Basketball team just didn’t match up on court – Harris

Caribbean Championship

Guyana Men’s Basketball team tactician Darcel Harris says poor on-court professionalism was the major contributing factor to his side’s dismal showing at the recently concluded Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championship in the British Virgin Islands.

Utilizing a team featuring only two overseas players, the local side finished in the cellar position of 10th, failing to win any fixture en route to their six losses. In the 2014 edition of the tournament, Guyana finished in the fifth position.

Speaking to Stabroek Sports following their arrival on local shores yesterday, he said “I think the guys really tried hard but we weren’t as professional on court like the other teams. The physical ability and size of the other teams got the better of us. We had glimpses of individual performances but we didn’t really get it together as a team”.

Darcel Harris
Darcel Harris

“We didn’t have the same maturity as the other teams, when the pressure got to us, we went for individual basketball instead of team basketball”, he said.

According to Harris “The last (Guyana) team had a couple of overseas players who would have contributed with the height and be able to match up, this time around we only had two overseas players. Gordon James got injured in the third game and that was a big loss and the other (Keron McKenzie) was well scouted and could not get off as well”.

Harris declared “What we also really lacked was the on court leadership. It is no way we could have matched the teams, they were bigger, faster and very professional about it. They had four coaches and we had two. As the coach I will take the blame but they players tried and there is no way we could have matched the other teams”.

“We also had five guys on debut but we were really looking for leadership from the guys that were there before but we didn’t get it” he added.

Asked what needs to be done to improve the sport locally, he said “These players are professional players, whose life is basketball, we simply can’t blame the locals. We are so far behind in terms of the level, unless we create a professional atmosphere and environment, we can’t catch up”.