By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WITH Yolett McPhee-McCuin committed to her new role as head coach for the Ole Miss University women’s basketball programme, the Bahamas Basketball Federation has named Wayde Watson as the interim coach of the women’s national basketball team.

Watson, who will be assisted by Varel Clarke-Davis, will head the team that will represent the Bahamas at the Caribbean Basketball Confederation’s FIBA Women’s Caribbean Cup, scheduled for June 17-21 in Paramaribo, Suriname.

The Bahamas will be placed in Group A where they will play Cuba at 4:30pm on Sunday, June 17 and the Virgin Islands on Monday, June 18 at the same time.

The first and second place teams from Group A and B, comprised of Guyana, Barbados and Dominica, will advance to the semi-finals and final that will take place June 20-21.

Following that tournament, the FIBA AmeriCup 2021 Caribbean Pre-Qualifier will take place, but the Bahamas is not included in the list of teams that will play June 24-30.

Watson is one of the top coaches in the New Providence Women’s Basketball Association with the Super Value Cybot Queens, assisted by Mario Bowleg on the men’s national basketball team that played in the first two rounds of the Americas Qualifiers in November and February.

He said after McPhee-McCuin was unavailable because of her transition from Jacksonville University to Ole Miss, he was asked by the federation to be the interim head coach and he gladly accepted.

“I don’t follow women’s basketball at the regional level, but having coached women’s basketball for 11 years at the senior level, except last year, I feel good about it,” he said.

“I feel it’s a good opportunity to lead the team at the international level, along with coach Varel Davis, who has been a fixture on the team as a player and a coach. So it’s an overwhelming feeling.”

Watson, however, said it’s going to be hard to follow in the shoes of McPhee-McCuin, who has done a tremendous job since she took over the programme in 2013, guiding the Bahamas to the CBC’s CentroBasket Championship title in 2016 over Jamaica.

“I don’t want to let the country down, so I’m hoping I can get the players to advance to the next level,” Watson said. “I’m definitely going to put my best foot forward and I hope that the ladies will give me their all and believe in the philosophy that I bring.”

With not much time to get the team ready, Watson said he intends to start the practises as early as Friday at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium. He’s hoping that all those players who are returning home from college in the United States and Canada will be able to come out and work out with the locally based players.

However, he said it would have been good to have the services of Women’s National Basketball Association players Waltiea Rolle and Jonquel Jones, but they both will be unavailable as Rolle is heading back to school to complete her degree and Jones is starting her third season in the WNBA with the Connecticut Sun.

“Once the players come in, I have a practice plan to get them in the best shape to play,” he said. “I have a philosophy for my teams and so I will see which players can mesh with that strategy and then I will go from there.”

While he will serve as the interim head coach for the team, Watson said he intends to engage the services of some of the former coaches of the women’s programme.

With Watson moving to the women’s programme, it means that the federation could be looking at making some changes to the men’s team that will play against the US Virgin Islands on Friday, June 29 and the Dominican Republic on Monday, July 2.

The men’s team is currently 0-4 in the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup and will need to at least beat the US Virgin Islands to stay alive. A loss to both teams will end the Bahamas’ bid to continue on the road to Tokyo, Japan.

Bowleg, the first vice president of the federation, had indicated that he was planning on stepping down from coaching this year. It’s not known if he will continue with the two games in June and July.