Ireland's basketballers trying to find their feet in Europe
Martin O’Neill and the FAI are back among the big boys, with corporate dollars sloshing around their feet after qualifying for next summer’s European Championships. Basketball Ireland’s revived international effort is finding its way in FIBA’s Europe Cup and getting a few black eyes for their troubles. Three trips to the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Denmark for the Colin O’Reilly-coached Hibernia outfit have produced lots in the way of education, but thumping defeats each time.
Tonight the Superleague selection play their first pool game at home in Dublin against Denmark’s Bakken Bears at the National Arena. Beaten 96-60 in Scandinavia at the tail end of last month, tonight will provide a reliable barometer of how quickly O’Reilly and his players are learning. It should be instructive (tip off, 7.30pm).
“We know we are not ready for this competition yet, it’s no secret,” O’Reilly accepted yesterday. “Irish teams have been out of international competition for six, seven years now. There’s a whole generation of players who haven’t played at this level before, so the idea is to expose these guys to that level. In the three away games, we were competitive for seven of the 12 quarters. But that isn’t enough, the pro teams don’t stop, they are relentless in what they do.
“We have to get that mentality here, where every possession counts, every single play within that possession is important. It’s a different attitude but not one you can feed back to the players based on what they face in domestic competition.”
Basketball Ireland and O’Reilly - the game’s premier domestic talent who returned to player-coach UCC Demons two seasons ago after stints playing pro ball in England - have correctly decided to blood young Irish talent in the Hibernia squad, even though they have the right to select six American players. Everyone’s looking down the line.
“From this, it’s up to Basketball Ireland, the coaches and the players to come up with a plan over the next few years to ensure the likes of starlets Ciaran O’Sullivan, Jordan Blount, and other Division One players in the US college scene can come home and play international basketball with Ireland in the summer.
“This is the first step. With the three home games now in a row, I see us being a bit more competitive. We are in an environment we are used to at the Arena, and hopefully the Danes will be out of their comfort zone. We’ve never played at this level before and every time we’ve stepped on the floor, there’s been improvements. The scoreboard hasn’t suggested that, but when we break down the video analysis, it’s there,” O’Reilly (31) insisted.
The FIBA Europe Cup is equivalent to football’s Europa League, a second tier below the elite Euro Leagues. But the Czech outfit CEZ Nymburk that destroyed Hibernia 106-45 last week would be in the Champions League equivalent if money permitted them. “They’re just not willing to risk their whole club to play at the higher level, but they are the favourites to win this competition out,” explained Hibernia’s player-coach. And tonight’s opponents have beaten them in this group. Gulp.
“There is no level below this worth us entering if we want to improve. (Basketball Ireland chief executive) Bernard O’Byrne is committed to developing the game as a whole, not just the senior team. He sees the senior team as the shop window, something kids can aspire to. Now we are not losing players to football, rugby, and hurling for the lack of a national team. When I was playing underage, having a senior national team was why I stuck with basketball (O’Reilly is a proficient hurler and footballer with Blackrock and St Michael’s in Cork). It was the same with the likes of Conor Grace and Michael Bree, they stuck with basketball.”
The FIBA Europe Cup is a pro franchise scouter’s dream, but also a shop window for the young Irish looking for a longer term future in basketball. Good numbers in these tournaments raise awareness and eyebrows.
O’Reilly himself has recovered from the hip problem that sidelined him in Prague last week, and the squad is bolstered by the inclusion of Belfast Star’s Shawn Vanzant. UCC Demons provide six of the Hibernia roster, and the average age is 23. It’s a longer term project but the next three weeks should give O’Reilly and his coaching team of Puff Summers, Mark Scannell and James Weldon plenty to chew over.
“The Czechs might be a bit too far outside our reach based on what we saw in the away games. Against the Danes we were in until half-time but then they went on an 11-0 run. The Slovenians, we hung in until the last eight minutes. Tomorrow, let’s be be competitive into the fourth quarter and see can we manage the game from there,” O’Reilly said.
“We’ve never coached at this level before so I’ve probably learned more in three weeks breaking down the video and seeing the adjustments the other teams make than I would in the two seasons in Superleague with Demons. The players are good here, but we know we are not where we should be. It will take time.”
Hosford (UCC Demons), Downey (UCC Demons), A O’Sullivan (UCC Demons), Patrick Lyons (Moycullen), Vanzant (Belfast Star), Lacey (Swords Thunder), Ciaran O’Sullivan (UCC Demons), O’Reilly (UCC Demons), Thompson (Eanna), Cunningham (Moycullen), Grace (Templeogue), Cairns (Belfast Star), Ronan O’Sullivan (Moycullen), Colbert (UCC Demons), Killeen (Templeogue), Provizors (DCU Saints).
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