One of the worst kept secrets over the past few days in Cork basketball circles has been Neptune's pursuit to re-sign livewire American Harold Joiner, the 6 ft 1 in three-point shooter who was one of the few success stories in the club during the nightmare season which ended last March.
Yesterday the club confirmed that they had released Terry Smith and that Joiner was indeed the most likely replacement to line up alongside big Shawn Wilson for the Cork derby tonight against Blue Demons.
There is no rivalry in the league which matches the intensity of a Neptune v Demons contest even allowing for the enforced five-year-old sabbatical from the National League endured by the Demons club up to the start of October.
Without Demons for much of the 1990s, the league and in particular basketball in Cork has suffered and consequently duels like the one tonight in Curranebraher are critical to the success of the new superleague format.
After making an inconsistent start to their comeback season, Demons laid a telling marker in their revival by humbling their old foe in the cup, 81-6, a fortnight ago and so set about a process of self-examination in the Neptune club.
Demons, on the other hand, have prospered from that cup win as they showed in both of their league games last weekend. On their long journey up north, they won in Dungannon on Saturday and were only pipped by a basket in the last second by reigning champions, Star of the Sea, in Belfast on Sunday, after leading by six points with five minutes to go. In contrast, Neptune suffered a second half collapse against Killester last Saturday in the league to slump to their second consecutive defeat on their home court and it will be no bad thing for them to get away from the Neptune Stadium to make the short journey to the Parochial Hall tonight.
Also tonight, there is a Dublin derby at the National Arena in Tallaght involving Notre Dame and St Vincent's, both of whom are caught up in a mid-table struggle.
Notre Dame are in action again tomorrow against Star of the Sea, the team they battled with unsuccessfully for the league title last season. That is one of two televised games over the weekend and it is preceded by the other one, which is the clash of northside rivals, Dublin Bay Vikings and high-flying Killester.
There is every chance that the league leaders, Waterford, will stretch their 100 per cent record to seven games as they host struggling Tolka Rovers tomorrow night although the Dublin club did pick up their first win of the season by shocking St Vincent's last Friday night.
No fewer than six clubs are on duty twice over the weekend and the pick of the Sunday fixtures is the Dublin derby game in Clontarf between joint second placed Vikings and St Vincent's.
Although Waterford should remain with the only unbeaten record after the weekend, they could still be overtaken at the top of the table if Star of the Sea win both of their games away to Notre Dame tomorrow and Limerick on Sunday.
The women's superleague resumes this weekend after a break which allowed the Irish squad to play an intensive sequence of eight matches against Division 1 East Coast American Colleges last week. As a preparation for their up-coming European championship campaign, the five Irish victories were of real encouragement to coach Gerry Fitzpatrick. His club, Wildcats, face a particularly stiff test of their yearlong unbeaten record in all national competitions when they travel to Dublin tomorrow night to play Tolka Rovers. One women's superleague game will be televised on Sunday evening on Network 2 and that is the duel between Killester and Limerick, which is scheduled for an early evening 5.15 start tomorrow.
Irish Women's Tour to America - Ireland 90, Telkyo Post 70; Ireland 90 , St Joseph's, Hartford, 53, Ireland 79, Quinnipiac 73, Ireland 53, Colombia 52, Ireland 43, St Joseph's, Philadelphia, 86, Ireland 60, Binghampton 66, Ireland 83, Cabrini 68.
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