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Basketball's next great player may emerge on the team's tour to Toronto.

A select team will be in Canada for a three-day tournament.

Guard Steven Simons said: "They should be pretty stacked teams so I expect much tougher competition this time around. They don't like it when we come up there and beat up on them so they'll probably stack them this time."

He said this tournament is important as some of the newer guys on the team get a chance to improve and show what they can do.

"Every time we go to Toronto, somebody new comes out of the mold. Last year it was Johnny Minors who grabbed a spot on the national team while the year before it was Jason Lowe and Damon Saunders. It's a really good developmental tool for some of the young guys to show what they can do against stiffer competition.

Jason Simons, Steven's brother, said: "We're going to do real well with the guys that we have right now." The team is scheduled to play a minimum of three guys and Jason is quietly confident that Bermuda can make a clean sweep of the competition.

Dean Jones, power forward, said these games would help prepare the team for bigger tournaments.

"This tournament will help get the new guys on the same page. There are a lot of new guys on the team so it's important that we all know how to play together so once we go to the Island Games we're prepared."

Jones has been with the national team since it competed in Gibraltar in the Island Games, knows the importance of teamwork. Locally he plays for three-time league champs St. George's International.

He said the Toronto tournament would help him.

"I want to come out and be more aggressive than I have been in the past. I'm going to try and step my game up."

Steven added: "Basketball is really growing in Bermuda. We have the Toronto trip, the Island Games and we're apparently looking at the Caribbean Championships next year so the sport is progressing well. "We're getting much better as a team the more and more we play together.

Team

Chris Crumpler, Phil Davis, Dean Jones, Vernon Lambe, John Lee, Jason Lowe, Jonathan Minors, Lloyd Peterkin, Sullivan Phillips, Damon Saunders, Steven Simons, Jason Simons, Akil Smith and Kevin Stevens. Coaches: Roderick Spencer and Gavin Mackenzie.[[In-content Ad]]

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