Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
THE national basketball team are looking to stay competitive when they compete at the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup Pre-Qualifiers for the Southeast Asian sub-zone in Thailand - their first ever appearance at the competition.
Brunei will open their campaign in the June 26-30 six-team tournament against hosts Thailand on Tuesday before taking on Indonesia the next day.
The Sultanate will then face Singapore followed by Cambodia and close out the competition against Malaysia on Saturday.
Only the top four teams will advance to the next round which is slated to be held in September.
It will be a difficult task for Brunei considering their opponents have had better preparations in terms of having competitive games outside.
In contrast, the Sultanate only contested in a local four-team tournament which comprised of other local talents and top Filipino players.
Regardless, captain Ben Sim hopes that they can keep it competitive against their regional opponents.
“We will do the best we can with what we got. Our expectations is to make our games competitive,” said Sim in an interview with BruSports News yesterday.
“All we know is every match is an uphill battle for Brunei and we shall do our best to compete in every game we are in,” he added.
Brunei were offered help with the arrival of Long Island Nets assistant coach Damian Cotter from May 30 - June 20 in preparing the national cagers for the challenge.
It may be a short time but Sim felt that they had done all they could.
“Coach Cotter has helped us a lot in the short period of time with us; implementing a system we could follow and a philosophy we have adapted to,” said Sim.
“It would have been great to have more time to learn from a professional like him, but he has his commitments with the NBA G League and we wish him nothing but the best,” added the 32-year-old.
“Our preparations have been good but I always feels we could have done more. However, we did the best we could to prepare ourselves for the competition with the limited time we had,” continued Sim.
The national captain also went on to thank the BBA, the national selection pool of players who could not make it to Bangkok as well as the supporters who have faith in the team for making the trip worth it.
Besides Sim, the other players who complete the roster are Md Zainul Ashyraf Hj Hussin, Benjamin Lim, Simon Chong, Ahmad Termizi Hj Noordeen, Soon Kian Leong, Tan Ye Wei, Gideon Fong, Han Ming Kwong, Khoo Chin Kai, Chong Kah Hou and Onn Jen Hao.
