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The St. John’s Edge hit the hardwood for their first competitive game of their 2019 training camp tonight at the Holy Heart High School gym, and although it’s an intrasquad contest, it should provide an idea of what to expect from the Edge after a massive makeover of the team’s roster in the off-season.

Steve Marcus, promoted from interim to full-time coach over the summer, has 14 players in camp, with a full dozen of the group brand-new the team, and all but two of those 12 new to the National Basketball League of Canada.

Marcus has said he wants a team built around athleticism, one that can push the pace, but has suggested there will be more of a defensive focus, an aggressive one featuring presses, traps and switch-up schemes.

Training camp began Friday and continued with two-a-day practices until Tuesday, when Marcus scaled back to single workouts in advance of this evening’s Blue-White contest and a pre-season game against the defending champion Moncton Magic Sunday afternoon at Mile One Centre.

There had been 15 players expected in camp, but Canadian Cassidy Ryan instead opted to join a team in Romania and began play with that club — VSK Csikszereda — last week.

Cassidy Ryan

Ryan had signed with the Edge in the summer, but as fans here have come to know, because the NBLC is not a league that falls under the jurisdiction of FIBA, basketball’s international governing body, its player contracts are often not binding outside the Canadian circuit.

Ryan was one of five Canadians on the Edge’s original training-camp roster and teams will need to have five domestic players in order to dress a full team of 12 players for a regular-season game.

However, Marcus said there are immediate plans to add another Canadian player and that they could operate with an 11-man roster, including the four Canadians who are in place — returnees Junior Cadougan, Murphy Burnatowski, newcomer Tyrone Watson and St. John’s native Noel Moffatt, who was at training camp with the Edge two years ago, but would seem to be in a much better position to stick around this year.

That would mean there will be three cuts of import players, with Marcus telling The Telegram that those cuts would likely come Sunday evening sometime after the 2 p.m. game against the Magic, the team that swept the Edge in last season’s league final

Today’s intrasquad contest starts at 7 p.m., with a donation of cash or of a non-perishable item needed for admittance.

On Thursday, the team is holding a development camp, with a focus on skill-building, at the PowerPlex in St. John’s. Cost is $35, with on-site registration beginning at 6 p.m., an hour before the camp gets underway. Edge players, Marcus, assistant coach Jeff Morrison and new team president Tyrone Levingston are to be in attendance.

The Edge play their first game of the new season Dec. 27 in Moncton against the Magic, a match-up that starts a busy six-game road trip in the Maritimes.

The Edge’s first home game is Jan. 7 against the K-W Titans at Mile One.



sports@thetelegram.com

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