Intriguing Neptune double bill pits pedigree against form

But as fierce and fiery as their encounters remain on the court, off it relations have never been more civil, co-operative, communal even.

And so you have a scenario this Saturday that not only will the Neptune Stadium host Energywise Neptune’s home Cup quarter-final (against Killester, tipoff 7.30pm), but a few hours earlier it will also stage UCC Demons’ home quarter-final (against Garvey’s Tralee Warriors, tipoff 4pm).

Normally the latter game would be played in the Mardyke Arena; for 20 years now it has been Demons’ go-to home venue. But sometimes, like in the instance of this weekend, that hall is unavailable, with the college requiring it for exams.

There have even been times, like in 2017, when Demons chose their motherland of the Parochial Hall over the more salubrious settings of the Mardyke for a Cup quarter-final against a Tralee side lighting it up in the league, a bit like Banty McEnaney was inclined to take a Kerry out of the open expanses of Clones and instead haul them to the tight, hostile confines of Scotstown.

But this time instead of taking Tralee up to the Hall (where they won that time back in 2017), they’ve looked to play the game in Neptune. And Neptune have openly agreed to it.

Naturally it wasn’t totally out of the good of their own heart. The commercial arrangement makes it worth their while. It would have been primarily a financial decision by Demons too. The Hall’s capacity would now be a fifth of what it would have been back in the day when you could hang from the rafters and have no one from fire and safety onto you about it. And they’d have been aware that telling 500 people there was no room for them to see a Cup game against Tralee in the Hall but they’d be welcome back to the Mardyke a couple of weeks later for a routine league game is no way to treat your patrons.

Still. A few years or certainly a few decades ago there would have been Demons stalwarts who would have taken the hit rather than have a home game of theirs played in the Shed and help pay for its upkeep. This is a different generation now with a different outlook. And so just like they brought the 2023 Cup holders Maree to Neptune last season, Demons will bring Tralee, the 2022 holders, there as well.

Demons themselves, of course, are the 2024 and reigning holders, having seen off both Neptune in that epic semi-final and then their other Cork rivals, Ballincollig, in the final back in January. And yet they go into their ‘home’ quarter-final this Saturday as underdogs, just like Neptune will in the last game of the double bill.

The reason for that is the identity of their respective opponents. Killester and Tralee share the lead at the top of this season’s Superleague with a 7-2 record, two games ahead of the nearest team, who happen to be Demons, and well ahead of Neptune, way back on 4-6.

But as Pat Price, Neptune’s current coach and the winner of four previous Cups from his time with both Demons and Tralee, has more than once said through the years, the Cup does not care about your current league record.

Last January Demons were in the relegation zone when they won their eighth Cup. Some of their main men from that success – Elijah Tillman, James Hannigan, Dave Lehane – are even better now than they were playing back then. Tralee may have the deepest bench in the country, showing their programme continues to not just survive but thrive post-Donaghy, but they’ve lost their last two games and with it their air of invincibility.

Their dip in form means Killester are the hottest team in the country, with Paul Dick playing at a level that even surpasses that he was operating at when winning a league with Tralee back in 2019. Back then he was merely brilliant; now, with both Killester and the national team, he is bordering on masterful. A bit like Danny Ainge with the 1997 Phoenix Suns, Johnny Grennell is going with four guards and opponents are struggling a lot more with their ball movement than Killester are with size.

Meanwhile Neptune have been experiencing another challenging season; for 24 months now they’ve been shipping water. When they played Killester in the league last month they only learned a few hours before tipoff that one of their Americans had left town and the country without telling a soul. Cian Heaphy, the 2022 young player of the year, hasn’t had a proper run without injury. Darragh O’Sullivan, son of Tom and brother of Conor, is still adjusting to the league after four years of college ball in Florida.

From a distance there is nothing to suggest they are any different or better or more cohesive than the Neptune sides that serially underachieved since 2021-22 (when they contested, albeit lost, both the Cup and league finals).

To repeat Price’s old maxim though: the Cup does not care about your league record. Instead it seems to put more weight on your general pedigree: something Neptune and Demons possess in spades. A player in a slump can suddenly can catch fire: like an O’Sullivan. In Roy Downey, Neptune themselves have another veteran buoyant from the national team’s impressive recent international window. Price was coach of that Tralee team Dick won a league with in 2019 and is qualified as anyone in how to curb, if not necessarily stop, him.

On Tuesday Basketball Ireland will hold an open draw to determine the Cup semi-final pairings. Who’ll be in the hat? Could be the two sides sharing top spot in the league. Could be the two sides top of the sport’s roll of honour (Neptune in the league, Demons in the Cup). We don’t know. Just that it’s worth getting to the Neptune Stadium tomorrow, a month earlier than it usually treats us to intriguing Cup double-headers.