Draws made for FIBA Youth EuroBasket 2024

The draws for the newly rebranded FIBA Youth EuroBasket have taken place in Freising, Germany, determining the destiny for Ireland's men's and women's teams at U16, U18 and U20 level for the competition in 2024. 

245 teams from 47 countries will take part in 16 competitions, beginning with the FIBA U20 Women's EuroBasket tournaments from July 6-14.

Former international players Andreas Glyniadakis of Greece and Finland's Tiina Sten were on hand to make the draw.

Here’s a closer look at what awaits Ireland at each level:

Team: U16 Women

Head Coach: Paul O'Brien

Division: ‘B’

Dates: August 15^th – 24^th

Location: Konya, Turkey

Opponents: Turkey, Ukraine, Kosovo, Slovakia

2023 Finish: 14^th (‘B’ Division)

Reacting to the draw, head coach Paul O'Brien said:

"Today was a very exciting day to learn who we will be playing August. All four countries will be tough and will present different challenges. I'm really looking forward to playing Turkey as they are hosts and just came down from Div A so thats going to be a great game for us."

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Team: U16 Men

Head Coach: Paul Kelleher

Division: ‘B’

Dates: August 8^th – 17^th

Location: Skopje, Macedonia

Opponents: Romania, Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Slovakia

2023 Finish: 21^th (‘B’ Division)

Head Coach Paul Kelleher is remaining positive despite a difficult draw for his side:

"It is a very difficult pool. Traditionally Denmark, Great Britain, Slovakia and Romania are very strong while we always have battles with Norway.

Four of these nations placed extremely high last year so we know we have a massive task ahead of us. With the 4-Nations, The Dussman Trophy and another game or two we will have a good prep and we see where we go from there."

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Team: U18 Women

Head Coach: Tommy O'Mahony

Division: ‘B’

Dates: August 2nd – 11^th

Location: Ploiesti, Romania

Opponents: Bulgaria, Greece, Norway, North Macedonia

2023 Finish: 6^th (‘B’ Division)

After the success of last year, head coach Tommy O'Mahony is taking nothing for granted:

"There are some quality teams in our group and we know that we need to put in top of our game to get out of it. To finish in the top 8 was always our goal and this year is no different , we have a lot of work to do to get their but really looking forward to the process."

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Team: U18 Men

Head Coach: Niall Berry

Division: ‘B’

Dates: July 26^th – August 4^th

Location: Skopje, Macedonia

Opponents: Bosnia/Gerzegovina, Czech Republic, Ukraine, North Macedonia, Cyprus

2023 Finish: 20^th (‘B’ Division)

Head Coach Niall Berry is excited to get down to work:

"We’re delighted to find out our opponents for this summer’s U18 B championships. It’s great to know who we have in the group so our work can start on more focused preparation.

This is an exciting time for the players in the squad because it gets them thinking about those games in July which has a positive impact on their preparation too.

There’s never any easy games so we just want to make sure we’re prepared fully for each opponent and we’re excited to get started.

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Team: U20 Women

Head Coach: Karl Kilbride

Division: ‘B’

Dates: July 6^th – 14^th

Location: Sofia, Bulgaria

Opponents: Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia

2023 Finish: 8^th (‘B’ Division)

Speaking after the draw, head coach Karl Kilbride led his outfit to a top 8 finish at the event a year ago, said:

On paper it’s a really tough draw.

Czech are the overall number 1 seed, they finished 6th in the U19 World Championship last summer, Switzerland are bringing back almost everyone from the team who made the semi finals last year and Slovakia made the u18 semi finals with this group 2 years ago.

We’re really going to have our work cut out. But we also know that we’re planning to go away with what we’re hoping will be a really strong group of players with huge experience. You want to challenge yourself against the absolute best when you go to these things, and that’s exactly the opportunity we’ve got.

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Team: U20 Men

Head Coach: Thomas Walsh

Division: ‘B’

Dates: July 12^th – 21st

Location: Pitesti, Romania

Opponents: Netherlands, Great Britain, Portugal, Azerbaijan

2023 Finish: 16^th (‘B’ Division)