Jason Lowe is ready for his new role as centre as the Bermuda men’s basketball team travel to Surinam for the Fiba AmeriCup 2021 Pre-Qualifier, which starts on Sunday in Paramaribo, Surinam.

Lowe has been preparing for life in the paint for what promises to be the tournament’s shortest team, with their first match against Antigua, starting at 3.45pm on Sunday.

“Whether I’m looking forward to it or not, that’s the job that I have,” he said. “I’ve got a little bit of extra weight; got an extra ten pounds on me to bang with the big boys; been hitting it hard in the weight room, so let’s see if it pays off!”

Bermuda have been practising with the new “Gun” machines, that automatically spit out rebounds to shooters, allowing more reps and have been acquired by the Bermuda Basketball Association thanks to a grant allocated by the Bermuda Olympic Association and the Pan American Games, and Lowe hopes that will help his smaller line-up compete with the big boys.

“We’re very much undersized,” he added. “I’m 100 per cent sure we will be the shortest team on average in the tournament, so we’ve got to hit the outside shot.

“We’ve got to shoot at a fairly high percentage and having these shooting guns here is awesome.

“It’s a perfect way for everyone to get a lot of reps and everyone to get a lot of shots up.

“We’re a smaller team, but hopefully we can make up for it in heart and effort. I’ve gone from playing guard-forward to being the tallest person on this team, so it’ll be interesting, for sure.”

Lowe has been happy with how the team has been preparing and thinks they are capable of getting a medal.

“I expect for us to medal,” he said. “I expect us to be competitive in every game. As long as we stay true to our system, our ideals and our goals, I think we’ll be good.”

Tim Trott, the assistant coach, tempered expectations, but says that Bermuda basketball has a big future.

“I just want to see this team compete,” he said of Surinam. “Half our team are rookies, the other half are veterans. Some of our players, this might be their last international tournament.

“I honestly believe that following this tournament, we’re going to see a big turnaround as far as who we’re going to have as players competing for the next tournament we get ready for.

“For me, 3-3 would be excellent. Obviously, I’d like to go as far as we can, but we have to be realistic.

“Barbados is in our pool; they’re going to be favourites to win, but in 2015 we gave them a good competition, but again we had more talent, better players and more experience, so I would like to see this team compete.”