D’Alessio has big shoes to fill with UCC Demons

THE news that Luke D’Alessio had been appointed head coach of UCC Demons caused a stir throughout the basketball world.

His 25 years coaching basketball took him to seven All-Americans back in the US, where he was two time coach of the year with Bowie State.

But he is stepping into the shoes of treble-winning Douglas Leichner and joining a club that just does not tolerate failure.

The excitement that surrounded D’Alessio’s appointment flows on to the Mardyke Arena on Sunday afternoon when he will lead the champions out in defence of their Nivea for Men’s SuperLeague title against rookies, Moycullen.

Courtside, he will face an interesting opponent in Enda Byrt who would have known the old Demons side inside out and will undoubtedly have analysed the present outfit in detail.

He will know that under Leichner they were invincible and the manner in which they collected all the silverware available to them last season has won them a special place in the annals of Irish basketball.

D’Alessio will have to plan without the services of player of the year, Colin O’Reilly, who joined Cheshire Jets during the summer, but remains confident.

“Our team is shaping up well,” he insisted. “We have great leadership in returning players Shane Coughlan, Niall Murphy and Niall O’Reilly. Our big man, Mike Plichta, has developed into a serious inside threat in pre-season games.

“We have terrific young players in Kyle Hosford, Carlton Cuff, Shane Duggan and Dave Murphy and Stuart Rogers and Danny O’Mahony provide depth from the bench.

“Joshua Johnson, our American player, fits in extremely well with the team and is looking forward to continued dominance after playing last year in Slovenia.

“Against Moycullen, we must contain Cian Nihill, Simon Harris and Puff Summers. We can’t allow any open shots or strong drives to the basket at any point in the game.”

Moycullen lost to UL Eagles on their SuperLeague debut last weekend and will again be without injured Garnett Griffin, but coach Byrt said they learned a lot from the game and he is relishing facing the reigning champions.

“This game represents a great opportunity for this Moycullen team to test themselves against one of the great clubs of Irish basketball,” he said.

Pat Price once led Demons to great deeds and Neptune fans hope that he can do the same for them when they open their 2009/10 campaign away to last season’s beaten finalists Killester.

“Killester is a difficult opener for us,” he admitted.

“We remain on a steep learning curve, yet we’re confident that we’ll be a much better basketball team in January than we are right now.”

Hoops, who lost to Killester last weekend, are still missing experienced duo Eoin Chubb and Joey Haastrup as they go in search of their first points of the new campaign at UL Eagles.

UCD/Marian have a busy weekend ahead with back to back games against DCU Saints and Belfast Star and they will welcome American, Pat Shea, on to the bench after his switch from Assumption College.

Star had a big win over Ulster Elks last weekend, and this game represents an opportunity for the Belfast club to continue their fine start to the season.