GUYANA’S National Men’s Basketball coach Darcel Harris believes the side he commands needs additional technical work as the players intensify training ahead of the Caribbean Basketball Confederations Championships.The CBC Championships now dubbed the ‘Caribbean Cup’ is scheduled to be held next month in the British Virgin Islands.
The executive committee of the CBC decided to create a unique trophy cup for the Caribbean Cup. CBC vice-president of Finance and Marketing, Patrick Haynes from Guyana, designed the trophy for the 2015 CBC Senior Championships for Men and Women.
It will be presented to the Caribbean Men and Women Champions for the first time following the finals on June 12 for women and June 21 in Tortola.
Harris recently led the side to three straight wins against Bermuda in a Goodwill Series hosted at home then lost a three-game series 2-1 to Suriname.
Speaking with the man in charge, he said, “With a month to go we still have pretty much a lot of work to do based on the recent series with Suriname. I think the work that we have to do is more technical than physical; our fitness level is quite okay but technically – we weren’t technically correct and we didn’t execute like we wanted.”
Harris believes Guyana will be comfortable in their up-tempo style of basketball due to the fact that Guyanese players are often under-size.
This, unfortunately, he mentioned, makes for more turnovers but the coach insists they expect about three turnovers maximum from their point guard.
However, he disclosed that the team averages a turnover rate of about 20 per game which needs to be addressed immediately.
According to Harris, the main area of focus heading into the championships is clutch ball; getting players to show their experience and adjust to game situations to make the clutch shots instead of turning possession over.
“I think that we need to go to the coach’s board and set plays, game situations to show what we’re going to do and how it has to be executed.
One of the problems we are having is that the basketball IQ of players; even if you call a play it’s not a hundred percent guaranteed that it’s going to work just like the coach says, but at times you need to exercise proper judgment and see what you get from it instead of making a turnover because the coach says, ‘play this’,” Harris revealed.
The national coach applauded the team’s preparation for this year and thanked the support of the federation for ensuring the fine-tuning of the players.