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New Year, new formatPart 1 | Some conversations with some current Irish SuperLeague Men's player about the league cancellation this year and a few other topics related to the leagueSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

Cal Basketball commit Sam Alajiki talk about his time in the EABL, the English Academies Basketball League, focusing on explosive strenght training, his decision move to the US and much more..Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

In the Part II, Pat discusses his experience within the top tier of European basketball with some funny stories of coaches and the stark comparison of those to the NBA. Finally, we discuss the potential for Irish basketball's future and finish on some quick fire stuffPersonally, I thoroughly enjoyed the chat with Pat - he talks with great humour and warmth. A pleasure to have on the podcast !Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

Ex NBA & Irish International Pat Burke on growing up in an Irish-Americian community and his S&C body transformation through his college years...Part II will include stories about  NBA vs top tier European teams including some funny stories about varying coaching stylesHoopfolio Twitter: https://twitter.com/hoopfolioHoopfolio YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqOAhWO6XPuoOjQ89zCts9g/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

Ex NBA and Irish International Marty Conlon on playing in Final 4, the rigors of 10 years of NBA , playing for Ireland & his friendship with Pat Burke...Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

Current U16 and U18 Irish National Team Head Coach Paul Kelleher had a facinating conversation about 1. Coach Bob Mc Killop of Davidson's influence on his2. Steping up his coaching game in European competition3. Funding in underage National teams4. Scouting for Internation basketball tournaments5. His learning from his time as a Superleague coach 6. The gap from young Irish players currently to get to top tier EuropeCoach Kelleher was able to give very insightful viewpoints throughtout the chat and cast a light on the inner works for the underage national teams and the pressures of holding these kids destiny's in his hands Probably one of my favourite eposides as Coach Kelleher opens up on his journey so far in the world of basketball coachingSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

Current GB Men's Internation and Leicester Riders player Jamell Anderson on his basktball journey from Nottingham to Australia and back to Leicester Riders in the BBL with a stop in Spain along the waySupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

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Raised in small town America, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, at 5'10, Drew managed to attract enough attention on the AAU basketball circuit to garner attention over the final 2 years of high school and landed a Division I scholarship.  Following his playing career at Lafayette College, Drew accepted a graduate assistantship role with nationally recognized D2 programme, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania and eventually ended back at his alma mater, Lafayette College, as the youngest assistant coach in the country at the time under seasoned head coach, Fran O'Hanlon, and just as the Lafayette men's basketball programme was implementing full basketball scholarships for the first time.  Following this, Drew was given the opportunity as associate coach under Dan Leibovitz (who had served under former Temple University and Hall of Fame coach, John Chaney) at the University of Hartford.  Having stayed in the narrow D1 assistant coaching lane for a number of years, Drew decided to shift to a role with the Global Sports Academy and basketball initiatives overseas before taking the head coaching position at Choate Rosemary Hall, one of the nation's top prep schools.  During this time, Drew also became heavily involved in the business side of sport, helping to co-found two different startups including Skill Development Coach (SDC), giving him a very well rounded view of sports and athletes, generally speaking, as well as college sports.  We discuss a lot of topics related to Drew's experiences in Ireland with the Sport Dream Academy and Drew weighs in on what he thinks next steps might be for Basketball Ireland and the progress he has noticed in his numerous visits.  There have been several episodes since Drew and I recorded our lengthy discussion and he asked that I make mention that this episode was recorded prior to the death of George Floyd, where after these events Drew has been active around the issue and asked that I note he would have taken the opportunity to discuss his thoughts on the current social unrest had it been recorded after the fact.  A long, but very enjoyable conversation worth sticking with, and maybe breaking up into two separate listening sessions.  Please enjoy, share and any feedback is welcome!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

Starting off in West Hollywood high school Fairfax, LA as a speedy pass first PG who grew up watching Lakes and Celtics ball movement, Flinder garnered attention from some Division I Ivy league schools, including Harvard.   He eventually chose Dartmouth, a small school Ivy league school North of Boston and while there learned that to become a better player he need to adapt to the coach and playing style which lead to a strong senior year and thoughts of playing pro.  Touring with a US travel team in Portugal, he caught a glimpse of the pro basketball life and immediately loved the lifestyle of seeing the world and getting paid to play basketball. He played four years in France before moving on to Spain, Slovakia, UK and finally a crazy Greece 1st experience during the financial crisis league to cap off his pro career.  In Flinders’ peek years, he was involved with Team in 2009 Eurobasket with Team GB in the infamous loss to Spain by 5 points, a GB team without Loul Deng and Spain with Gasol brothers, Ricky Rubio and host of other NBA  talent.   Flinder, with a decent tenure in pro basketball and now being a sports journalist, has some incredible stories that he tells in a very colourful way.  Listen to his story in his own words..Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

Former Media and Communications Manager for Basketball Ireland Mary McGuire on her time in the role...The West Meath native, having tried out the role initially as a contractor, decided to apply for the permanent position as the Media and Comms Manager for Basketball Ireland. She explained she immediately felt welcomed into Basketball Ireland and was empowered to connect with the clubs and team around the country which we manage to achieve in her first six months.Drawing on her experience with Paralympics Ireland in Rio, Mary used Facebook Live to allow smaller basketball clubs to stream their games live for the nation to see and used social media platform Twitter to give live scores, updates and final standings for everyone unable to attend, notably leading the infamous and incessant "what's the score?" requests between tweets. Building on her predecessor's foundations, Mary certainly appears to have helped Basketball Ireland turned a corner by truely connecting with the various basketball communities around Ireland via social media and her message to basketball clubs is to continue to do the same with their supporters.Mary also did a lot to promote the women's basketball game here in Ireland. As part of 20x20.ie, Mary recognised a gap in coaching and set up coaching course exclusively for females aimed at trying to get more female coach into the elite level coaching positions. Think everyone would agree, the Irish basketball community wish Mary the best of luck in her next role and thank her for her stellar efforts to help grow the sport of Basketball in Ireland over the last 4 yearsListen to her journey in her own words...📽️Video: To stay notifed of new episodes, follow Hoopfolio on:https://www.facebook.com/hoopfoliohttps://twitter.com/hoopfolioSubscribe on : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqOAhWO6XPuoOjQ89zCts9gSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

Ex Tolka Rovers Basketball Club player Matt Treacy on his development in Tolka's National League side to an NCAA Div II college basketball in the US.A seemly late bloomer, Matt describes making a U18 National team and playing up to U20 and then Senior Men which given him the realisation of the work he still had to do.Matt got recruited to Combine Academy following U18 European Championships where he focused on developing he strength and athleticism allowing him to focus on playing 2, 3 and 4 spot. From there Matt, was recruited to Urbana University and given a big role in his freshmen year before recently transferring to high ranked NCAA Div II school Valdosta State Basketball in Gorgia. Matt is a good sized guard who has now broken through to the Men's National Team and has alot more room to develop in Valdosta State. Definitely an Irish guy to watch for the future..Listen to his story in his own words...To stay notifed of new episodes, follow Hoopfolio on:https://www.facebook.com/hoopfoliohttps://twitter.com/hoopfoliohttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqOAhWO6XPuoOjQ89zCts9gSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

@hoopfolio Episode # 6 - Mike Bree |🏀🇮🇪In this episode, we chat to Mike Bree about his unlikley journey from playing for Sligo All Stars in the Irish National league to Div 1 college ball in the US for Davidson college. A product of the golden era of Irish basketball where top level US basketball players came to Ireland, Mick describes how his U18 National team made the European Championship semi-final, an incredible feat given there was no A or B grading.Following this tournament, Bree started to get some interest from the US and it was Bob McKillop's honest pitch that convinced a young Bree to take the leap. Mike explains that being the first ever male Irish player to play at the NCAA Div 1 basketball level was tough and he did not have a mentor to lean on when things didn't go his way, but he found enough reslove to push through the adversity. He was however able to mentor some of the other Irish players that followed his footsteps to D1 basketball such as Conor Grace and Paul Cummins.Now considered one of the best Irish players to ever come out of the Irish schools systems, Mike gratuated from Davidson college and went on to play pro basketball in Europe in some top leagues before settling in Sweden where is his now enjoying coaching at elite basketball academy Basketgymnasiet RIG MARKListen to his story in his own words..📽️Video: https://youtu.be/t6Ow9k6qDPcTo stay notifed of new episodes, follow Hoopfolio on:https://www.facebook.com/hoopfoliohttps://twitter.com/hoopfoliohttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqOAhWO6XPuoOjQ89zCts9gSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

Former Irish International and founder of Sport Dream Academy (SDA) Paul Cummins on fullfilling his US hoopdreams, his year in Scottish basketball, how he founded SDA and more..🏀Paul played tells of us his time living out his dream of playing highschool and prep school before moving on to play Division I NCAA basketball in college. He talks about the importance of education in his college choice, how he understood basketball to be a vehicle for further success in life and the founding of Sports Dream Academy which has helped multiple younger player realise their dream of playing basketball at a higher level in college.Listen to Paul's story in his own word...To stay notified about new episodes follow me on :https://twitter.com/hoopfoliohttps://www.facebook.com/hoopfolioVideo's of podcast are now available here:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqOAhWO6XPuoOjQ89zCts9g/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)

GB Men's and U20 assistant coach and former Barking Abbey Basketball Head Coach Lloyd Gardner on player's college decisions, Barking's academy model, competing with Europe's elite and more.. 🎙️🏀To stay notified about new episodes follow me on :https://twitter.com/hoopfoliohttps://www.facebook.com/hoopfolioVideo's of podcast are now available here:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqOAhWO6XPuoOjQ89zCts9g/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/hoopfolio)