PAPUA NEW GUINEA (FIBA U15 Oceania Championship) - The Guam U15 Men's team will travel to Port Moresby to participate in the upcoming FIBA U15 Oceania Championship on December 4-8 in Papua New Guinea.

Head Coach Brent Tipton and FIBA connected via email to discuss the preparation of Guam for the tournament which will be the first phase of qualification for the FIBA U15 Oceania Championship.

How is the preparation for the tournament going on so far?

We started our team training the last week of August and have been progressing since. Now, in our final stage of preparation, we have been training five days a week for the past month. We are honing in on our execution both in Transition Offense and Defense and Half-court Offense and Defense.

What are things you are focusing on in terms of your game plan in regards to the competition?

We are focusing on playing with pace and space offensively, whether that’s speeding up the game and attacking “one-second counts” or slowing things down and being able to execute out of our half-court sets. Defensively, we want to shrink the floor applying a lot of ball pressure in transition and disruptive man pressure in the half-court.

What will be the next steps for you and the team in the lead up to the event?

We are making sure all of our players are physically healthy and mentally refreshed before we depart. The training schedule has been very rigid, so we are focused on making sure our players are ready to compete physically, mentally and emotionally.

Are there any scheduled tune-up games? If yes, against which countries/team(s)?

We do not have any scheduled tune-up games. We have been able to get great game-like scenarios in our practices to mimic the game situations the boys will face at the Oceania Championships.

What do you think will be the strengths or weaknesses of the team?

I think our biggest strength as a team is our “togetherness.” These boys play hard for each other. They all have bought into their role, and they understand that each of their roles is absolutely necessary to our team’s success. Our weakness is definitely our youthfulness. We have several 13 and 14-year-olds on our team. Although we get a tremendous amount of effort out of them, they still make the mistakes young players make. The Oceania Championships will greatly help them in their maturation process of being a player.

How big of an impact do you think will the tournament be for the players?

We talk daily of representing 166,182 people on our island of Guam. Every time we take the court to practice we reinforce that today’s practice we represent 166,182 people. Not only do we represent our island in the Oceania Championships but we represent them in practice, while we travel, and how we perform on the court. This has impacted them in that they realize we represent something bigger than ourselves. It’s a tremendous honor to represent Guam and compete in the Oceania Championships

Are there players to look out for, in your team? Why do you think they can make a huge difference in the tournament?

We don’t necessarily have a star player on our team that we can rely on to carry us either offensively or defensively. Any success we might have will be a result of a complete team effort from our starting 5 to our bench rotation. We do have a couple of players who have stepped into leadership roles by leading vocally and leading by example. Elijah Garrido and Matthew Santos will be two players whom we will look to lead in this way. Both understand and embrace their role and contribute significantly to our team by being the best in their role.

Which team do you think will be the favorites?

Our toughest opponent will always be the team we play next. We have a tremendous amount of respect for each country we will compete against knowing they too have worked hard over the last several months to put themselves in a position to be successful. Of course, Australia and New Zealand are world-class programs, and we always look forward to competing against them, knowing we are going up against the best in the world.

What are your expectations for the tournament?

Our expectation for this tournament is that we continue to get better from game to game. This has been our focus over the last several months of practice: to get better each day. We feel we can be successful in controlling our attitude, effort and focus knowing the score will take care of itself. We understand each country is bringing their best, as we are bringing our best to compete. We know this will be a life-changing experience for our players and we want them to use this opportunity to help them grow as young men.
What are your thoughts on the possibility of joining either the Division A or Division B of the U16 Asian Championships?

This new competition model is awesome for small countries like ours, and we are grateful that there are these opportunities. It’s so important that we continue opening doors for future generations of Guam Youth basketball players by competing well in this Oceania Championships. Guam Basketball Confederation has worked tirelessly over the last year to make sure this is a reality for our youth players.

Do you want to add anything before the competition starts on Tuesday (December 4)?

We would like to thank EJ Calvo, president of the Guam Basketball Confederation for his support and belief in this team. He has put in a tremendous amount of labor into Guam Basketball, and our youth teams are reaping those benefits.  We want to thank the parents of our players for the commitment to our program. They have been just as dedicated as our players have been.  We would like to thank the many coaches and programs who have previously invested in the players prior to them being selected for our U15 National team.