IT’S NO SLAM DUNK that Barbados will make it through their next hoops tournament.
The national squads are going to be up against it just to advance to the semi-final round of next year’s Caribbean Basketball Confederation’s (CBC) Senior Championships after both men’s and women’s teams were drawn in highly-competitive groups.
Long-time CBC president Usie Richards revealed the draws earlier this month ahead of the regional tournament in Tortola – slated for June 24 to July 4 – where the men’s team have been pooled with defending champs United States Virgin Islands, hosts British Virgin Islands and Guyana in Group B.
And their chances look even better than those of their female counterparts, who are rated below each of their Group A counterparts United States Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic and Bahamas – teams that finished in the top five of the last Caribbean tourney.
According to Richards, the brackets were based on the final standings of both the last regional tournaments in 2011 as well as both of last year’s Centrobasket championships in Puerto Rico.
“I don’t think the men are really that difficult. Once we are able to handle the crowd and play the home team well, then we have a real shot to get into the semis,” said Barbados Amateur Basketball Association president Derrick Garrett when asked about the draws.
“But the women have a very tough task ahead of them because those are three very good teams they have to play.”
The women might consider themselves very unfortunate not to have been placed in Group B with relative lightweights Guyana and St Vincent, who have been grouped with regional powerhouses Jamaica and Trinidad.
But they’ve probably paid the price for not contesting a tournament since 2008 when the girls finished seventh at the Centrobasket championship in Puerto Rico.
At least the men have been able to avoid perennial powers Cuba and Bahamas – the two teams expected to advance out of Group A which includes minnows Antigua and St Vincent.
And they’ve been lucky to do such after being forced to miss the 2011 senior championships, the first regional tournament the men missed.This was directly following three successive poor showings, including a fifth and two sixth-place performances at the 2005, 2007 and 2009 tournaments respectively.
However, the men appear to be on a serious rebuilding plan, having acquired the services of one-time NCAA Division I Collegiate guard Brian Good as head coach.
The women may also get a major lift from a couple overseas-based college players like University of Pennsylvania Division I freshman forward Sade Gibbons, who had expressed interest in playing for Barbados.