McConathy to travel with team

The technical director of this country’s basketball team to the Caribbean championship in Jamaica later this month is American Mike McConathy.

He travels with the team instead of Grenadian Naka Joseph.

Conathy, who has a wealth of experience at the US college level goes in the capacity of technical director. Alrick Wright is head coach.{{more}}

This was a contentious issue which threatened the stability of the executive of the local basketball body.

The home based players travel this Friday to the northern Caribbean, two weeks ahead of the championship.

Those making the final cut are Oral Roberts -centre, Lezlo Mc Kenzie, Ishama Mc Ree, Randolph Williams – point guard, and Bradford Duncan-point guard and Kendall Pinder- centre.

The early travel is to allow acclimatization to indoor courts as well as to gel with overseas based players. Those from North America joining their countrymen are Shaun Browne-forward, Alexis Foyle-forward, Isaac King – centre, Delroy Barker-point guard, John Gardiner – centre and Shadrock Roome-forward.

Wright stated that the team was the best of available players, as others had academic commitments.

Wright is upbeat about the team’s chances of advancing to the second phase.

He cited the first match versus Antigua and Barbuda as critical.

Acknowledging that the team was about 60 per cent ready for the challenge, the head coach looked forward to the next two weeks to raise the team’s level of preparedness.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines also plays Cuba and The Bahamas in the preliminaries. The three top teams from the championship qualify for Centro Basketball tournament set for Panama in July.

The Vincentian contingent will train at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies June 2 -11 for the championship that runs from June 12-18.