The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Basketball Federation president Euguene Horton said they are pleased with the progress made by the men’s national basketball team in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Americas Qualifiers.

At the conclusion of window three in the first round in July, The Bahamas, coached by Mikhail McLean, advanced to the second round of the qualifiers as the ninth seed in the field of 12 countries. 

The others are top seeds Canada, followed by Brazil at number two, the United States of America at No.3, Uruguay at No.4, Argentina at No.5, Dominican Republic at No.6, Mexico at No.7, Puerto Rico No.8, Panama No.10, Chile No.1 and Colombia No.12.

The Bahamas is matched in Group F with Canada, Uruguay, Argentina, Puerto Rico and Panama. Group E consists of Brazil. USA, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Colombia and Chile.

The Bahamas team, which is once again expected to include National Basketball Association players Chavano “Buddy” Hield of the Atlanta Hawks and Valdez “VJ” Edgecombe of the Philadelphia 76ers, will play its first game on the road against Uruguay on Thursday, August 27, in Uruguay.

The Bahamas’ first home game is all set to be played on Monday, August 31, against Panama and Horton said they will be counting on the Bahamian public to come out and support the team as they did in July.

"We're making progress. We have basically the same team with some additional players, so we should still have a very strong team," Horton said. 

"We will play a scrimmage against Chile and then go to Uruguay to play the first game and then come back here to play Panama."

For those interested in the Panama game, Horton noted that persons can log onto bbfbasketball.com or nsa-bahams.com to secure their tickets. 

In this second round, each team will play home-and-away against the three teams advancing from the other group, for a total of six games. Those games will be played across three windows scheduled for August 2026, November 2026 and February 2027, with each team playing two games per window. 

At the end of the six games for each team, the top three teams in each group, along with the best fourth-placed team, will earn a spot in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027. 

Although The Bahamas finished second in Group B ahead of Puerto Rico thanks to the three-way tiebreaker criteria, the team does not rank ahead of the Puerto Ricans here because Puerto Rico won both head-to-head meetings during these Qualifiers. Still, The Bahamas' 123-74 victory over Jamaica proved decisive in securing advancement with Edgecombe and Hield, along with former NBA player Kai Jones, now playing in Europe, leading the charge.

"VJ, Buddy and Kai are all committed to playing in these first two games. These first two are important. If we can win both of them, that would be good," Horton said.

"If we can split two, it would put us right where we need to be because going into the November and February matches, we won't have the availability of the NBA players."

After the first two played at the end of the month, The Bahamas will then play Argentina on Thursday, November 26, and Panama on Sunday, November 29, at sites yet to be announced.

The Bahamas will not play again until the final stage takes place over the weekend of Friday, February 26, against Uruguay and Monday, March 1, against Argentina. 

"If we can get a jumpstart on these first two games, it would definitely put us at an advantage for the rest of the games," Horton said.

"We don't expect to have all of our top players available for the November and February games, so we have to take advantage of the two games we have to play in Uruguay on August 27 and here at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium on Monday, August 31."

The BBF's coaching staff is still in the process of completing the makeup of Team Bahamas for the first two games at the end of the month.