International

Jul 27 2022

Preview: Ireland U18 men 'find their identity' ahead of FIBA European Championship

The wait is almost over for Ireland’s U18 men, as they prepare for the FIBA U18 European Championship.

Paul Kelleher’s team have gone through a meticulous preparation in the last number of weeks, playing against fellow ‘B’ Division competitors Portugal, Switzerland and Austria in a four-game stretch, going 2-2 in the process and building some solid foundations for the tournament ahead.

Prior to that they competed in a two game friendly series with Great Britain, which proved tough going at times but will have again given the team valuable minutes in the legs and the chance to build up some cohesion with a focus on the tournament in Romania.

team photo

Ireland U18 men survey the court during their prep game against Portugal.

This team is going to be exciting to watch with an emphasis on scoring and high tempo offense and defense. Shooting the basketball doesn’t figure to be a problem for this group. Their warm-up games have seen them post scores of over 80-points in four games.

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An important aspect of Ireland’s build-up has been the development of a leadership group consisting of captain Ruairi Cronin of Limerick Celtics, Garvey’s Tralee Warriors’ Aivaras Uosis and Brendan Douanla of Ballincollig Basketball Club. At any level of competition it’s important that your leaders make their mark and on the court, this trio have hit the ground running in that regard during the preparation games.

Ireland are in Group ‘A’ alongside Ukraine, Estonia, Iceland and Denmark. It’ll be a challenging slate both mentally and physically, as their group phase will play out over just six days between Friday July 29^th and Wednesday August 3^rd.

First up are the Estonians who ranked at 36 in the world, (Ireland 75^th) will have ambitions on making a serious dent in this tournament. The strength of schedule doesn’t ease up for the Irish, Iceland are currently 70^th in the world but have a growing optimism around their age grade teams. Ukraine are the second highest ranked team in the group at 41 and will have a lot of emotion on their side in each of their contests.

Group phase play closes with a clash against 65^th ranked Denmark, which could prove to be pivotal for Ireland’s chances of making the top two in the group and advancing to the quarter-finals.

In advance of the tournament, head coach Paul Kelleher said:

When we look at where we are now, we’ve had a significant amount of prep time trying to find the right blend for those group.

We’ve had a ton of experimenting, but I think we are at a point right now where we are clicking and found our identity. We know the processes we require, the togetherness we need. There is a nice eclectic skill set in the team, and we feel we have the right tools to call on in a lot of situations.

We are an extremely young team, very little experience at this level and we’ve tried to gain that back in our prep. However, If we follow our standards, stay connected we will see where that takes us.

Ireland’s most recent forays at this age group have seen them achieve the 15^th/16^th classification game in 2019 and finishing 3^rd in the ‘C’ Division a year earlier.

Fixtures:

Ireland vs Estonia, Friday July 29^th, 15:45, Ploiesti.
Ireland vs Iceland, Saturday July 31^st, 13:30, Blejoi.
Ireland vs Ukraine, Tuesday August 2^nd, 15:45, Ploiesti.
Ireland vs Denmark, Wednesday August 3^rd, 18:00, Bucov.

Ireland Men’s U18 Squad:

Aivaras Uosis (Garvey’s Tralee Warriors), Brendan Douanla (Ballincollig BC), Daniel Carberry (Templeogue BC), Greg Marinkovic-Augustine (NABA Lanzarote), Jack Kehoe (IT Carlow & Old Leighlin), Jamie Cotter (Reading Rockets), Joseph Badejo (Dundalk Ravens), Maz Tyndall(Drogheda Wolves), Ruairi Cronin (Limerick Celtics), Ryan Calo (Phoenix BC, Belfast), Sean Fitzpatrick (Malahide BC), Tony Ezeonu (The Phelps School, NJ).