It’s opening weekend in Ireland and the Domino’s men’s Super League featured a clash of near neighbours. Emmet Ryan was impressed with what he saw from a radically overhauled UCD Marian roster in their win over Griffith College Éanna.
Opening weekend in Ireland reminded us all why it’s a good thing that basketball is an indoor sport. Storm Amy’s unpleasant impact led to plenty of fans arriving soaked at UCD for the season opener. Still, it was a full house for what proved to be a fun one to watch between UCD Marian and Éanna.
The James Gormley dilemma
In James Gormley, Éanna have a versatile big. A is singular and that matters. In the early going he proved really effective at both ends. Athletically he looked the best he’s been to start a season ever.
Then the reality of the load being asked of a man with a classic 5’s build hit home. Gormley got gassed rather early and you couldn’t really put this down to conditioning. He was going at playoff pace at both ends from the off and that caught up on him quickly.
Éanna would try using Manou Christal briefly as an undersized big to spell for Gormley before making a more long-term switch. They essentially went small-ball when he sat and had Gormley pace himself more when in. It was less exciting but was a far more economical use of him. How the side adapts Gormley’s role in the coming weeks could prove telling for their season.
The game opens up
Somewhat unsurprising for the first competitive game either side had played since March, the early going was inside-heavy. Once UCD Marian got their screen and roll game going, that changed the dynamic substantially.
Mihael Linde, one of 9 new players on the roster, started a rally that turned into an 18-2 run between the backside of the first quarter and the early going of the second. That turned an 11 point Éanna lead into a 5 point advantage for the hosts.
They’d never trailed again. Jack Kehoe went off big time in his first stint on the floor as Éanna’s switch to small ball began to look more forced. The changed dynamic saw UCD Marian roll into the break up 51-38.
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The cohesion was clear
With only 4 players back from last season, one where they outperformed preseason expectations by making the playoffs, the one thing that felt certain for UCD Marian was that they’d need time to gel.
About that, the cohesion on display was mightily impressive. Josh Reynolds, a Detroit native who has played in Ireland’s second tier before, stepped up well to Super League standard. What stood out most was his lack of need for the ball. With an undersized line-up, it’s rather crucial that movement is free flowing for Ioannis Liapakis’ squad.
They got that and had fine outings from Sean O’Flynn and Tanner Graham, the latter one of the few players retained from last season. For Liapakis, getting chemistry early removes a potentially huge headache for him. Without a clear big, he needs to be able to rotate heavily and often to adjust. The last thing he needed was players still learning their roles in games that matter.
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Éanna show a defensive step forward
Despite losing 101-79 on the night, there were plenty of bright spots in Éanna’s performance. The improved defensive display in the third quarter from the visitors clearly rattled UCD Marian.
Mikah Blackwell in particular looks like a huge addition on that side of the game. Meanwhile the core that remains of Gormley, Seán Jenkins, and Kristian Andabaka still provided good contributions overall.
The biggest issue they had was ball security. While their 29 turnovers was only 4 more than UCD Marian’s 25, that’s still 29 turnovers. That’s a lot of turnovers and really what put a ceiling on their third quarter charge.
It is, of course, opening week. That means errors are to be expected. Working on the chemistry and how best to deploy Gormley, because he’s not getting cloned, are the clear jobs for the weeks to come. These are soluble issues too. A heavy defeat but a usefully illuminating one at that.
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