UCD-Marian, one of Irish Basketball’s longest-serving franchises, breaks new ground this year with the announcement of a major new sponsorship with the Mount Herbert Hotel, Sandymount, Dublin 4.
Mr John Loughran, Director of the Mount Herbert Hotel, looks forward to this new initiative: “Situated as we are in Sandymount, beside Marian College, the founding home of UCD-Marian Basketball, and not far from the campus at UCD, we are delighted to be involved in the Basketball SuperLeague which involves teams not just from Dublin but from all four corners of Ireland.”
Mr Paul Meany, Chairman of the UCD-Marian SuperLeague programme also welcomed the new initiative which will allow the club to consolidate its base in the Sandymount area while providing visiting teams with a friendly and comfortable place to stay when they visit Dublin.
The involvement of the Mount Herbert has enabled UCD-Marian to fly in two outstanding professional players but also, for the first time, to employ a professional American coach who will not alone help the SuperLeague programme but will also help the development of young players in the club.
The new Coach is Brian McCormick, from California USA, who has coached in Sweden, and who has provided coaching for many individual College and NBA players in the USA. He is a highly regarded coach who has written many books and articles on basketball, including his most recent publication of a new model for youth basketball development entitled ‘Cross Over’.
The two players, who are causing quite a stir at the hotel, are 6foot-8inch Pape Ba, originally from Senegal, who played his College Basketball in the USA and who last year starred for the Clostrup club in Denmark while he has just been joined by 5foot-11inch speedy point guard, Tony Mitchell from Charleston, South Carolina who has just completed a season in the Super League in Poland.
Pictured above are Michelle Sweeney, Mount Herbert Hotel, Sales & Marketing Manager of the Mount Herbert Hotel, Paul Meany, Marian College, Pape Ba and Tony Mitchell