ABL: Barracudas release all imports

THE Brunei Barracudas want to swim to a fresh start.

The manager of Brunei's first professional basketball side said that the team have released all five of their imports and will be focusing on developing local talent for next season's Asean Basketball League (ABL).

The team's season ended on Sunday when they fell 87-65 to the Philippine Patriots at the Ynares Sports Arena in Manila.

A win for them would have seen the Bruneians through to the play-offs.

"It is not that their contracts were terminated, they were always signed for only until the end of the season," Benny Ang told The Brunei Times yesterday.

"They all came back with us from the Philippines and they will be allowed to stay, meet the fans for as long as they want.

"Next for the Barracudas, we are going to spend the off-season preparing the locals for next season. Our priority now is to whip the locals into shape.

"We are going to put them through the paces and see who can step up. We are going to bring it back to basics, the fundamentals like defence and stamina.

"This year they just weren't ready, and they will be the first to admit it," he added.

The imports Filipinos Don Camaso, team captain Francis 'Kiko' Adriano, Leo Avenido, American Reggie Larry and Australian Simon Conn will be revaluated and the team's management will decide if they should be re-signed.

Despite the loss to the league leaders on Sunday, Ang said that the Barracudas could still walk with their heads high.

"I think we have to take a step back. The expectations were unreasonable," said Ang.

"We were playing the Patriots on their own turf and they hadn't lost at home all season. I am not disappointed we lost the game, we gave it our all we really did.

"Brunei have not achieved anything (in basketball) at the Southeast Asian level and after we beat them the last time, they were ready for us," said the Barracudas manager.

The Barracudas caused a major upset when they beat the Patriots 95-70 at the Indoor Stadium of the Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex in Berakas on Dec 13, handing the Filipinos only their second defeat of the season.

It was a different scenario on Sunday though, especially with the Patriots fielding their new American import Gabriel Freeman.

The 6-foot-6 Freeman, who replaced compatriot Brandon Powell, previously played for the San Miguel Beerman in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) and was named the PBA's Best Import of the Conference last year.

Freeman scored a game-high 20 points and pulled down 19 rebounds on Sunday for his second straight double-doubles since joining the Philippine side.

"He is of a different class. With him on their side, nobody is going to beat the Patriots," claimed Ang.

"I know the fans are blaming the loss on Mike's (Pilgrim) departure, but it would have been no difference if he was there," said Ang.

The manager was referring to the release of centre Mike Pilgrim just two days before the match, the American who scored a game-high 20 points when the Barracudas beat the Patriots.

Fired because of disciplinary reasons, the team brought in Australia's Conn to replace Pilgrim for the last game of the season. The Australian came up with a 10-point and four-rebound performance.

Ultimately, Ang felt that too much pressure was placed on the team.

"If we take a step back, we will notice that this was the first season for us and we started with nothing," said Ang.

"Everyone thinks we are better than we really are.

"(At first) everybody expected us to only win one or two games, so I think we have been a victim of our overachievement," added the team manager.The Brunei Times