Swiss move going like clockwork for Irish hoops star Matt Treacy

Ireland will follow up Thursday’s FIBA World Cup pre-qualifier loss to Kosovo by seven points with a home tie against the Swiss in Tallaght tomorrow.

Matt Treacy in full flow for Ireland. Pic: Brendan Moran, Sportsfile

Matt Treacy couldn’t help but think that something had been lost in translation when the agent speaking to him on the phone last summer put on offer on the table. Play pro basketball for the Goldcoast Wallabies? Great. But in Zurich?

Something wasn’t adding up. Until it did.

“So, the club president had played professional basketball in Australia and then he moved back to Switzerland and set up the club which was on the shores of Lake Zurich,” Treacy explains. “That’s where the Wallabies thing comes from.” 

Mystery solved, he made the move from Dublin to central Europe last autumn to join a team playing second division basketball in one of the world’s most opulent and expensive cities, and it’s all gone smoothly since the confusion of that first call.

The Swiss are a polyglot nation with French, German and Italian speakers all walking the same streets and sharing the same offices, but English remains the universal language and that can only help an Irishman new to the city.

The club made the bedding-in period hassle-free by sorting the Ireland international with digs in the centre of town and if the cost of living in a city famous for its financial muscle is exorbitant then Treacy’s home city was a useful testing ground for life off the court.

“It’s definitely not cheap, but Dublin is heading in that direction too.” 

Other similarities have helped. The Swiss top-tier caters for five or six foreigners per team but the second division apes Ireland with its limit of two and Treacy and American centre DaJion Henderson hold those spots with the Wallabies.

A handful of their Swiss teammates are full-time but the rest are semi pro and that leaves the onus largely on Treacy and Henderson as the club looks to get over some slip-ups since Christmas after what had been a strong start and make the playoffs.

“My coaches have been great. They are both former players, The head coach [Trésor Quidome] is regarded as one of the best players to come out of Switzerland. He played all over. Having guys like that in practise every day, making small adjustments, has been great.

“Then being an import, and the American being a centre, I find the ball in my hands quite a bit so you have no choice but develop and find ways to score and to be efficient when you have a lot of defensive attention on you. It’s been really beneficial for my game.” 

Treacy’s residence in Switzerland slips naturally into the spotlight this weekend given his slot in an Ireland squad that follows up Thursday’s FIBA World Cup pre-qualifier loss to Kosovo by seven points with a home tie against the Swiss in Tallaght tomorrow.

Is it worth anything in terms of insider trading? Not much, truth be told. A few of Treacy’s Wallabies colleagues played with some of the Swiss national team, and he has asked them the odd question, but it’s not likely to be stuff that makes or breaks Mark Keenan’s side here.

It was two friendly games against the Swiss last summer, both of which Ireland lost narrowly, that put the 25-year old on the Wallabies’ radar in the first place and there’s no doubt but that these international windows can do wonders for a club career.

Taiwo Badmus and Sean Flood, two of his Irish teammates this week, are domiciled in Iceland and the Netherlands respectively and Treacy has no doubt but that the number of Irish ballers playing pro abroad is only going to grow.

“Definitely. You see it with the guys coming out of college in the States now. The numbers have grown significantly. Even since I finished up. A lot of those guys will want to go on and have pro careers across Europe and that will be huge for the game in Ireland for this team.” 

It’s an uncertain path for any player to take with outposts dotted liberally around the entire continent. The Wallabies, who have pretty much a new starting roster this term, are in keeping with the transitory nature of the game at this level.

Club president Robert Gerritsma highlighted that when explaining to the Zürichsee-Zeitung at the season’s start how it wouldn’t have been fair to keep players looking to move on up the ladder, and that the NLB second-tier was, in effect “a training league”.

Players who do well there inevitably move on.

“For now I’m just trying to finish this season strong, get through the playoffs and win the league,” said Treacy. “After that it will take care of itself. It’s no advantage to be looking too far ahead at things like that now.”