The Ireland senior men’s head coach, Pete Strickland and his assistant coach, Ioannis Liapakis, have today announced the final roster of 12 players who will go on to represent their country at this summer’s FIBA European Championship for Small Countries in San Marino.
The squad is a strong mixture of youth and experience, and has been announced following a three-day training camp in Dublin at the weekend.
Speaking about today's announcement, Coach Strickland stated: “The devoted commitment shown this spring from each of our team members towards playing for Ireland has been complete and consistent. Ioannis and I look forward to coaching these unified players in tough international competition in the coming weeks.”
The team will now begin final preparations for the championships in San Marino, which will take place from June 26th to July 1st, and will play two international friendly games against Luxembourg in Cork as part of these preparations. The two-game series will tip off at the Mardyke Arena UCC, Cork on Friday, June 22nd at 7pm and on Saturday, June 23rd at 4pm.
The Ireland senior men’s team 2018:
Adrian O'Sullivan (UCC Demons, Cork)
Aidan Quinn (Belfast Star, Belfast)
Ciaran Roe (Pyrobel Killester, Dublin)
Jason Killeen (Black Amber Templeogue, Dublin)
Jordan Blount (University of Illinois, Chicago and Cork)
Keelan Cairns (Belfast Star, Belfast)
Lorcan Murphy (Black Amber Templeogue, Dublin)
Matt Kelly (UCD Marian, Dublin)
Michael Bonaparte (Black Amber Templeogue, Dublin)
Paul Freeman (Moycullen, Galway)
Taiwo Badmus (University of Virginia Wise, US and London, England)
Travis Black (Griffith College Swords Thunder, Dublin)
FIBA European Championship for Small Countries Official event website: http://www.fiba.basketball/europe/smallcountries/2018
Group A
San Marino
Gibraltar
Moldova
Norway
Group B
Andorra
Malta
Ireland
Wednesday, June 27th
Group Games
Malta v Ireland, 14.00
Thursday, June 28th
Group Games
Ireland v Andorra, 14.00
Saturday, June 30th
Classification Games
Sunday, July 1st
Classification Games
