A number of collegiate basketball teams from the United States are expected to be in Nassau this summer to play exhibition games against members of the men's national teams and local ball clubs.

On Friday, The Nassau Guardian spoke with executive member of The Bahamas Basketball Federation Lawrence Hepburn about the upcoming friendlies with the Americans.

The first series of games is scheduled to run August 17-24. During that week the University of Massachusetts will be in town.

The second series of games will be played August 18-26, featuring the University of Oregon Ducks. The final series of exhibition games will be played September 1-3.

Some six teams in total will visit over the three-week span.

In addition to the college teams, C.I. Gibson Head Coach Kevin 'KJ' Johnson has invited a team from the U.S. to participate in the matches.

"We've been hosting events like these for a number of years now," said Hepburn. "We would like to see more of the young basketball players participating, though. We want to expose them to a higher level of basketball and hopefully some of them will catch the eyes of scouts and coaches like some have already done in the past."

However, Hepburn said that the lack of a structured national basketball programme, with ongoing training, has hindered the progress of young players locally. "It's not that our players lack ability you know . . .." said Hepburn.

"They just don't have somewhere, here at home, where they can go to hone their skills. This is something the BBF has addressed in meetings, and we intend to establish a structured programme in short order. Maybe as soon as the end of summer."

The BBF has also taken into account that they can't continue to depend on Bahamians who are playing internationally. The reason is most of the players have commitments that are hard to work around.

"This is what hampered our senior men when they played recently in Jamaica. Because we couldn't get certain players to come home in time to be a part of the naitonal team, we lacked the size to be able to compete with some of the teams from the region. It was an eye-openr for us," said Hepburn.

Despite the lack of an established national basketball programme, Hepburn told the Guardian that colleges in the United States are "screaming" for Bahamian ballplayers. Colleges have been expressing strong interest in players like guards Ronnie Cadeaux and Jamaal Rose of the Police Crime Stoppers night league team. Colleges have also shown much interest in Rockets' point guard Mitch Bain.

"We're gonna change our focus altogether with regards to the national programme," Hepburn pointed out. "We have to take more of a business approach if this is going to be successful. The federation is now looking at ways in which we can raise and sustain our own finances. That's not to say we won't be needing sponsors, but we feel as though it's time for us to operate more efficiently."

When asked if the BBF will seek outside help to establish the proposed national programme, Hepburn said that they don't need to do any searching. He says that many coaches and administrators from the US have expressed that they want to extend their services to the federation. "Man...who doesn't want to come to the Bahamas? For most of these coaches coming to the Bahamas would be more like a vacation rather than work. But just keep your eyes open because in short order you're going to see some of the things I mentioned about the national programme starting to come into play."