The Summer Island Basketball League play-offs get under way today and Thundercats’ Kieron Burgess is confident that his side will triumph after losing only one game in the regular season.

“We’re going to win the league, no doubt about it,” he said. “We only lost one game, but I guarantee we’re going to win the league.”

Burgess’s team face Redraiders at Somersfield Academy at 6.30pm, with their opponents finishing bottom of the regular season standings, having won just twice.

It promises to be a busy time for Burgess and Bermuda basketball.

The player is off to Medicine Hat College in Alberta, Canada, and the island’s national team are competing in the World Indigenous Basketball Challenge in Vancouver from August 9 to 12.

“We’re looking forward to the Indigenous Challenge,” Burgess said.

“Unfortunately, we won’t have the leadership of Jason Lowe, but we have an equally qualified person to lead us in John Lee, so we’ll be all right.

“The guys to look out for are everyone actually. We have a great select group of guys, such as Tejour Riley, [Thundercats team-mate] who’s at Paine College in Georgia, we have Adam Correia [of Flyboys] he’s our deadly shooter. We have John Lee and Jonathan Lowe, who’s our big man. We definitely need him to step up and play a big part.

“The goal is to win, nothing less than that. That’s why we’ve been training.”

Burgess models himself on Chicago Bulls superstar Dwyane Wade.

“Basketball is all about IQ,” Burgess said. “I’ve been playing this long enough.

“My favourite player is Dwayne Wade, so I watch how he plays, watch how he works in the off seasons and try to mimic him.”

Burgess has also been refereeing, but insists that has not made him take it easy on the officials when he is playing.

“This is just to help me get a little extra change in my pocket,” he said of his refereeing. “I understand where the refs are coming from but I still give them smack and all that! It’s always good to give back to the basketball community.”