KUWAIT CITY (Kuwait) - Hassan Nowrooz is exercising patience as Manama navigate through growing pains with a practically new team this 2024/2025 season.
That was evident in their FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL) opener last Monday night, when the Bahraini powerhouse fell to a 90-84 defeat at the hands of the debuting Al Qadsia SC in easily one of the biggest upsets early in this tilt.
That will need time.
The league's first-ever champions has never lost an opening match in the pan-regional competition until that shocker of a loss from the Kuwaiti ball club.
"I'm just hopeful that with time, everything will be there," said the team captain during the postgame presser at the Shaikh Saad Alabdullah Sport Hall Complex.
Six new faces have been added by Manama during the offseason, according to head coach Linos Gavriel. Half of which are their foreign reinforcements, as the crew moved on from the tried and tested tandem of Travin Thibodeaux and Sir'Dom Pointer.
Now, they have Carlton Bragg in the fold plus seasoned WASL campaigners in Tony Carr and Clint Chapman, whom they acquired just a week ago. The sweet-shooting big man, formerly of Al Hilal and Kazma, was previously with Sagesse in Lebanon.
Carr, who played point for Kuwait Club last season, was solid in their season debut with 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. The same, however, cannot be said to his running mates, as Bragg and Chapman combined for only 12 points.
That's mainly because chemistry is yet to be established, leaving Gavriel a bit worried as they may find themselves racing against time in building as much.
"I can't see progress right now because of the limited time we've been together, and really limited games we play as a team--basically Clint didn't play at all in our four, five games in the preseason," the decorated mentor stated.
"In order to see progress we need to have a couple of months together and plenty of games, but I don't know if it's gonna be too late or not. Hopefully not," Gavriel furthered. "We'll try to work hard to see that progress in the near future."
That's precisely why Nowrooz tried to be the stabilizing presence Manama needed versus Qadsia while they all try to grasp each other's games, eventually finishing with a WASL career-high 30 points on a 6-of-10 clip from beyond the arc.
The 36-year-old sparked their fourth-quarter rally that saw them close to within just four points multiple times after trailing by as many as 18 early.
But it was all that they could afford, as the squad succumbed to the home team's outside shooting. Qadsia hit a total of 16 three-pointers, with Mohammed Ashkanani causing much of the damage as he went 5-of-8 from long distance.
"I know it's difficult to talk about it, but I had a good game. I'm always there to help the team," he said. "The only upsetting thing is that it didn't result in a win."
Then again, Nowrooz chooses to stay optimistic, believing that they will soon figure things out especially now that they have played their first game together.
"I saw some good things in the game today. But we weren't consistent with our effort. Despite the loss, I saw a lot of positive things from our team," he said. "We need to be more consistent and that will come with time, as we gel with the new players."
Gavriel is as positive. "Definitely, it's gonna be a different season because we need to work and to prepare a new basketball team, and get our players to understand the new philosophy, [as they are] coming from different places," he stated.
"That will need time. But because we have the talent to do it, I believe eventually we're going to manage to do it and we're going to bounce back," continued the Cypriot-Greek bench tactician. "And, be the Manama we always have [been].
FIBA