ll give me an indication what we really need to work on once we get back and start practice.”

The team will reportedly add four transfers and four freshmen next season.

The showcase is designed to expose local talent to an international style of basketball, as well as give Bahamian players a chance to compete against some of the best collegiate basketball players the NCAA has to offer.

The exhibition also allows young Bahamian athletes to familiarise themselves with potential tertiary level institutions in which they could possibly attend.

BBF first vice president and event organiser Mario Bowleg said that the event is growing in recognition and is making a name for itself on the international scene.

“The tournament is only getting bigger and expanding and even though we have 14 teams here, there are more that wanted to participate, Wichita State who was a Sweet 16 team in the tournament wanted to participate this year and said if they don’t make it this year, they definitely will next year,” said Bowleg.

Despite the fact there are no teams ranked in the top 20 in any preseason polls, the teams participating in this year’s event should provide tough competition for our local players as two teams (WVU, UNF) were among the 64 selected to compete in this year’s NCAA tournament.

“There are about nine local teams that are set to play, including The Asue Draw Regulators, PJ Stingers, The Bahamas Select Team, Elite Ballers, Real Deal Shockers and the College Of The Bahamas has also confirmed that they will be playing and we’re still waiting on confirmation from the other two teams,” said Bowleg.

Bowleg also noted the limiting of local teams in the event to have those participating to be better conditioned and make for more competitive games.