by Dave Delgado
Guam - In basketball news, our men's national basketball team left island yesterday morning, heading to New Zealand to compete in the 2013 FIBA Pacific Championships. Team Guam is sending a roster of 10 players to the tournament including former BYU standout and retired European professional player Mikeli Wesley along with the return of Deandre Walker.
E.J Calvo, Head Coach, said, "We are going to see all the South Pacific Games opponents down there. Some of our rivals like Samoa and New Caledonia as well as New Zealand and Australia who are sending teams to that tournament. We have a great mix of guards, one of the strongest guard team that I've seen represent Guam. We've got speed and shooters that have pretty god range and extremely confident scorers, some of the best scorers in this generation with J.P Cruz, Joe Blas, Willie Stinnett and now Earvin Jose, a young kid coming out who has good three-point ability so I'm really pleased with the squad. We have good size, Deandre Walker coming back as well as Mikeli Wesley rejoining and making his debut with the Guam National Team both play post positions and give us a big boost with defensive rebounding."
With the addition of some young and more experienced players on the team this year's squad will continue to rely on their scrappiness and will to represent the island.
Seve Susuico with Team Guam said, "The strengths on our team is always heart, we are always the smallest team out there so when it comes to size we don't really match up very well but when it comes to speed and heart those are the things we use the most. We have a core of about 5 or 6 guys that have constantly been there with the guys coming in and out, some younger guys and veteran guys coming back and playing for us. With this trip we have a couple of older guys coming in and bringing more experience and a couple of guys that are bringing more size and then we are bringing a couple of younger guys to get more experience for future tournaments as well."
Earvin Jose with Team Guam said, "As a kid growing up a looked up to a lot of these guys when they were in high school and having the opportunity to play with them now is a great experience and hopefully throughout this tournament, my first international for men's it will help develop me as a player and it will help me improve and I can help bring it to the next new comers coming through."