London defended their Under-15 Regional Development Tournament title this weekend, beating the North-West 86-63 in the final in Nottingham on Sunday.
The win gives London back-to-back titles at this age group after winning the 2011 tournament in Nottingham.
Under-15 Regional Development Tournament Final Standings
1st London
2nd North West
3rd South East
4th Yorkshire
5th South
6th West Midlands
7th East Midlands
8th South West
9th East
10th North East
British Basketball Head of Performance Warwick Cann, said that the standard of the tournament has markedly improved on previous years:
“Clearly the U15 Boys Regional Development Tournament impressed all with the improved quality and standard of play produced.
“I believe there has been great progress with standards and quality for both players and coaches at this level.
“Over the weekend I had many comments offered to me by good judges of basketball commenting on the noticeable standard improvement in 12 months for this age group. The team offence and the offensive technical skills have improved greatly across all regions and I think the Area Performance Centres (APC) have been a major contributor to this. They have been well supported in most cases by the regional coaches with good preparation periods.”
Jack Burnell from the East won the ‘British Shooting Competition’ hitting 17 of 22 elbow jumpshots.
You can see full results from the tournament here, and all the respective squads here.
Did you make it to the tournament? Thoughts?
Image Credit: Kirsty Davide
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
The comments from Mr Cann re the U15 Regionals were most interesting, especially when one looks at the majority of results. (The final game was won, just, by 23 points )
The overall standard was poor.
As Head of Performance, and given the years he has been in this office, Mr Cann has achieved very little.
Can anyone define, exactly, what is the responsibilities and objectives of Head of Performance as they relate to junior development and coaching standards.
As has been mentioned so many times, unless and until drastic action and re-organization of junior basketball is effected, we will never be able to compete with the top tier of European teams.
This is a very unfair comment about Warwick Cann . He has certainly clarified the processes whereby young people get involved with National Programmes and the Development Programmes are more accessible . It wasn’t so long ago that a girl from London would have to travel to Northampton to be part of the player pathway . He has provided the means for all coaches involved in the pathway to work along similar lines and to see an opportunity for their own coaching progress .
Mr Cann is not able to give Clubs access to decent and cheap indoor facilities so Clubs are stuck with twice a week training if they are lucky . A National league structure which involves games where teams are winning by 100 points also contribute to our lack of progress . Quality training 3 times per week allied to competitive games with a 30 point defeats a rarity will move us to the next level . Easier said than done .
Certainly over the past very few years junior standards have not improved immeasurably. Whilst I do not know the details of Warwick Cann’s Contract with the EB, I would certainly have thought that, as Head of Performance, this would entail improving the performance of junior basketball.
Certainly one reason that junior standards have not particularly improved is due to the fact that training facilities are nowhere near as easily available as they are in European countries and to be fair to Warwick Cann he has little or no control over this.
However, it is also true that our present coaching system, courses, syllabi, qualifications etc., are in desperate need of revision and upgrade and made far more challenging and demanding and this must surely be another objective of any Performance Manager.
The junior league as it exists at present does absolutely zilch for encouraging development in playing standards ( and therefore in coaching standards).
This has been stated so many times and has consistently been ignored by the EB that one has to wonder does anyone in the EB really care?
I would have thought that a principal objective of any Performance Manager would be to raise the standard of junior basketball as this is the only future of senior basketball. As such, then this person must ensure that the junior league is reformatted to provide the required level of competition and challenge.
Until this happens, NOTHING will change.
The Regional U15 did display a poor playing standard and Warwick Canns remarks were another case of the glass being half full rather than half empty (as has been said somewhere else). Maybe the standard has improved from last year, although I do not think so, but if so, only by a very very small amount.
On a final note, I fail to understand why it is necessary to import from abroad when there are many people within our own country who have the capability to perform similar functions and, also, have an eagerness to see English basketball develop, somethings that I tend to think is not in-built to anyone who is not English and could just go elsewhere at any time.