How to get Scottish basketball up to speed at international level is a question which ought to be exercising the minds of coaches and administrators in the next few months as plans are laid for next season.
A Scottish team containing five senior caps failed to win a match in the Four Countries Under-23 Championship in Ware, Herts last weekend. Worse still, though the Scots improved as the weekend progressed, the opposition seemed faster, fitter and more skillful.
For nearly a decade Irish basketball has been on the move, indeed judging by their results in other youth sports such as football, Irish sport is on the up-and-up.
The display of the Welsh was a revelation. They ran Ireland off their feet in the opening game to win 104-91, gave the mighty England a very close game in their second outing and held off a Scottish revival in their final game to finish overall runners-up to England. All this without being full strength.
Ireland were without six key players, four away with the senior team at the European Championships in Helsinki and another two tied up with their studies, yet they played with cohesion and
spirit, not to mention fundamental skill. If Scotland, who had led England for the first quarter before slumping to a 87-48 defeat, thought the Irish would be easy they were sorely wrong and went down 78-60 with only Keith Bunyan able to find the target consistently.
At least they stepped up a gear against Wales and led until 19 minutes. This begged the question of whether with more match practice they might have been better prepared: Wales used the event as part of their preparation for the European Promotions Cup in Gibraltar next month, a senior event which Scotland should attend.
Ireland are at a higher level and beat Switzerland in the opening match of the European Championship Preliminary Round in Helsinki. They have 15 players in contract with European clubs and their coaches regularly attend clinics in Europe; Wales are placing players in the German Bundesliga as well as sending them to college in the US. Scottish players and coaches seem less adventurous.
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