FORT COLLINS, Colorado -- Colorado State University men's basketball head coach Larry Eustachy welcomed 20 Bahamian players to Moby Arena on Friday afternoon as he and Bahamas Basketball affiliates opened a nine-day training camp for The Bahamas' senior men's national team on the school's campus in Fort Collins, Colorado.
"I'm really excited," said Eustachy, who was named head coach of The Bahamas' senior men's team in March of 2013. "We've got a short period of time to put a team together, but it's neat to have it, basically, on my home court. That takes that out of it, where we can get to the part that really counts, and that's figuring out what team to put together to give us our best chance to win."
The team is preparing for international competition at the upcoming Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championships, scheduled for July 1-5 in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. The Bahamas is one of four teams placed in Group 'A', alongside Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Cuba. Group 'B' consists of the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Guyana and Barbados.
Later this summer, the squad is also expected to compete at the Centrobasket Championships, a FIBA-sponsored tournament, which will be held in Tepic, Nayarit in west-central Mexico. The top four teams from Centrobasket will qualify for the 2015 Tournament of Americas, where they will compete against the top teams in the western hemisphere for a chance to qualify for the 2016 Olympics.
All of the tournaments are played under International Basketball Federation (FIBA) rules.
At Centrobasket, The Bahamas is expected to compete against teams from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Panama, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Mexico.
The training camp in Colorado will culminate on Saturday, June 28, and from there the team will make its way to Tortola. Prior to the CBC Championships, the team will be pared down to a roster of 12 players.
The 20 members at the training camp in Colorado are C.J. Hines, Marvin Grey, L.J. Rose, Mychel Thompson, Mitchell Johnson, Kadeem Coleby, Bennet Davis, "Chicken" Knowles, Magnum Rolle, Anwar Ferguson, Ray Rose, Archie Rose, Eugene Bain, Michael Carey, Dwight Coleby, Kentwan Smith, Scottie Ferguson, Rony Cadeau, C.J. Smith and Tavario Miller.Article courtesy of COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS

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