Keenan confident Ireland have components to succeed despite missing duo 

Aidan Harris Igiehon of Ireland warms-up before the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 European Pre-Qualifiers first-round match between Ireland and Kosovo. Pic: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile

Ireland basketball coach Mark Keenan is confident his side can deliver in this week’s big internationals against Switzerland and Azerbaijan despite missing some key contributors.

Taiwo Badmus, who missed the wins over Kosovo and Azerbaijan in November, and Aidan Harris Igiehon are both unavailable due to injury.

“Aidan’s injury is recent. It’s an ankle injury and he’s declared himself not fit enough for this level. It’s a senior international and he wasn’t fully fit. Taiwo reaggravated the knee injury that he had in November,” said Keenan.

“It’s more serious this time, putting him out of action for six weeks. That’s tough for him. Every team has to deal with these types of things. That’s the beauty of working with a squad, you have guys ready to step up and fill those spots.”

Keenan is more than familiar with Thursday’s opponents, Switzerland. Between the previous qualifying campaign, the current one, and a pair of friendlies, Ireland have faced the Swiss five times in the past three years.

“We know them quite well. They’ve made changes to their squad too. I have about six players who were there the first time we faced them in that spell and they’re about the same. Their style of play hasn’t changed, they’re just very good at what they do,” said Keenan.

“They’ve got good decision-makers capable of reading the floor. They try to make you scramble all the time but we have a plan in our head that we’ve been putting into action in practice. We feel like we owe them, we’ve been close a few times.” 

A pair of wins for Ireland this week would secure a place in the next stage of FIBA World Cup qualification. A single win might still be enough. Keenan isn’t looking ahead beyond this week.

“I just want to concentrate on this window and trying to qualify. The next phase is August if we manage to get through. I’d like to see this out and get us in the final stage of qualifiers,” he said.

Making that step up would mean a great deal to Ireland captain Seán Flood, who wants to build on the momentum from November.

“It’s a massive opportunity for us with two huge games. I’m very excited and I’d say that’s similar across the group. We’ve set ourselves up with an opportunity to progress rather than just play two meaningless games,” said Flood.

“If we can get these two wins, we can push Irish basketball to that next level. Breaking through that barrier matters. As a country in basketball, we need to progress from the first round of pre-qualifiers, then progressing from that to proper qualification. Winning as many games as possible now improves our seeding for the next competition.” 

Failure to win in Fribourg on Thursday won’t mean the end of Ireland’s qualification chances. The complexity of the permutations involved is so confusing that it’s not worth the players involved thinking about them.

“You approach every game to just win the game. That’s our initial approach. We’ll let everyone else figure out what needs to be done to qualify. In terms of Thursday it’s just about going out to win the game,” said Flood.

“If we lose, it’s about making sure we don’t lose by too much.” Flood is coming into the game after a fine vein of form for London Lions, with the Dubliner getting a more featured role for the side in recent weeks.

“The last six weeks I’ve become more comfortable. I wasn’t necessarily playing how I had in previous years, that was down to me deferring more to others. The last while I’ve focused on what I can do individually and not worry about other things,” he said.

“Once I got into that mindset, I became more comfortable and that production has spoken for itself. With the national team, it’s good to have the rhythm from that coming into this window so I can push on more.” 

Flood may be the leader on the floor for the Ireland side this week but he’s thrilled to have former Ireland captain Kyle Hosford back in the squad for these games.

“It’s huge. Kyle is a big personality in Irish basketball and there was a void left when we were without him. Having him back adds more toughness and leadership. He can step up in big moments,” Flood said.

“He’s not going to be phased by a big crowd or a tough atmosphere. Having Kyle back on board is good.”