Keenan says it’s “wishful thinking” that FIBA EuroBasket opponents will underestimate Ireland

Ireland head coach Mark Keenan says it’s “wishful thinking” that Austria will be underestimating his side ahead of their FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Pre-Qualifiers Round 1 game on Sunday at the National Basketball Arena, however Jordan Blount feels Ireland “probably didn’t get a lot of respect” on their return to FIBA EuroBasket.

Austria are ranked 61^st in the world and seasoned campaigners in FIBA EuroBasket, while Ireland are 107^th in the FIBA World rankings and competing in FIBA EuroBasket for the first time since 2004. Questioned whether Austria might underestimate Ireland, Keenan responded: “I’d like to think that, but I think that is wishful thinking, because they are a pro team, a pro coach, I don’t think they’ll take anything to chance, but let’s hope they do.”

Jordan Blount picked up 21 points in Ireland’s 81-73 victory against Cyprus in Nicosia. The Thor AK player was asked how big a win over Austria would be and he responded: “Absolutely huge, returning to EuroBasket as a country that probably didn’t get a lot of respect, starting off with a win we made a lot of noise. If we can have an opening weekend with two wins against two good sides it would be absolutely huge, not just for us, but for the country and huge for the respect for the country and respect for the federation going forward.”

Jordan Blount in action against Cyprus in Thursday's FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Pre-Qualifiers Round 1

Blount also gave his assessment of their upcoming opponents, when compared to Cyprus. “They’re a bit of a stronger team physically, I think they’re a bit more composed as a unit, I think they have more guard play, in terms of they play to their guards a bit more, as opposed to Cyprus who played through their ‘8’, their veteran, a lot. I think we’ve got a good chance, our guards Taiwo (Badmus) who played very, very well, Kyle (Hosford), Sean (Flood), and we have a lot of bigs that can switch out to guards, I think we’ll be fine, I think we’ll be good.”

“Returning to @EuroBasket as a country that probably didn’t get a lot of respect, starting off with a win we made a lot of noise” @BlountJordan13 looks ahead to tomorrow’s @EuroBasket game with Austria 👊#EuroBasket pic.twitter.com/gZvuoCvLjh

— Basketball Ireland (@BballIrl) November 27, 2021

Ireland travelled back to Dublin on Friday and trained at the National Basketball Arena on Saturday morning, with another practice session in the afternoon. Keenan says the camp are in good shape. “We’re feeling good, we got home from Cyprus late last night, it is all about getting the bodies recovered, getting stretched out, loosened out again. We’re not going to be going too hectic today or tomorrow morning (at practice), it is just more of getting a focus on Austria now and looking at their stuff and getting the bodies ready to come with another energetic performance.”

Austria beat Switzerland 80-64 in their Group A encounter on Thursday and Keenan was impressed. “We saw Austria had a good win against Switzerland, their guards are very dominant in the game. They have a couple of really experienced guards that we are going to have to contain and their bigs as well. They have a couple of young guys that played really well in the game, 19 or 20-year-old guys that came off the bench. They are good in all positions, so we just have to make sure we are able to cover it all.”

Keenan says the team have taken great confidence from their win in Nicosia. “Yeah absolutely, the energy level, the spirit, the manner in which we played, it was great extension of the summer. I think we just hit the ground running on Thursday night, as if the summer was only a couple of weeks ago, so that was fantastic. We are going to need that same energy, cohesion as a unit that we had on Thursday night, we are going to need that in abundance again on Sunday.”

John Carroll and Taiwo Badmus in action against Cyprus.

“We want to keep that momentum going for our home game and make it pay here in the Arena in Tallaght. We are expecting that there will be a good crowd, a great buzzing atmosphere, so hopefully the team can feed off that as well and that will hopefully be worth a few points to us.”

Tickets for Ireland versus Austria can be purchased here. The game will be broadcast live on TG4 from 1650 on Sunday.