James brothers, Moe, arrive ahead of FIBA World Cup Pre-Qualifiers
The international trio of Anthony Moe and siblings Gordon and Delroy James, arrived on local shores yesterday to feature as part of Guyana’s training programme for the impending FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 PreQualifiers.
This was disclosed by headcoach Junior Hercules during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport.
According to Hercules, the introduction of the aforementioned trio to the sessions will have a significant impact on the remaining preparation period.
“Having these three players join the team during training will positively impact team chemistry, offensive and defensive approaches,” said Hercules.
Guyana punched their ticket to the prestigious championship after securing the FIBA Americup 2021 Caribbean PreQualifier Championship.
Guyana defeated Antigua and Barbuda 83-70 in the grand finale of the event which was hosted in Suriname.
Hercules also disclosed that the final squad selection will be confirmed on Saturday, following the conclusion of the session which is programmed for 10am12pm.
The Guyana Men’s Senior Basketball team, which is the highest ranked unit participating in the first round of the event, will arrive in the Central American nation on April 12. They are expected to depart seven days later. The first round of qualifiers will be conducted utilising a group format, with the top three finishers progressing to the second round of qualifiers scheduled for July 2021.
Among the four teams that will compete in the first qualifying stage scheduled for April, the Guyanese are ranked 100. Guyana’s peak ranking of 98 was attained in November 2020. The other three nations, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and El Salvador, are ranked 106, 116 and 133 respectively.
Guyana’s reduced provisional roster features both local and overseas based players in Stanton Rose, Travis Belgrave, Akeem Crandon, Anthony Moe, Nikkoloi Smith, Yannick Tappin,
Timothy Thompson, Ray Victor, Shaine Webster, Terron Welch, Kevon Wiggins, Harold Adams, Jamal Gilkes, Israel Yaw,
Shelroy Thomas, Dominique Vincente and Jason Ramrattan.
Hercules is the head-coach while Alex Graham has been
confirmed as the Team Manager and Dennis Clarke the assistant coach.