Super League tip-off: A lot of learning lost but players itching to get back on the court

DCU players, from left, Alarie Mayze, Hannah Thornton and Bailey Greenberg

Hannah Thornton lets out a mock gasp as she confesses to turning 30 during the summer.

Sportspeople of all stripes will know what this means. Thirty is the age when players tend to morph, pretty much overnight, from ballers deemed to be ‘in their prime’ as athletes to veterans whose shelf-life is a regular source of conjecture.

The big three-oh is a staging post that tends to infer the moniker of leader. Some will have carried that mark for years by that point anyway, but Thornton has no illusions about the senior role she will play for DCU Mercy on basketball’s restart this weekend.

The Ireland international is co-captain this term, along with Megan Connolly, and these are the sort of officer-class responsibilities that are all the more important as the MissQuote.ie Super League gets underway after an unprecedented 18-month stoppage for indoor sports.

Irish basketball’s elite leagues are accustomed to player turnover but DCU Mercy head coach Mark Ingle highlighted the acute nature of that this year when pointing out that some of those promoted to his senior roster haven’t played at a grade higher than U18 before.

That’s a lot of learning lost. The usual gradient for youngsters graduating from the underage ranks has been badly fractured by the pandemic.

“There is a lot of onus on us to make sure that they feel comfortable,” she says, “and there has been a lot of chat behind the scenes and making sure they can come to us with any questions, and just giving them the confidence.

“Even if it’s as simple as ‘good job’ when they are marking someone in training, or that extra pass. I really like to do that so they learn as they go. The main thing we see is the confidence and that is hard to get, never mind that people haven’t played in so long.”

DCU Mercy’s task as defending champions is made more difficult by the loss for the year of a senior figure in Sarah Woods who has stepped back from Super League duties having had a baby.

Thornton is among those who has noticed, and remarked upon, the number of players who, in the ongoing absence of basketball for much of this year, turned to Gaelic football or another sport and aren’t all that inclined to change tack now.

Added to this flux is that there is the usual migration of new American players to be filtered into the system. In Mercy’s case that includes Bailey Greenberg out of Drexel in Pennsylvania and Alarie Mayze via Southern Miss.

Ingle is accustomed to the return of his Irish players after a three- or four-month summer break, and the resultant falloff in skill level if they haven’t been involved with the national side or in 3v3 games. That may have been exacerbated this time.

Anecdotal evidence is that scoring in pre-season games has been down. Fitness doesn’t appear to be a problem but rustiness certainly is.

Thornton has noticed a certain split-second of hesitancy, or slowness, in players that wouldn’t normally be there as they reacclimatise to the vagaries of actual competitive basketball.

“Rustiness is the perfect word for it, because that’s what it is,” Ingle agreed. “We spend a lot of time just shooting the ball down lanes, left, right, shooting off the dribble, right, left, three-point shooting and then putting defence into it. “We are trying to put a team together.

“My experience is that it takes about four weeks in the league for everybody to get up and running and at full tilt. Now, you look at the pre-season in the Premier League, or the Championship in the GAA, it’s the same there.

“They don’t tend to get going for three or four games so it seems to be the same problem from a coaching perspective in all sports.”

FRIDAY

MissQuote.ie SuperLeague: The Address UCC Glanmire v Team Garvey’s St. Mary’s, 7.45pm.

SATURDAY

InsureMyVan.ie SuperLeague: Tradehouse Central Ballincollig v C&S Neptune, 4pm; NUIG Maree v Moycullen, 7pm; DBS Éanna v Killester, 7pm; Bright DCU Saints v Griffith College Templeogue, 7pm; Garvey’s Tralee Warriors v Team 360 Financial Killorglin, 7.30pm.

MissQuote.ie SuperLeague: Fr. Mathews v Trinity Meteors, 5pm; Leixlip Amenities Liffey Celtics v Killester, 7pm.

InsureMyVan.ie Division 1: Limerick Sport Eagles v Portlaoise Panthers, 7pm; Limerick Celtics v Scotts Lakers Killarney, 7.15pm; Killarney Cougars v UCC Demons, 7.30pm; Drogheda Wolves v Titans, 7.30pm; Ej Sligo All-Stars v McGowans Tolka Rovers, 7.30pm; Ulster University v Abbey Seals Dublin Lions, 7.30pm.

MissQuote.ie Division 1: Limerick Sport Huskies v Portlaoise Panthers, 5pm; Limerick Celtics v Tipperary Knights, 5pm; Ulster University v Griffith College Templeogue, 5pm; Swords Thunder v LYIT Donegal, 5.30pm.

SUNDAY

InsureMyVan.ie Super League: Belfast Star v UCD Marian, 3pm.

MissQuote.ie SuperLeague: DCU Mercy v Waterford Wildcats, 12.15pm; IT Carlow v Singleton Supervalu Brunell, 3.30pm.

InsureMyVan.ie Division 1: IT Carlow v WIT Vikings, 12.30pm; Grand Hotel Malahide v LYIT Donegal, 3.30pm.

MissQuote.ie Division 1: Marble City Hawks v NUIG Mystics, 2pm.