The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AFTER losing out in a keenly contested showdown last year, the College of the Bahamas Caribs men’s basketball team is hoping to turn the tables on the Florida Memorial University Lions when they host a two-game series over the weekend of November 6-7 at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

Under the theme ‘Connecting Across Time and Space,’ the two games will be held as a part of COB’s initial Homecoming Celebrations and will be dubbed the ‘Battle Against Cancer Basketball Games’ as part proceeds will be presented to the Cancer Society of the Bahamas.

While COB’ president Dr Rodney Smith called it a “revenge” series of games, Rolle said the Caribs aim to put a beating on the Lions that they will remember for a long time. “We have been talking about it since last November,” said Rolle of their last encounter. “We believe that the game slipped away from us, but we have been working hard on getting back at them. Our guys understand the magnitude of it and so we will be ready.”

Rolle said they have acquired the services of 3-4 players whom he is confident will help to fill the void with the departure of a few players who graduated last year. They are Roman Davis, Kemsey Sylvestre, Davon Adderley and Jason Stubbs.

But he admitted that their biggest problem remains in the post where they just don’t have as many big players as he would like, so they will have to compensate with their speed. “We have a system rooted in defence,” Rolle said. “Last year we got away from really trying to push the ball inside. We need to get the ball inside and try to create an advantage. Our guards are smart and quick enough to try and out think some of the returning guards that I know Florida Memorial has. But I think we need to put more pressure on their bigs and really put them in foul trouble. They have a new coach, but they are returning bout 70-75 per cent of their players, so he may still have the same players, but their rotation might be a little different. So we just need to preserve our bigs because we don’t have too many bigs and not allow them to get into foul trouble.”

Rolle said he remembers how Sharon ‘The General’ Storr advised him that the Bahamas just doesn’t grow big players and so he will have to rely on his players’ quickness and sharp-shooting on the outside and they intend to do that with the new players they have acquired this year.

Smith said he is looking forward to the showdown between COB and FMU becoming an annual event as a part of their homecoming celebrations.

“We might even call it ‘A Battle Across the Seas’ because Florida Memorial was here last year and they just barely beat us by just a few points,” Smith said. “Our players showed really high class talent and expertise across the floor, determination. They worked very hard and I think we deserve this opportunity to come back and get this revenge.

“I could see this becoming an annual event, not always at Homecoming, but at some other time. It will always be a Battle Across the Seas that we can keep going. Florida Memorial has a good team, it’s a good institution, but I also think that the College of the Bahamas, as big and as we grow, will become highly competitive and we will be able to hold our own with any college or university team in our division.”

As the wife of coach Rolle, COB athletic director Kimberley Rolle joked that she advised her husband that if he intends to have a place to sleep, he needs to win.

“We expect to be very competitive,” she stated. “We have quite a few additions that we hope will make an immediate impact and so we expect that the team will be very, very competitive. Our challenge is always size, but we hope to use what we have to our advantage, which is our speed. So we will play a little more up tempo and try to get them a little more rattled and hopefully create a little more opportunities for us to win. We are prepared, we’ve worked hard and we are prepared to put on a really good show. We just hope the Bahamian public comes out and supports us because they see two really good games.”

This will be one of the few opportunities that the Bahamian public will get to see the Caribs in action at home against their collegiate and university counterparts because just about all of their games are played in the Florida area.

“So this will be an opportunity for the public to see how our players stack up against their peers,” Rolle said. “Last year, we almost had the gym filled and this year we expect to have it filled both nights. And we want the public to wear anything blue each night in support of the Caribs.

The games will be played at 7:30pm on both nights. Admission is free to all COB students with identification cards and $7 for COB employees with IDs. The general admission is $10 and $3 for children under 12.

Eslyn Jones, vice president of student affairs, said she’s excited about the work that Rolle has done with the Athletic Department and what excites her the most is these games will help to build the school spirit at COB so that the whole community can help in the promotion of the school.

“When our teams start to win, our teams will attract from them and we will have a lot of companies locally who will want to sponsor our teams and it will encourage our teams to do better and it will grow the athletic department,” she stated. “It will cost to be internationally and not just regionally known. So we will need the funding to push us even further as an institution.”