Making the big calls

As both a player and coach, Mark Keenan has been at the heart of Irish basketball over the past quarter of a century. Tomorrow he coaches a SuperLeague selection to face a British All-Star side — just recognition for one of Ireland’s foremost coaches in any sport.

Sat, 12 Jan, 2013 - 00:00

Kieran Shannon

Kieran Shannon is an award-winning sportswriter renowned for big interviews, insightful columns and an unrelenting focus on high‑performance sport.

Mark Keenan may be one of the most underrated coaches both inside and outside his sport but his record of contesting national finals stands comparison with Brian Cody’s and while it amazingly wasn’t enough to hold on to one coaching job a little while back, it rightly landed him with another.

Tomorrow when an Irish SuperLeague selection team take to the floor to play a British All-Star selection in front of 6,000 people at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham as part of the British national cup final day bill, Keenan will be the man with the coach’s clipboard. Ireland haven’t had a national senior team in over three years now and though this selection doesn’t quite qualify as one either, it is a step closer towards having the real thing.