Guarasci’s Bandits turn corner
Things were going much better for Peter Guarasci in his second homecoming as a head coach and general manager in the Canadian Elite Basketball League.
In his first visit to St. Catharines to take on the Niagara River Lions, the Niagara Falls native saw his Fraser Valley Bandits drop a 108-87 decision to fall to 0-5 on the season. Equally as unpalatable were the optics of a heated argument at the bench between a couple of Bandits that gave the impression of a team in disarray.
Fraser Valley would end up starting the season 0-9 before reeling off four wins sandwiched between a pair of losses to Niagara. The River Lions beat visiting Fraser Valley 80-71 last Saturday but the Bandits gave the River Lions all they could handle.
“That is a really good basketball team,” Niagara head coach/GM Victor Raso said afterwards.
Much has changed since that first meeting between the teams.
“You have to remember we have five or six different guys and we have gotten to the point where we have the right fit of players who like each other,” he said. “It was so discombobulated that that’s where the GMing had to come in and I had to start making changes.
“I didn’t want to make massive changes so it was very gradual.”
The gradual changes have paid off.
“I think we have started to take on a bit of a defensive identity and really, to me, it’s all about the guys you have in the locker room,” Guarasci said. “We have really high character guys so they were able to come back from an 0-9 situation at the beginning of the season.”
The addition of Jelan Kendrick has really helped the team and it has boosted everybody’s confidence.
“It’s just the guys continuing to try and give maximum effort.”
Guarasci, a former national team member and pro, has learned plenty in his first year as a coach and general manager in the Canadian Elite Basketball League.
“As a coach, it is just putting guys in situations where they can succeed and making sure you are developing the proper relationships off the court,” he said. “These are mostly grown men and you have to make sure you are helping them get to where they want to go. They also still have goals and aspirations in basketball so you have to keep that alive ”
The lessons learned as a GM were of a different nature.
“As a GM, it was tough in the first year understanding what kind of talent level you needed in the league,” he said. “There were a lot of changes early and I think less change is better and more coaching is better.
“For me, if I could go back it would be less GMing by making good selections at the start and then more coaching.”
Even with an 0-9 shot, the Bandits still have a shot at making the playoffs. They are tied for last place in the league with Guelph with a 4-11 record but the fourth and final place is held by the Saskatchewan Rattlers (6-10), who are riding a five-game losing streak.
“Incredibly enough that’s true. Right now for us, every game is a must-win situation and we wish we had some of those early games back because it wasn’t like we were 0-9 and losing by 15 or 20,” he said. “There was a lot of winnable games in that run and it is what it is. We have five games remaining and we have to try and put our best foot forward and try and get each one.”
Last Saturday’s game versus Niagara wasn’t really much of a homecoming. After the game, all he had time for was a short visit with one of his three sisters, Lynn, and his father, Mario.
“It’s such a quick turn around. We played Thursday night and woke up a 4 o’clock Friday morning to travel to Hamilton,” he said. “Today we were driving from Hamilton to Niagara to play the game.”
There was time for a quick visit with family members and not much more.
“It was ‘Thanks for coming to the game’ and I will try and get a real visit at some point.”
