Following their winless campaign in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Pre-Qualifiers in El Salvador, head-coach of the senior men’s team Junior Hercules disclosed that he is disappointed with the performance strictly from a behavioural perspective.
This was disclosed during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport yesterday following his return to local shores.
According to Hercules, “I am disappointed in the team performance purely from a behavioural standpoint. I believe an athlete’s behaviour is usually way ahead of one’s success.”
He did not elaborate.
“While we can examine the coaching and rightfully so, the coach should take full responsibility for the failure to advance. We expected much more from our athletes based on the fact that several game-winning opportunities for which we failed to take full advantage.”
Guyana suffered four consecutive losses in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Pre-Qualifiers to crash out of the tournament in the Central American nation.
The Guyanese went down to Nicaragua (84-73), Jamaica (107-87), El Salvador (92-90) and Costa Rica (78-75) at the José Adolfo Pineda National Gymnasium.
Asked how the GABF can build on this campaign despite failing to make the second round, Hercules said, “GABF, I believe, should focus on developing and exposing local talent with a direct path towards building the team’s current resource.”
Quizzed on what more needs to be done locally for Guyana to be able to consistently compete and eventually get results, Hercules opined, “If I am using the model which proved successful in the 2018 championship run, GABF will need to invest in a specific tour leading up to a big tournament with the hope of better understanding which player(s) management staff works well with the intended system and resource.”
He added, “The Guyana team competed with almost all the teams in the tournament. In fact, the Guyana basketball team only lost to Costa Rica by two points with seconds remaining playing with only nine players. In my opinion, we have a few strategic changes that are necessary for the areas of local talent development, local tournament and regional tournament, coaching, composition, and the management structure responsible for athlete/players wellbeing.”
Hercules said that a detailed review of the tournament might be conducted, adding that the GABF is working on several initiatives which will aid the overall quality of the programme.
He explained, “While I cannot exclusively speak for the entire executive, I am of the opinion that a review will be conducted from the reports provided by the coaching staff, team manager and key personnel. The following are also on the 2021 agenda, national club championship, coaching clinics, review of GABF constitution, outreach programmes and fund-raisers to help aid in improving the GABF assets.”
