Cork Basketball: Super League season showed why getting right Americans in is critical
Latavious Mitchell attacks the basket for Ballincollig against KCYMS at MTU Arena. Picture: Larry Cummins
The curtain will come down on another season next weekend and hopefully it will be a Cork double in the Super League finals when Ballincollig take on Killester in the Men’s and UCC Glanmire facing Trinity Meteors in the Women’s decider.
There is little doubt the season had many talking points and none more than the struggles of both UCC Demons and Neptune in the Men’s Super League.
Demons celebrating their 60th anniversary were expected to make a bold bid to retain their title but instead came up very short, failing to even make the play-offs that had the top eight teams competing for the title.
The Sunday’s Well outfit started with Americans Zach Hinton and Shariff Black before both were released as they failed to live up to the hype that was around basketball circles during their preseason games.
Jarvis Doles was brought in before he lost his job after a few dismal displays with Demons then looking to Jordan Washington and Tamyrik Fields to maintain their Super League status.
Fields then got injured and Demons ended up bringing in Andres Rivera for two games, where a win in their final game against St Vincent’s secured their Super League status.
Coach Danny O’Mahony immediately confirmed he was stepping down as head coach. The team had a dismal season but he deserves credit for securing cup and league success in his previous two campaigns.
The importance of getting your professionals right really showed for Demons. In previous seasons, Seventh Woods, Elijah Tillman and Patrick Robinson were basically top dollar that now looked to have covered many cracks.
Neptune, a club with a huge tradition, had a season to remember for all the wrong seasons.
Keith Daly was the first appointed coach, but his term didn’t last too long and he was duly replaced by Ciaran McKiveney a coach from Athlone who had never experienced the pressure of Super League basketball.
Despite helping his side to a Christmas win over UCC Demons it was evident he was on borrowed time as results got worse and a home loss to Limerick Celtics in January saw him released.
There is little doubt the Neptune executive committee were all at sea as they appointed Paul O’Brien and Darren Geaney in a bid to avoid the dreaded drop.
The players helped steady them for the remainder of the season and after securing a miraculous double overtime win over UCD Marian they were involved in a relegation play-off with Killorglin.
Indeed, there will be a number of clubs looking for head coaches next season as John Dowling stepped down from Tralee Warriors and the word coming out of Sligo suggests Shane O’Meara could also be taking a break.
The rule that two Irish players had to be on court at all times was exposed as come clubs found players with Irish passports and that needs to be looked at for next season.
UCC Glanmire coach Mark Scannell should be commended in getting his team to the Women’s Super League final. Cast your mind back 12 months and Glanmire looked a team in meltdown but credit to Scannell he recruited two superb Americans in Jewel Watkins and Viane Cumber.
Gurranabraher Credit Union Brunell had a very disappointing season but again signing average Americans didn’t help their cause.
There is little doubt Brunell have a wonderful array of talent in their squad, but they failed to do the business which begs the question could Liam Culloty’s reign as coach be coming to an end?
In many games, Brunell had no game plan and lost games they should have been closed out and there will be plenty for their executive committee to discuss when they review their season.
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