It's hard not to sense the genuine excitement now circling the Irish Basketball Association. Tonight, in Germany, the senior men play their opening game in the European Championship semi-finals and in every sense it's history in the making.
For too long, the Irish men had been stuck in the furthest fringes of European competition. Repeated efforts to come out of the qualifying rounds fell a long way short. Last August, though, thanks mainly to a three-point win over Finland, the Irish finally earned their right to mix it with the best in Europe. The best will emerge for the European Championship finals in Sweden in 2003.
Part of the Irish success has to do with recent adjustments in FIBA rules, which for the first time cleared the way for Irish-Americans to wear the green vest. Equally important was last year's appointment of Bill Dooley as head coach, one of the most experienced American collegiate coaches of his time.
After tonight's game against Germany (ranked fourth in Europe), they host Croatia (seventh) in the National Arena on Saturday and are home against Macedonia the following Wednesday.
The journey then extends into January and November of next year, and finishes in January of 2003. By then, Ireland will have played the five teams in the group both at home and away.
The semi-final round consists of 30 teams in all, drawn from the 15 teams that placed second to 16th in the 2001 Championships, the five teams who stayed in the semi-final round this year, the eight teams (including Ireland) which came through the qualifying round, and two teams from the pre-qualifying.
The qualifiers were drawn into five groups of six teams. Final qualification will go to the top two placed teams in each group, plus the four best third-placed teams.
Opening up away to Germany will at least get the hardest game over with. Most of the Irish players have been training at their German base in Giessen since last Sunday, but coach Dooley learned yesterday that co-captain Dan Callahan would not be joining them.
Callahan is currently transferring clubs from the Greek league to Italy, but that deal requires him missing the Irish game.
IRISH SENIOR MEN SQUAD: Bill Donlon (Bourg/France), Adrian Fulton (Star of the Sea/Ireland), Damien Sealy (Killester/Ireland), Mike Mitchell (Avitos Giessen/Germany), Jay Larranaga (Racing Basket/France), Tim Kennedy (Overense/Portugal), Jim Moran (Telecom Canarias/Spain), John O'Connell (Birmingham Bullets/UK), Marty Conlon (Marousi/Greece), Gareth Maguire (Star of the Sea/Ireland); Coach: Bill Dooley; Asst Coach: Gerry Fitzpatrick; Manager: Deirdre Clinkscales; Physio: Margaret Ryan.
Semi-final Fixtures: v Germany (away) tonight; v Croatia (home) Nov 24th; v Macedonia (home) Nov 28th; 2002 - v Cyprus (away) Jan 23rd; v Bosnia (home) Jan 26th; v Germany (home) Nov 20th; v Croatia (away) Nov 23rd; v Macedonia (away) Nov 27th; 2003 - v Cyprus (home) Jan 22nd; v Bosnia (away) Jan 25th.
