The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Basketball Federation may have missed out on the opportunity to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games, but first vice president Mario said the goal is to get ready for 2024.

The federation has selected a 12-man team that will participate in the AmeriCup 2021 Pre Qualifers that will take place in Belize from February 21-25. The event was originally scheduled to be played in The Bahamas, but moved because of a lack of funding.

On Thursday at Baha Mar, which is sponsoring the team, the federation released the names of the players who will leave on Sunday for three days of practice and two scrimmage games before they head to Belize.

Bowleg, who coached the team up to the qualifying tournament for the 2020 Olympics, will be traveling as as assistant coach. He has turned the head coaching job over to his assistant Norris Bain from Grand Bahama.

Named to the team, which comprises of a mixture of international and locally based players, are the following: Domnick Bridgewater, who is currently playing in Fos Provence, France; Michael Carey out of Mexico; Jean Rony Cadot out of Spain; Kentwan Smith out of Denmark; David Nesbitt out of Brazil; 7-feet Winslo Barry out of Spain; Shavanno Cooper out of the Phillipines; Shaquille ‘Shaq’ Cleare out of Mexico and Lourawls Nairn, now working in the Phoenix Suns’ organisation in the National Basketball Association.

They will be joined by Michael Bain Jr of the Commonwealth Bank Giants and both Eugene Bain and Torrington Cox of the PJ’s Stingers in the New Providence Basketball Association.

“FIBA has changed its format as it relates to tournament with the home and away series to qualify for the World Cup and the Olympic Games,” Bowleg said.

“Right now, we are in the Pre-Americas Qualifiers for the English-Spanish speaking Caribbean. We placed in the group with Cuba, Antigua and Barbuda and Belize.”

The top two teams in each group will advance to the qualifying tournament that will begin in November in a home and away series of games and continue in February and June, 2020.

“Our chances of moving on is great,” he said. “Taking nothing from Belize, Antigua or Cuba, I think that this team is a very good defensive team, very athletic and defensive.

“In the World Cup, we thought that we had a lot of talent, but we didn’t have guys that defended very well. From my past experience over the last year, I think this team will defend very well.”

Bowleg, who will be vying for the post of president of the federation when the election of officers take place next month, said the team is in good hands with Bain taking over from him as the head coach.

Steve Barnes, who will also travel as an assistant coach, said they have decided to put in the practice and scrimmages against two local colleges in Florida to get some synergy on the team before they head to Belize to play in the tournament.

“We have a pretty good idea of what we are going to do, but we’re not going to get away from what we did in the summer time when we got a win over Belize,” Barnes said.

“We started playing better with Michael back. He understand what we are trying to do, so I think we’re going to have a team that is going to be able to extend the floor and run the man-to-man and press and use our athletism to score and spread the floor in the half-court.”

Barnes said the team just need to play a little more before tournament so that they can be better prepared, especially as their first match will be against Cuba.

“We’re excited about here and excited about going to Miami and then down to Belize to represent The Bahamas,” he said.

Carey Jr, who has played a pivotal role for Team Bahamas, said one thing is certain that The Bahamas is always right in the think of things in their games.

“The key thing about this whole thing is closing out,” he pointed out. “The guys have gotten better in their game. I am shooting the ball a lot better and we have some key guys coming back so we’re going to give thing another shot.”

The team has been endorsed by the Bahamas Olympic Committee, who was hoping that the team would have qualified for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

“We applaud Baha Mar for stepping in and sponsoring the team,” said Derron Donaldson, the secretary general of the BOC. “We know that Mario was working hard to have the tournament held here, but that fell through.

“We have to applaud corporate sponsors like Baha Mar for stepping in and helping these guys to go off. We would have liked to see you guys in 2020, but we’re glad that you guys are on the path to 2024 and also attend the Pan Am Games.”

When the Pan American Games get underway in Peru in July, Bowleg assured Donaldson that the federation will be out to put the best possible team on the floor, including NBA players Chavanno ‘Buddy’ Hield and D’Andre Ayton.

“We don’t just want to dreaming, but we want to get a taste to show the Bahamian public what our chances is like to have all of these players on the floor.”

Vanessa Christie, Bahama Mar’s director of public relations, said as sponsors, they are looking forward to seeing how well the team will perform in the tournament.