‘We have some work to do’: Hughes calls recent St Maarten tournament an eye opener

0
436
cluster5
The Antigua and Barbuda Under-21 Basketball Team recently competed in the Inter-island Invitational Basketball Tournament
- Advertisement -

By Neto Baptiste

Antigua and Barbuda Basketball Association (ABBA) head coach, George Hughes, has described a recent trip to St Maarten by the national under-21 men’s team as both an eye-opener and good yardstick by which to measure the players’ growth.

Antigua and Barbuda finished second in the recently concluded Inter-island Invitational Basketball Tournament with a record of two wins and one loss.

“It kind of highlighted that other countries were working while we were twiddling our fingers so we were kind of surprised at the level at which the other teams were playing, but we were able to play at that level as well even though we were on such short preparation time,” he said.

“We were planning to take some of the athletes who were affected by Covid and who were just on the cusp of probably going to college or going to high school. But because of Covid they had that two years where they didn’t play enough basketball so, realistically, we were trying to highlight them. So we were planning to go to Florida but the tickets and everything else were just too astronomical. I was of the mindset that we already put this in their minds so we had to find something for them to do,” he added. 

Hughes, who was speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show at the time, said one key area is game awareness, but ensured that measures will be employed to combat the issue.

“What we are missing is just the practical approach to competitive games in terms of training. The coaches are well knowledgeable of training techniques and we can get the athletes prepared. One of the other things is for the athletes to understand how to win as well. We are getting them to compete, but they need to know how to win because the game with St Maarten we actually had it won, but just some minor mistakes,” he said. 

The coach said work will commence following a brief hiatus.

“I had put some plans together for us to take a break and probably come back in September because we see some skillsets still lacking. Preliminary discussions with the executive and Mr Carl Knight will have to take place as it pertains to how we can get the athletes from the schools programme more involved in this national set up. More and more we see the competition going from under-19 downwards so we have to try and come on board and get the athletes at that age level prepared to go and compete,” Hughes said.

In their first game on Friday night, Antigua and Barbuda trounced St Eustatius 106-73 before going down to St Maarten 80-74 in overtime.

The national team then rebounded to beat St Kitts and Nevis 46-40 in their final game.

- Advertisement -