Falmouth Saints set sights on 2023 NBL title
Published:Friday | April 14, 2023 | 1:22 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
Captain and starting point guard for the Falmouth Saints, Dave Black, believes his team is in a solid place to make a big impact when the country’s National Basketball League (NBL) tips off in May following a three-year break. The veteran point guard who will be playing in his eighth season added that the NBL provides an avenue for players like himself to showcase their talents against not only the best from Kingston, but the other top players in the country.
“The National Basketball League (NBL) is good for players like myself who are from the Western Conference and don’t get a lot of chances to play against players in Kingston or other parishes, so we now get a chance to showcase our talents against the entire country in the NBL,” he added.
The Falmouth Saints will be part of the country’s premier competition for just the second time and according to Black they had a sluggish start to the preparation phase ahead of the season, but things have looked brighter in the last few days.
“Things started off a bit slow in terms of getting the guys back together because we’ve been out of basketball for a long while, but over the past week or so, we’ve started off our training and it has picked up and has been going good,” Black, the team’s captain, said.
Black stated this his team has a perfect blend of youth and experienced players, and he is hoping that the younger players will use the league as a stepping stone in order to attract attention which could either land them a national spot or a spot on an E1CBL (Elite 1 Caribbean Basketball League) roster for next season.
“I’m now a senior player and a past national player. So for our current team it (the league) provides a platform for the young players to show their talents and try and make the national team or an E1CBL roster,” Black said.
Black added that for him a successful season would be one which has the Saints among the final two teams remaining at the end of the season.
“The last season we had would have been in 2018 where we were undefeated in eight games so I think we would want to start this season on that same note. We are going out there to win (the NBL) and playing in the finals would be a success for our team,” he said.