New Barracudas import arrives

Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Thursday, November 12, 2009

BRUNEI BARRACUDAS will parade a new import when they meet Thailand Tigers on Saturday at the Hassanal Bolkiah Sports Complex in Berakas.

Reggie Larry, who will replace the seven-footer Lonnie Jones, arrived last night and was met by head coach Bong Ramos.

According to the rules of the Asean Basketball League (ABL), each team is only entitled to two international imports. "I had been resting and nursing an injury prior to coming here. I was just waiting for something to happen and the Barracudas offered me to come and I accepted gladly," said Larry in an interview with The Brunei Times .

"I've been to Asia before and I enjoyed it. So I thought why not come back again to try it out," added Larry.

Larry played for the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) before a finger injury early this year kept him out of the game.

"I just want to play the best that I can. I need to give the coach a good impression of what I can do despite knowing that the season has started. I'm going to get a good vibe going here. I'll try to fit in the team as I know I'm a player who likes to fight and hustle to score and rebound," said Larry, who is a power forward but also plays small forward.

"I can shoot and also put the ball on the floor as I can rebound and move faster than the biggers players," said the 23-year-old who was born in Newark, New Jersey. He studied at the Barringer High School and played for the College of Southern Idaho from 2005-2006.

Larry was named to the Western Athletics Conference (WAC) All-Newcomer Team in his junior year with the Boise State Broncos. He also won the award as the Best Rebounder for the season.

For the 2007-2008 season, he topped the rebounding with an average of 9.2 and was third in scoring (19.4 points). He was Most Valuable Player and was named to the first team of the All-WAC for the same season.

Larry was also the first player to put up more than 1000 points over two seasons for Boise State. He also played in Cyprus and France before playing at the PBA.

Barracudas head coach Bong Ramos feels that the main feature about Larry would be his energy when he plays the game.

"I know the main thing about Reggie is his energy. That's the reason why I chose him. I've talk to his coach at Purefoods before and I was told that he has very good work ethics as well," said Ramos, who also coached the Indonesian national team.

Ramos hopes that Larry's energy will be a plus factor. "He'll be a good partner to Mike (Pilgrim). Both are young but I know that we are going with a smaller line up this time. We are going to be a faster and more aggressive, which is important for me."

"We'll be seeing a different Barracudas but it won't be an overnight project. I can't assure victory on Saturday but I'm positive about the change," he added.

The Slingers currently lead the league with nine points followed by Satria Muda with eight points.

The Patriots and KL Dragons are tied for third with seven points, Barracudas are fifth with six points and Thailand Tigers are at the bottom with five points.

source: The Brunei Times