The Future of British Basketball – BBC 5 Live Podcast

August 31, 2012

If, like me, you are a sucker for UK hoops and love to delve into ‘the state of the game’, BBC 5 Live aired this interesting feature on the future of British basketball last night. Darren Fletcher is joined by Mark Woods, Assistant Editor of MVP Magazine and BBC Sport’s Chris Mitchell to look at [...]

NCAA Gets British Education System Wrong

January 28, 2012

There may be no-one in the country better equipped to talk about the NCAA and their eligibility rules for British players than Duco van Oostrum. After his son Nigel (who currently attends NCAA Division 2 school Franklin Pierce) fell victim to the same rules a few years ago, Duco has spent years reading and researching [...]

Warwick Cann Talks British Basketball

November 5, 2011

The question of what is holding back basketball in Great Britain (GB) is something I get asked on a weekly basis. Though I try to give an honest answer, I always feel it would be much more interesting to ask someone who actually has a direct responsibility for the sport. Last week over the course [...]

Jimmy Rogers Slams Olympic Basketball Legacy

July 9, 2011

Legendary Brixton Topcats coach Jimmy Rogers (pictured) has slammed the lack of a ‘legacy’ for basketball after the London 2012 Olympics. Rogers, who has coached the likes of Luol Deng, Ogo Adegboye, Matthew Bryan-Amaning and Justin Robinson, feels not enough has been invested in grass-roots basketball and is frustrated by the lack of a full [...]

Packham: Perfect Practise Makes Perfect

June 7, 2011

Image: paulrs By Roy Packham In my most recent article I compared the standard of coaching in England to that of other European countries and suggested that there should be a complete re-appraisal of coaching courses and coaching qualifications. But of course, it is not just coaches and coaching standards that are responsible for the [...]

Junior National League Needs Restructuring For England To Excel

March 26, 2011

  Words by Roy Packham English U18 (previously U19) national teams have never won a medal in the, European Championships in either the “senior” division or the B division. By contrast Yugoslavia (or Serbia / Croatia), Soviet Union, Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Slovenia, Latvia and Czechoslovakia have all won medals. If one [...]

Thumbnail image for Coaching in the UK Needs a “Radical Overhaul”

Coaching in the UK Needs a “Radical Overhaul”

November 28, 2010

Words by Roy Packham In my previous article titled The State of the Game, I suggested that coaching might be one reason for the present low standard of basketball found in this country, at both senior and, particularly, junior level. I would say at the outset that I believe it is vitally important to produce [...]

Thumbnail image for “I Care”-A Response to ‘The State of the Game’-Duco Van Oostrum

“I Care”-A Response to ‘The State of the Game’-Duco Van Oostrum

September 29, 2010

Last week, Hoopsfix published Roy Packham’s thoughts on the state of basketball in England in an article titled “The State of the Game”. The article got a lot of great feedback and has stoked a lot of discussion. Duco Van Oostrum, a coach with the Sheffield Junior Sharks program (and father to young ballin’ prospects [...]

Thumbnail image for The State of the Game-Roy Packham

The State of the Game-Roy Packham

September 25, 2010

There are few people in the UK that have had more time around the game than Roy Packham (bio at the bottom of the article) so when he got in touch sharing a few of his thoughts on the state of of basketball in England I had no hesistation in wanting to publish them. As [...]

Thumbnail image for “Basketball in the UK Needs Fresh Ideas”-Des Williams

“Basketball in the UK Needs Fresh Ideas”-Des Williams

June 26, 2010

In the last few months, I have had a few emails from Des Williams (bio at the bottom of the article), discussing the state of the game in the UK; he has some very interesting insights and has provided me much to think about. Anyway, I thought there is no point discussing this stuff behind [...]