Demon weather washes out UCC practice

WHEN coach Luke D’Alessio took his players to the Parochial Hall for practice yesterday he found the doors closed – there was no water and the place was frozen.

Things can only get better for the UCC Demons coach as he plots this weekend’s defence of the National Cup in a derby semi-final against their arch rivals, National Event Hire Neptune.

The champions take on that assignment without playing a game in month after the clash against Moycullen on January 2 was cancelled. Last weekend they were scheduled to play UCD Marian, who are involved in the other semi-final against Killester next Sunday, but that game, too, failed to materialise.

“It has been just terrible,” D’Alessio admitted. “We had been hoping to get in some games in Castleisland over the Christmas period but that tournament was cancelled on account of the weather.

“The other two SuperLeague games were also cancelled and then the Parochial Hall today was closed.”

UCC Demons fans have been eager to see the club’s new American signing, Tyronne Beale, who has yet to make his official debut.

He arrived in Leeside after the UL Eagles’ defeat in December and the 6’8” forward should have no difficulty fitting into their programme as he played under D’Alessio during his illustrious reign as coach at Bowie College where he averaged 21.4 points and 11 rebounds.

“He is a terrific scorer, very athletic,” D’Alessio said. “He is there basically to help us out. Joshua (Johnson) is capable of playing very well.”

D’Alessio was all but blown away by the atmosphere at The Mardyke Arena when the first derby game of the season with Pat Price’s NEH Neptune went to overtime before the home side scraped a three point win.

“We have lost Niall Murphy through injury since then and unfortunately he will be out for a while,” the coach said. “That is very unfortunate because he was playing so well. I firmly believe he would have been Irish player of the year if he had played out the season.

“But we have to put all those things aside. This is a big game ahead maybe not just because it is a cup semi-final but because it is a derby game and there is a lot of passion and pride involved.

“In those games the Irish players have a big role to play. It is very emotional and high intensity stuff.

“And this is one of the best environments for Irish basketball – two Dublin teams clashing and two Cork teams playing each other.”

Since his arrival at UCC Demons it has been anything but plain sailing for D’Alessio: “We’ve only been healthy for one game all year,” he recalled. “Michael Plichta pulled a muscle and missed practice during the week and Shane Duggan is having physio on his knee.

“But we just have to get on with it. This is a big game we have here.”