UCC Demons aim to maintain recent good form with Danny O'Mahony back at helm

After a weekend of Cup action, it is back to Super League action for the men with the ladies having a two-week break for International games.

There is little doubt the big game in the Men’s Super League will see UCC Demons travel to Limerick for a clash against the leaders Limerick Celtics.

Incredibly this game is being staged at the Crescent College due to the unavailability of the UL Arena and for Basketball Ireland to allow games to be played at this venue beggars belief.

Surely, they are court regulations within the Super League that should be adhered to and this venue is basically not suitable for games of this magnitude at this level of basketball.

It is very simple of you haven’t a home court available to meet the regulations home advantage should be given up and the game played at a neutral venue.

It is common knowledge Tralee Warriors have a great fan base both home and away and their national cup clash on Sunday last restricted them big time.

The capacity of 150 fans allowed into this venue saw their allocation of tickets fall well below the demand required by the Kerry club.

Limerick Celtics defeated Tralee Warriors 87-75 and booked a quarter final place against Eanna and it will be interesting to see how Demons match up to them.

The Sunday’s Well outfit replaced coach Stuart Rodgers who stepped down for personal reasons.

In stepped former chief Danny O’Mahony and it will be interesting to see what tune he will get from his former squad.

O’Mahony was instrumental in bringing American Elijah Tillman to Ireland and his positive relationship with the professional should see a marked improvement in his recent low-key performances.

Tillman is unmarkable when getting the right assists at the post and coach O’Mahony will have to unlock that present problem that will certainly help his team.

Credit to Limerick Celtics they have a very solid squad led by Americans Tiras Morton and Sebastian Cole who registered 13 points in the last quarter in their cup win over Tralee Warriors.

It was a disappointing weekend for Energywise Ireland Neptune as they were eliminated from the Pat Duffy Men’s National Cup following a home defeat to Belfast Star.

To be fair Neptune went into the game minus their star bosman Jaylan Hodge which surely hampered their progress in this championship.

In fairness Neptune pushed the northern outfit to the wire but some poor free throw that read 14/25 cost them big time.

The biggest culprits in that department were their professionals with Sean McCarthy (6/10) and Kendall Taylor (3/7) well off the mark.

Indeed, Neptune only succumbed in the closing minutes with Star coming up with the big baskets coming down the stretch.

There was a great atmosphere in the stadium, and it would have been a mighty achievement for Neptune to qualify but it wasn’t to be.

Ironically these teams will go head to head again tomorrow at the Neptune stadium (6.30pm) when Star are back in town and it will be interesting to see if their talented guard Hodge returns for this clash.

There is little doubt Neptune under coach Adam Drummond are a far better team than we witnessed in previous year’s but this cup loss will hurt.

For the Blackpool outfit it’s all about keeping the momentum going in their Super League programme and I wouldn’t rule them out having a solid campaign.

Ballincollig will count themselves lucky they got over UCD Marian in their cup clash as in truth elimination looked on the cards for long periods.

Indeed, if the UCD Marian American Isiah Taylor hadn’t gone off injured for the closing 15 minutes there could well have been a different result as he was the best player on court with a 22 point tally.

The biggest problem for Ciaran O’Sullivan right now is that his professionals A J Williams and Zachary Davis are simply not doing the business on the scoring front.

Williams only accounted for 11 points in 37 minutes of action against UCD and the figures of Davis is worse only having 4 points during his 26 minutes on court.

Looking at Ballincollig they have a major problem not having a post player as both Williams and Davis are not players in that category.

To be fair Williams is a quality player but just going through a tough patch but Davis who had a good college career has been very disappointing in his three games to date.

Luckily for Ballincollig their captain and leader Adrian O’Sullivan is playing superb basketball and it was his tenacity that helped his team see off UCD Marian.

In tomorrow’s clash St Vincent’s come to the MTU Arena winless and it may be a good opportunity for Ballincollig’s Americans to get their confidence back.