The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

ONE of their most highly anticipated events of the year, the Bahamas Basketball Federation’s Summer of Thunder is set to begin this weekend, opening with an NCAA team looking to build on last year’s historic season.

The University of North Florida Ospreys will be the first visiting team to participate in the series, which will be staged at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

The first game in their exhibition series will be against the Bahamas All-Stars at 7pm on Saturday, August 1.

The following day features a matchup against IBA Elite at 5pm and after a day off, they conclude against Athletic Club Bahamas 7pm August 4.

The Ospreys are getting an early start to the 2015-16 campaign, coming off their most successful season in school history.

Led by head coach Matt Driscoll, the Ospreys advanced to its first NCAA tournament appearance where they lost to Robert Morris in the First Four.

Their first basketball season was in 1992 and after a season spent in the NAIA, the team moved to Division II the next season.

Until last year, the Ospreys had just four winning seasons in over two decades, but won 23 games last year en route to their tournament appearance.

North Florida welcomes back 12 players from last season’s tournament team, including two redshirts.

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.

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.

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.