Basketball Weekend previews: Although professional imports have helped raise the Superleague's stature, their presence has also hindered young Irish talent from progressing up to the highest levels of the game. In just its first year, the National Ranking Tournament (NRT) is a valiant effort at breaking this mould.
One of the genuine opportunities for Basketball Ireland to promote its home-grown talent takes place this weekend when the league makes way for the second, and final, instalment of the NRT. With only Irish players involved, the competition was set up by the Superleague Board to be used as one of a series of measures to help monitor and improve the domestic playing standards.
Each team is split into four pools, with the end result seeing a national club-ranking list established. Clubs will be placed from first to 16th, depending on their performances. The list will be published on a trial basis for this year.
The Board hope greater relevance will be on the rankings next year. One possibility mentioned was, in the event of two teams finishing level in the Superleague, the NRT results could dictate who finishes higher.
This new venture is a timely wake-up call to top teams like Neptune, who are heavily reliant on their imports - Kenny Gamble, Sean Watson and Dave Langrell - as they can only aspire to finishing ninth. In order to do even that, they need to beat Limerick and then the winners of Queens and Shamrock Rovers Hoops on Sunday. UCD Marian and Tolka Rovers are even worse off as they can only finish 13th.
In Pool A, the Tralee Tigers, Killester, Waterford and St Vincent's battle it out for the top seed. Vincent's, with Stephen McGurk and Dave Donnelly expected to shine, and the Tigers are slight favourites as their opponents struggle with injuries.
Meanwhile, Tolka Rovers hope, by early next week, to have resolved the financial crisis that is currently threatening their future in the Superleague. They will be participating in the ranking tournament in Castlebar this weekend but are not scheduled to return to league action until December 3rd.
One Superleague match does take place tonight as UCC Demons host Limerick.
TODAY - ESB Men's Superleague: Mardyke UCC Demons v Burger King Limerick, Mardyke Arena, 8.15. SATURDAY - National Ranking Tournament Pool A: Positions 1-4 (Venue: Waterford): Tralee Tigers v Dart Killester, 12:00; Waterford v St Vincent's, 2:00; Losers Game 1 v Losers Game 2, 5:00; Winners Game 1 v Winners Game 2, 7:00. Pool B: Positions 5-8 (Venue: Mountmellick): Killarney Lakers v Star of the Sea, 12:00; UCC Demons v Ballina Braves, 2:00; Losers Game 1 v Losers Game 2, 5:00; Winners Game 1 v Winners Game 2, 7:00; Pool D: Positions 13-16 (Venue: Castlebar): UCD Marian v Castlebar, 12:00; Tolka Rovers v Moycullen, 2:00; Losers Game 1 v Losers Game 2, 5.00; Winners Game 1 v Winners Game 2, 7.00; SUNDAY - Pool C: Positions 9-12 (Venue: Mountmellick): Limerick v Neptune, 11:00; Queens v Shamrock Rovers Hoops, 1:00; Losers Game 1 v Losers Game 2, 4:00; Winners Game 1 v Winners Game 2, 6:00.
