US CEO wowed by ballers’ talent

By Dwayne Gibbs dwaynegibbs@nationnews.com

PHD Hoops USA CEO Richie Schueler was extremely impressed by the extensive talent on display during the recently concluded Fast Break Tour. The tour saw an American Under-19 and Over-19 team visit Barbados between July 13 and 16 to play a series of exhibition games. It was the first time since 2019 the tour was held and Schueler was excited to return to Barbados for more local competition.

“I’ve said it many times before, but I truly believe the future of Barbados basketball in the Caribbean is incredibly bright. The young players coming up are talented, driven and extremely coachable. I’m so excited that the PhD Hoops Barbados Fast Break Tour was a success, and we look forward to coming back again and again,” Schueler told Sun Sport.

Schueler said he always welcomes any chance to visit Barbados and working with the president of the Barbados Amateur Basketball Association (BABA) Francis Williams.

“I love coming here and working with Francis and everyone involved with the local association. I’ve been coming here since 2016 and I really want to do my part in developing Barbadian basketball however I can help.”

Arvin Mosely Jr, who coached the Over-19 PHD Hoops team which lost their opening game 66-80 to the 246 Elite team, captained by Pinelands’ player Deroni Hurley, reiterated Schueler’s sentiments regarding the talent level of the young Barbadian basketballers.

Cool cultural exchange

“Adding the Barbados players to the tour was awesome. Not only were they talented players, they were great teammates. Such a really cool cultural exchange. Barbados is such a great basketball environment, and their players brought out the best in us. Love competing with them, while also learning from them and making new basketball friends.”

Former national player and Pinelands stalwart Charles Vanderpool was the overall coach of the Barbados unit and said he felt the tour was eye-opening to the local players, who faced a higher level of competition.

“I think these games showed that we have a lot of work to do. They showed that we are talented, but our players don’t understand the game enough. What we saw there in terms of our talent was that they played hard and gave a lot of effort, but we had a lot of lapses in terms of execution of plays and defensive pressure,“ noted the former national player.

“We have a long way to go but we have the talent. Now we need to put in the hard work because it goes beyond talent. I want the players to be more demanding of themselves,” he added The 246 Elite Under-19 team lost their opening game 60-100, affirming that there was a clear disparity in quality. The fundamentals in terms of finishing at the basket and defensive structure allowed the PHD Hoops Under-19 team to blow them out of the water.

Hurley spoke about how the lesser experienced players in his squad adapted over the four days of competition.

“I felt like a lot of them were nervous to start but once myself and some of the other experienced guys started to push the tempo, they adapted great. For the Under-19’s, it took a little longer for them seeing that most of their team haven’t yet played that type of competition.”

Happy for return

Williams said he was happy to see the return of the Fast break Tour as it was once an annual fixture before the COVID-19 disruption. He listed the various benefits of having the competition in Barbados.

“This type of event usually provides our young players the opportunity to play against foreign competition without having to travel. In addition to the competition, the exposure is invaluable because in this tour we had three foreign coaches and during the games, we were able to assess our players and we were in contact with multiple coaches as the games were going on.”

“Hopefully we get some of our players out to colleges and high schools abroad, and we hope the youngsters will continue to look forward and aspire to be a part of the competition in coming years.”

(with ball) from behind while

teammate Kirkland Miller looks on closely along with referee Richard Walrond. (Picture by Morissa Lindsay.)

(centre) attacks the basket against Jarren Nunez-Radden

(left)

and teammate Dawayne Lagrand of PhD Hoops Basketball team.

(Picture by Morissa Lindsay.)

(left) trying to stop PhD Hoops’ Jaylin Brown.

(Picture by Kenmore Bynoe.)