The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

According to members of its coaching staff, the Bahamas’ men’s national basketball team needs to restructure its programme in several key areas if they wish to capitalise on the current talent pool and qualify for the 2020 Olympics.

The latest edition of the team finished in seventh place at the 2016 Centrobasket Championships, hosted in Panama.

With the seventh place finish they achieved qualification for the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games.

Team head coach Mario Bowleg said the country has yet to see the best possible product Team Bahamas has to offer and called for greater dedication to the programme from all players.

“Yet again, we have yet to put our best team on the floor. This is one of our better teams that we’ve been able to put on the floor as far as the young guys are concerned so it speaks volumes about the young guys coming up and even after this tournament we may have 4-6 of these guys retire because the younger players are coming up.

“Buddy Hield just got drafted so the future is bright for the Bahamas,” he said. “It’s just a matter of killing that black crab syndrome out of the team. Having a team of guys who want to represent their country, don’t quit no matter what or find excuses when it gets tough. That’s what we want to build, that type of culture that will allow the national team to grow.”

The team finished the tournament at 2-3 with wins over Costa Rica and Nicaragua and losses to the US Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic and Mexico.

Assistant head coach Norris Bain said with many of the NCAA division I players and professionals onboard, the team has legitimate opportunities to qualify for the Tournament of the Americas and the Olympics.

Moving forward we’ve got to get Lourawls Nairn Jr home, we’ve got to get Buddy home, we’ve got to get Magnum [Rolle] home, we’ve got to get Kadeem [Coleby] and Dwight [Coleby]. We have to get these guys to really buy into this team and getting them to realise that we are just one or two players from being in the Tournament of Americas. I really believe that. We are three or four players from really contending for a spot at the Olympic level,” he said. “We see how bright the future is with young DeAndre Ayton so Bahamas basketball has so much to look forward to, we just have to capitalise on this opportunity.”

Ayton, the 17-year-old phenom who is set to enter his senior year of high school at Hillcrest Academy in Arizona, was impressive in his national team debut.

He was the only player to average a double double, finished third in the tournament in scoring at 16 points per game and led in rebounds at 11 per game. He also finished second in blocked shots at 3.5 per game.

The Bahamas also finished in seventh place at their last appearance in the Centrobasket tournament in 2014.

Buddy Hield led that team at 19.8 points per game followed by Mychel Thompson’s 9.3 points per game and 8.8 points from Marvin Gray.

In nearly a complete roster turnover from the 2014 Centrobasket, just two players from that team – Kino Burrows and Kentwan Smith –were members of this year’s team.

The Bahamas also recorded a fifth place finish in 2012, fifth place in 2003, fifth place in 1995 and eighth place in 1989.

The team received automatic qualification to the 2016 Centrobasket after their success in the last two editions of the Caribbean Basketball Confederations Championship.

The Centrobasket group is considered the top 10 teams from the Central American and Caribbean region tested in a round robin format.

Puerto Rico emerged as the winners with an 84-83 win over Mexico.

The top five teams in the 2016 Centrobasket Championship will automatically qualify for the Division A of the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifiers and for the 2017 FIBA Americas Cup.