National team accentuate the positives

(Top) Kenny Lim (L), defends
Muiz Abd Ghani in a training session yesterday. (Above) National coach Kevin Reece at a training session in Berakas, yesterday. Pictures: BT/Yee Chun Leong

Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

FOR a national team which failed to make the semi-finals of the recently concluded BBA Open Challenge Trophy, the atmosphere in camp is surprisingly upbeat.

Playing under the banner of Soon
Lee-Easyway, the national team opened their account with a demolition of Al-Ssarah Eagles by an 86-point margin (132-46) and then completely destroyed Ford by 120 points in a 162-42 win.

However, the good times were not going to last forever. Two lacklustre performances later,a 99-84 loss to Babes Boutique, followed by a 68-54 defeat at the hands of Ilonggo Stingers saw their confidence slump and their title aspirations end.

"My players and coaching staff are not living up to other people's expectations. This is a marathon and not a sprint. There is no easy solution, we have to start from the ground up as we only had 21 sessions before the competition," said Kevin Reece, the national basketball coach, in an interview with The Brunei Times, yesterday.

"The players are still learning the system. They are slowly developing and improving but we need more positiveness instead of the negativity. Some people see the team as having a lack of talent but we have proven that we can compete against the top teams in the country," added Reece.

"We lost to the previous champions and the eventual finalists.We had the toughest group against the best teams but we didn't get blown out," continued the 49-year-old coach.

The LA Lakers fan also thanked the community for being supportive of his programme. Read More...

Source: The Brunei Times