FIBA ranking Appearances None Appearances None Coach Marques Johnson Joined FIBA 1973 | FIBA zone FIBA Americas Medals None Medals None Location Belize | |
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The Belize national basketball team is the official national representative of Belize in international men's basketball, playing in the FIBA Americas division, and more specifically, within the Central American region.
Contents
Men
The men's team has little to no international experience. Its first major victory in international play came on home soil in the 1998 Caricom Men's Basketball Championship, held at the Civic Center in Belize City, Belize. Belize placed seventh of eight teams in the 1999 Centrobasquet Tournament in Havana after winning only one game despite playing close all the way. In a return engagement at the 2000 CARICOM Championship in Barbados, Belize placed fourth. Shortly after that, Belize moved to the Central American region and won the Central American Games championship in 2001. The team has failed to duplicate this success, most recently finishing with a 2 and 4 record in the 2006 COCABA Championship.
The team finished second in the 2009 COCABA tournament in Cancun, Mexico where it went 3–0 in group play despite allegations of fielding ineligible players. FIBA decided to treat the Belize National Team's games as unofficial and initially decided to disqualify them from the competition for having more than one naturalized citizen on their team. Belize won an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in April 2010, the players in question are Belizean by descent, not naturalization.
Belize won its opening match in the Centrobasquet Tournament, defeating Trinidad and Tobago, but lost badly to Mexico in a rematch of the COCABA final. A tough win over Cuba set Belize in a position to advance, but they fell to Puerto Rico in their final match and failed to qualify.
Current roster
At the 2010 Centrobasket: (last publicized squad)
Team members
Front L-R Darwin Carter, Milt Palacio, Darwin Leslie, Charlie Burgess,Leon Jacobs, Kenton Paulino Back L-R Coach Marques Johnson, Darren Bovel, Asst. Coach Alex Lloyd, Elsworth Itza, Alex Carcamo, Sonny Watson, Keenan Jourdon, Keith Acosta, Richard Troyer, Asst Coach Kevin Siroki, Thomas Shaw, Quinton Hamilton
Most recent games
Olympics
No appearances
World championships
No appearances
Americas championships
No appearances