By BRENT STUBBS
Senior Sports Reporter
bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
MISSION accomplished.
New head coach Norris Bain gave himself and the rest of his coaching staff a B grade after the Bahamas advanced in the FIBA AmeriCup and World Cup qualification round in Belize.
Team Bahamas returned home Monday night with a second place finish behind Cuba, the two teams that will move on to the qualifying tournament that starts in November in a home-and-away series.
“I thought the establishment of the training camp where we were able to get into Miami and play against Miami Dade Community College and Florida National University prepared us for the teams that we faced in Belize,” Bain said. “It was a new challenge in my life dealing with the professional players. Some of the guys are young, but they are professionals, so you have to treat them that way.”
Bain, the winningest coach in the prestigious Hugh Campbell Basketball Classic for high school senior boys, got his first opportunity on the sidelines as the head coach, taking over from Mario Bowleg, who travelled as an assistant with Steve Barnes.
“I thought we had a great staff with Steve Barnes and Mario. I think all of us really got the job done,” Bain said. “We knew that there would have been adversities with coaches and players, but we rode the adversity and it made us better at the end of the day.”
Bowleg, the Bahamas Basketball Federation’s first vice president, said the scrimmage games really helped in the team’s performance in Belize, even though they felt they should have won the game against Cuba.
“After we brought it to the attention of the technical director, they reviewed the tape and the next morning they advised us that there were some mis-calls and we should not have gotten the technical calls that the officials gave us,” Bowleg said.
“After that things changed. We never saw those two officials, who made the calls, again. We played basketball the way we are capable of playing. We performed very well against Antigua and Barbuda and the host team from Belize.”
On day two, Team Bahamas rebounded from the loss against Cuba to take their frustration out on Antigua & Barbuda with a 110-56 rout, the highest scoring out-put in the tournament.
And despite having to face a hostile crowd on the final day, Team Bahamas managed to come out with a 86-72 decision over Belize to take the second spot at 2-1 to move on with Cuba, who had only beaten Belize by two points.
Bowleg said he was impressed with the way Bain conducted himself as his replacement as the new head coach.
“Norris did his job. One thing I can say is that the guys were well prepared before they went to Belize,” Bowleg said. “Steve Barnes was the lead assistant and I went as an assistant to help Norris in his transition because the other two assistant coaches Wayde Watson and Kevin Johnson were playing in the Hugh Campbell Tournament.
“I think he did a tremendous job, even in bringing the guys together after the loss to Cuba. He found a way to encourage them in practice and prior to their next game against Antigua and it showed in the final results. So I think he did a very good job in taking over the helm.”
At the end of the tournament, Team Bahamas saw guard Mario Carey emerged as the third best scorer with a 21.3 average, while center Shaquille ‘Shaq’ Cleare was fifth in rebounding with 8.3 per game. Point guard Lourawls Nairn led the tournament with 7.0 assists and forward Winslo Barry was second in blocks with 2.0 per game.
Team Bahamas could easily finished on top of the standings, but both Bain and Bowleg felt the officiating made a big difference in the outcome. Cuba eventually won 88-74 over the Bahamas in the first game played in the tournament.
“The intention fouls called were really a big difference,” Bain pointed out. “We had six intention fouls called on us, which means they got two fouls and the ball back each time. So that was really a big difference.
“In fact, the technical director came afterwards and apologized for some of the fouls,” Bain said. “I don’t see Cuba being able to get any better, but we as a country with what we have out there can add 3-5 better players than what we had in Belize.
As the team prepare for the next round, Bain said he’s hoping that they will be able to include National Basketball Association (NBA) players Chavanno ‘Buddy’ Hield and DeAndre Ayton to their line-up when the Bahamas head to the Pan American Games from July 26 to August 11 in Lima, Peru.
“I think the team will look a whole lot different than what we had in Belize,” Bain claimed. “We will do a training camp before we head to the Pan Am Games in Peru.
“I think it’s going to be very important for the federation to put us in a position to get in at least 4-5 games to play before we go because we have to play teams like Argentina and the United States.”
Bowleg said as they prepare for the AmeriCup in November, the federation will certainly be substituting and adding some players to make Team Bahamas’ roster a lot stronger.
“We have the Pan American Games in between there where we will be playing against Canada and the United States and so we hope to put our best team forward in July so that we can get a good look at what we have going into November,” Bowleg said.
“We realize that every tournament we go to, we have to adjust our roster. The guys who played in this tournament were the right guys. Some will move on and some will not. But the players all understand that because we have to improve as we move on from one tournament to the next.”
Based on what he saw in Belize, Bain said he would give himself and his staff a B grade because he believes that there are still some things that they could improve on.
“It’s a learning process. There are some things that we will take from this to make us better,” he insisted. “So for my first time as the head coach, I’m, really happy that we got the Bahamas to go to another level.
“Cuba got away from us this time, but my goal is to beat Cuba. We have to get Cuba when we face them again.”
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID