Cork basketball players and coaches to the fore as Ireland take on Norway in both men and women's games

There will be three Cork coaches and up to nine players all hoping to be involved with the men’s and women’s senior Irish basketball teams in the Jyst Summer Series against Norway at the National Basketball Arena on Saturday.

Both squads haven’t been finalised at the time of writing, however, Paul Kelleher will take the role of lead coach with the senior men’s team and he will be assisted by Colin O’Reilly and Ciaran O’Sullivan. 

Six players trained with the squad last Saturday and Sean Jenkins, Adrian O’Sullivan, Jordan Blount, James Hannigan, David Lehane and Cian Heaphy are all looking to making the final cut for the game.

There are three players in the women’s squad with Brunell pair Edel Thornton and Lauryn Homan and Glanmire’s Annalise Murphy all hoping to get to play on Saturday.

Ballincollig native Ciaran O’Sullivan is really looking to the games at the weekend and looking forward to the journey ahead working with head coach Mike Bree, the rest of the coaching staff and the players.

“To be part of the Irish senior men's team is something I don't take lightly,” Ciaran said.

“These opportunities don't come that often and when it did come, it was an easy decision once I had the support of my family.

“The standard here is genuinely high. 

"We have players to compete with other good European basketball nations, and what is really encouraging is how keen the group is to keep improving.

“A lot of credit goes to the previous coaching staff. 

"They did a brilliant job raising the level, putting proper structures in place and setting the tone for what’s expected in this environment. 

"We will hopefully keep driving the standards through Michael Bree’s leadership.

“Every training session will be challenging. Nothing will come easy to anybody, and that's the way it should be. 

"What always strikes me is seeing the players pull on the Irish jersey and understanding what it represents. 

"There's a real pride in it, and you can feel a bit of momentum building in Irish basketball right now.

“From a coaching standpoint, it's where you'd want to be in the professional setting, with an eager group of players and every day knowing you're working toward something bigger than yourself,” O’Sullivan added.

The Irish women’s coach James Weldon is equally excited about getting two quality games over the weekend.

“It’s fantastic to have two more home games this summer,” James said.

“Norway are a solid team that are few places above us in the world rankings and just last summer won the FIBA small nations championship and this year stepped up to Eurobasket level so they will be very formidable opponents.

“For us we really want to get more minutes into players legs at this level.

"Our preparation period has been relatively short this time but this is a good thing for the newer members in the squad who haven’t competed in a Eurobasket window yet as they get to experience that you need to get up to the pace and physical play of international basketball quickly.

“We want two good team performances over the weekend that we can take into the November window.

“Again with one or two regulars missing, the games give an opportunity for some of players that are a bit deeper in our normal rotation to get some valuable court time and show what they can do.

“For Edel, our captain, she can continue to build on her big performance against Latvia last February after a very serious injury that forced to miss four of our last six competitive games,” Weldon added.