The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

It’s not how you start, nor how you get there. Most importantly, it’s how you finish

• The Finish Line, a weekly column, seeks to comment on the state of affairs in local sports, highlighting the highs and the lows, the thrills and the spills and the successes and failures.

THE WEEK THAT WAS

IT was one of those could have, should have performance for the men’s national basketball team.

There’s no way, with the talent that they had, that they should not and could not have done better than the seventh place finish they turned in at the CentroBasket tournament in Panama.

So what went wrong?

There are so many questions to be asked after watching the team lose their opener to the British Virgin Islands, a team that the Bahamas has enjoyed so many successes over the years.

Then, when you consider the talent assembled and the way the team played, how could they have lost such large leads as they did in losing games to both the Dominican Republic and Mexico.

The team - coached by Mario Bowleg - saved their best performance, showing a lot of pride, by routing Nicaragua by 43 points.

Bowleg apparently sat on the bench in the last game as Norris Bain, one of the two assistant coaches, coached the team. DeAndre Ayton didn’t suit up to play, nor did Jaraun ‘Keno’ Burrows and Tharan Cox.

From all indications, the latter two players were injured and with the game having no meaning in the standings, except for bragging rights, a decision was made not to play Ayton.

The 7-foot centre is a high school sensation in the United States for Hillcrest Prep in Arizona. He is considered the best long-term prospect in high school basketball coming out in the 2017 class and could eventually land a collegiate gig for Kansas.

Ayton, 17, came on as a last minute addition to the team, but made a huge difference in the middle as he was a towering figure for the Bahamas on both ends of the court, scoring on the inside and outside and blocking shots on his opponents.

Listening to the commentators during the live broadcast of the games, all they were talking about was Ayton and how much he impacted the game.

For some reason, it didn’t seem as if the Bahamas’ coaching staff, which also included Wayde Watson and Kevin ‘KJ’ Johnson, utilised Ayton as much as they should have.

There were also some concerns about the language uttered from Bowleg as he instructed the players during their time outs as the microphones were placed on the team.

Bowleg, a former player for the AF Adderley Fighting Tigers, is indeed an excellent coach who has won using those tactics at the high school level with the CC Sweeting Cobras and the women’s league with the Career Builders Lady Cheetahs.

I would think you need a calmer approach in dealing with the men on the national team. But that’s the style of coaching that Bowleg is used to and I’m not sure if he’s prepared to change right now.

Even though we didn’t have Buddy Hield in the line-up, I still believe that we had a very solid team in Panama that could have and should have, if not win the tournament, at least played much better than they did.

Bowleg said the federation would have to look at restructuring the team after qualifying for the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games with the seventh place finish.

There are a lot of players who are playing on the collegiate scene and overseas in various professional leagues, who could fit into the equation as the federation looks ahead to qualifying for the Tournament of Americas and eventually the 2020 Olympic Games.

But there is still a lot more work to do done at both the coaching level and in the inclusion of the team players. It can’t just be a different coaching staff this year and another one next year.

Just like putting a core group of players together and working with them over a period of time, the coaching staff has to be a little more consistent or the players won’t buy into the system.

THE WEEK AHEAD

SOME of our athletes and swimmers are all sitting on pins and needles as they wait on the final decision on the selection of Team Bahamas for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Following the national championships by both the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations and the Bahamas Swimming Federation, the Bahamas Olympic Committee will have the task of completing the ratification of Team Bahamas.

The swimmers have until the end of the Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships this weekend at the Betty Kelly Kenning Swim Complex before they know who will be invited by FINA and who will not make it. And the athletes have until July 11, one day after the Blue Marlins Track Classic is staged at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium, before the IAAF completes its list of participants.

So there’s still some breathing room for our swimmers and athletes before the window closes on their participation in the Rio Olympics August 5-21.