Ravens, Pacesetters gear to lead Georgetown's challenge

Ravens, Pacesetters gear to lead Georgetown’s challenge

Mar 05, 2009 Sports

Focuses on having the NLE title remain in the City

Robert Cadogan

By Edison Jefford
Undoubtedly Georgetown’s two leading clubs, Courts Pacesetters and Dyna’s Ravens are already lacing their sneakers and putting the final systems in place to lead the City clubs against their established Linden nemeses.
Ravens and Pacesetters are the only City teams to compete in the final of the Next Level Entertainment (NLE) Championships and will certainly spearhead Georgetown’s rivalry this year after topping the respective Leagues.
After an unexplained declaration of Pacesetters on top of the most recent seeding table in Georgetown, Ravens’ eyebrows were raised and the club was basically clueless as to how they were replaced in the last standing.
The issue became an underlying internal ‘bone of contention’ which led Kaieteur Sport to seek clarification. The result was that the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association used the international ranking system.
According to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), in cases of a tie for the top position in an affiliate ranking system, the most aggregate points tallied from the games played is then used to determine the top two seeds.

In other words, Pacesetters bettered Ravens on tallied points after both teams completed the same amount of Games. Ravens had a solid summation on why they were confused about their number two ranking in Georgetown.
Pacesetters lost one game in two rounds of seven games against Pepsi Sonics and won the deciding game against Ravens, who thrashed Sonics. Both teams ended the tournament with one loss but Pacesetters had more points.
“Pacesetters played better defence than us. We did not execute good in the last quarter of the game [against Pacesetters],” an impressive Ravens Head Coach, Lugard Mohan told this newspaper in a recent interview.
Mohan, a former Caribbean basketball Allstar and national captain, is quickly making his mark on the local coaching scene, which was recognised last year when he landed the Supligen Senior Allstar coaching assignment.
Because the fixture of the tournament was released before the conclusion of the League, Mohan believed that his second place seeding has nothing to do with how they enter the NLE competition that starts tomorrow night.

“According to what I understand, this [League] tournament seeding has nothing to do with the seeding for NLE because if they are to use the last seeding, I believe we will be ranked lower because we did not play,” he assumed.
In other words, Ravens are not keen on paying too much attention to the ranking but rather the team is more bent on their performance in each tournament. Mohan said that they will be approaching each NLE game individually.
“I still think we are the better team even though we did not have a place to practice and had to do with whatever little practice we had. Still, we are going into this competition with our heads up in the air,” Mohan held.
Ravens were the first Georgetown club to contest the final of the lucrative NLE event in 2006 when they lost to Linden’s Kashif and Shanghai Kings. Pacesetters took adequate retaliation for the City the following year.
Head Coach of the Courtssponsored team, Robert ‘Bobby’ Cadogan told this newspaper that the Georgetown teams in the competition will represent the City with distinction in the upcoming saga at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

He said that he will not ‘blow his own horn’ but believes that the ‘writing is on the wall’ for the other teams, especially against his Pacesetters.
“Courts have spoken and they have spoken clearly,” the former national coach said.
“I am looking ahead to preparing some of the younger talent. I have placed emphasis on defence and it has definitely made us better. I have a committed bunch of guys that are determined,” the sombre Cadogan added responsibly.
The former national player and one of two FIBA accredited coaches in Guyana together with Kings’ Abdullah Hamid, believes that Ravens and Pacesetters have set the tone for an intriguing rivalry between the two opposing towns.
The NLE Basketball Championships, which gets underway tomorrow night, will attract the top teams in Georgetown in a playoff against the leading clubs in Linden in a tough battle for a whopping $300,000 first place prize.
The competition usually attracts the biggest financial purse for any basketball event in the country with the second place team taking home $200,000, third place $100,000 and fourth place $50,000 along with other prizes.

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