FIBA Oceania zone special projects and administration manager Judy Smith visited Saipan yesterday and conducted a one-day tutorial session on FIBA Organizer and Live Stats.

Basketball Association of Northern Mariana Islands' Abner Venus, who attended the session with his son Mark and Rex Yabut, said BANMI requested Smith to teach them do's and don't's of the two programs so the association can also use them here.

FIBA Organizer, according to FIBA Oceania's website, is a comprehensive membership and competition management program that can be used by administrators to run leagues and tournaments. It helps an organization create schedules of games, detailed statistics, and other related information about the competition. FIBA Live Stats on the other hand is a program that shows the play-by-play account of a game. Both programs are being used by over 150 FIBA-member countries and the CNMI last used them during the 2009 Oceania Basketball Tournament.

“The CNMI has to catch up with the rest of the world. BANMI can use the FIBA Organizer and its website to get together all the stakeholders in basketball,” Smith said.

All data BANMI will input using the FIBA Organizer can be linked in the association's website and members of the basketball community with internet connection will be aware on what's going on in CNMI basketball.

“You can also put information about other leagues and when they see their story in the website and the stats about their game, they will feel they belong to your group,” the FIBA Oceania official added.

As for the FIBA Live Stats, it is beneficial to coaches too, as it gives them pointers on how the game goes and the players' performance.

“FIBA Live Stats shows which spot a player makes/misses his shots. So when the coach reviews the copy of the Live Stats, he could tell the shooting percentage of his player and in which area the player is likely to make the baskets,” Smith said.

“The same thing goes with teaching players the basic of the sport, like dribbling. If the FIBA Live Stats shows the player is committing errors while dribbling toward his left side, a coach teach him to improve his dribbling skills in that area. When teaching kids, a visual instruction is better than verbal,” she added.

Venus said he will talk with the BANMI board to discuss plans on teaching the FIBA Live Stats to interested individuals.

CNMI misses MBT

Smith stayed on Saipan only for one day, as she flew back to Guam last night to continue handling the 2012 Micronesian Basketball Tournament (Open).

The CNMI missed the event that kicked off last Sunday due to scheduling problem. The Commonwealth hosted the U17 division of the MBT in May this year, had little preparation for the open division, and were initially told that the Guam will host the MBT in November.

“There was miscommunication between BANMI and the organizer and we did not have enough time to prepare, plus school just started and our players can't afford to take one week off at the early part of the semester,” BANMI vice president Elias Rangamar said in a telephone interview with the Saipan Tribune.

Palau, the Marshall Islands, Chuuk, and Pohnpei are battling the host for the MBT crown. However, according to Rangamar, Chuuk and Pohnpei are represented by players who are based in Guam, so only Palau and the Marshall Islands really sent their national teams in the tournament.