Centre of Excellence Young Guns Lock in for Albert Schweitzer Tournament

A squad of Australia’s brightest basketball talent are on their way to Mannheim, Germany to compete against the world’s best for the 30th Albert Schweitzer Tournament.  
 
Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence team led by head coach Robbie McKinlay will kick off their campaign against Turkey on 30 March, before facing Czechia, Japan, Germany U18 and Slovenia in the group stage. 
 
“Any time we can get our young athletes into Europe, its huge for us as a program and we are excited to be invited to such a prestigious tournament,” said McKinlay.

“To be able to pull the group together and have this highly competitive opportunity is testament to the States and Territories and the pathway.” 
 
McKinlay is taking a contingent of players with previous international tournament experience including Rocco Zikarsky, Roman Siulepa, Jack Whitbourn, Cooper Rowlings, Emmett Adair, Che Brogan and Jacob Furphy.  

It will be the first time donning the Green and Gold for Queenslander Mason Honeyman, South Australia’s Patrick D’Arcy & Alex Dodson as well as Victorian Luke Fennell. 
 
As Basketball Australia’s Director of High Performance, Coaching & Talent Identification, Peter Lonergan welcomes the Albert Schweitzer Tournament as a catalyst for team and player development.  
 
“The Centre of Excellence and Australian basketball has a proud tradition at the Albert Schweitzer Tournament and the event provides valuable competition against the games powerful nations,” said Lonergan.

“Exposing our young talent to meaningful international tournament play is so important as we look to identify and develop the next crop of Australian Boomers.” 
 
The Albert Schweitzer Tournament has been a gathering of elite basketball talent since the inaugural games in 1958. The tournament restructured in 1993 to align with the FIBA calendar and Australia has been a mainstay in the competition since 1994. 
 
The tournament continues to be prime scouting opportunity for professional leagues across the world and has featured previous Australian players Patrick Mills, David Andersen, Andrew Bogut, Matthew Dellavedova and Mitch Creek. Creek was acknowledged as Most Valuable Player of the event in 2010. 
 
Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence squad kick off the group stage against Turkey on Saturday, March 30 2024 with the top four from each group progressing to the Qualification Round.  
 
Updates will be available via Centre of Excellence – X platform as the tournament progresses