Bermuda men’s basketball coach Roderick Spencer is cautiously optimistic his side can defend their Island Games title, as long as they can all afford to make the trip.The on-going financial crisis in Bermuda sport means that Spencer’s side are having to fund 80 percent of the cost of traveling to next month’s event in the Isle of Wight themselves.Spencer named his squad for the Games yesterday, and on paper at least, it looks like a squad that is ready to challenge for the gold medal once again. All five starters from 2009 are back, including Sullivan Phillips, Chris Crumpler, and Dean Jones, the team’s largely unheralded power forward.“We’re cautiously optimistic about our chances, but it’s much harder to repeat than it is to win the first one,” said Spencer. “We’ll have a target on our backs.“We have the same five players that started every game for us last time this time, and that includes Dean Jones, who actually logged the most minutes of any player in the tournament last time.“Everyone hears about Crumpler scoring all his points, and Steven Simons and everyone else, but Jones was the player that we couldn’t get off the court.“He’s the one that anchors our defence, which is what wins us games. People very rarely mention Dean’s name, but he gets out of games and he can barely stand up sometimes because he never gets a rest.”The head coach said that this year’s selection process had been one of the toughest he had ever faced, with more players than ever before turning out for trials.“We have our squad selected, we have a good balance of youth and experience, we have good depth at those positions, and as long as everyone raises the money that they need to go, then we should have a good squad,” said Spencer.Bermuda Men’s Island Games Team: Sullivan Phillips, Dean Jones, Steven Simons, Dale Jackson, Chris Crumpler, Graham Robinson, Jason Simons, Dave Middleton, William Trott, Aaron Jackson, Shannon Thompson, John Lee. Alternates: Phil Davis, Ryan Rabain, Akil Smith