Newell says Guyana’s success depends on fitness

Jul 20, 2011 Sports

– Men’s B/ball team closer to historic CBC return

By Edison Jefford
United States of America former NBA Coach, Tom Newell, believes Guyana’s success at the upcoming Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championships will depend heavily on players’ physical conditioning and fitness in crunch-time.
Newell, who has extensive experience as an NBA Scout, Coach and Assistant Coach, spoke to Kaieteur Sport via telephone yesterday. He said that the final minutes of games will be critical for Guyana, which is often the situation at the highest level.
“Just depends on their conditioning. The last five or six minutes will be critical for the country. Their (the players) fitness will be tested,” Newell said, adding that other areas such as defence and team work are also important for Guyana to succeed.
The former NBA Coach, and now International Olympic Committee (IOC) Course Conductor, was talking to this newspaper from his Summer Camp in the United States following a Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) Press Conference.
“Final success will come from their defence and being able to play defence always depends on a high level of fitness; they must also work together, share ball and always believe that they’re one team,” Newell dished out as valuable advice to the team. Newell had conducted a Level I Course for Coaches in Guyana earlier this year.
The weeks of preparation and training the team underwent will be tested from Saturday when the Guyana makes a historic return to the CBC Championships with a ninety-nine percent Guyanese-based unit in a decade. Guyana was represented at the Championships in Puerto Rico in 2007 but that composition was an entire United States-based team.
Point Guard, Kerron McKenzie is the only US-based player on the 2011 team that is also without Andrew ‘Ball Eye’ Ifill. Guyana travels to the Caribbean Championships in the Bahamas through Jamaica aboard Caribbean Airlines tomorrow morning.
“It has cost us in excess of $4M to send this team to the Bahamas, but we were determined that it was necessary for Guyana to be exposed to such levels of competition. I’m confident that we will finish in the upper tier of our group,” GABF President, David Patterson said.
Patterson believes that the team is well prepared. He said that the GABF ensured that preparation was one of its priorities ahead of the Championship. National Coach, Robert Cadogan shared the similar sentiments yesterday at the Water Chris Hotel.
The CBC Championships is the stepping stone for Guyana’s qualification for the CentroBasket Championships, World Championships and Olympic Games. Success at the event advances the winning team to the FIBA sanctioned CentroBasket contest.
Carey Griffith, Brain Street Group, Spads Inc., Goodwood Racing Services, Bank of Guyana, the Guyana Bank of Trade and Industry, Raffique Construction, McPherson Foundation, the Guyana Water Inc., Western Union, and the Guyana Olympic Association, were identified as some of the individuals and companies that supported the national basketball team.

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