Basketball Ireland is launching ‘National Cup Week’, in association with Hula Hoops, to celebrate the history and prestige of our game’s showpiece competitions. It starts on Monday and marks when the 2020/21 All-Ireland Schools Cup and Hula Hoops National Cup finals were due to take place.

There will be two special programmes to discuss all things National Cup, which will be posted on all our social channels. On Thursday at 8pm there will be an ‘All-Ireland Schools Cup Special’, which will be presented by Matt Hall. His guests will be Adrian Fulton, Jerome Westbrooks and Erin Bracken. On Sunday at 8pm ‘National Cup Special’ will be presented by Irish Examiner journalist and ‘Hanging from the Rafters’ author, Kieran Shannon. Liam McHale and Karen Hennessy will be among his guests, to mark the 25^th anniversary of Chambourcy Ballina and WCC Meteors being crowned Men’s and Women’s National Cup champions respectively. Basketball Ireland’s and UCD Marian player Conor Meany is also part of the panel.

Throughout the week on Twitter and Instagram we’ll hear National Cup and All-Ireland Schools Cup memories from people involved in the game. Basketball Ireland is calling on schools, clubs, players, coaches, officials and fans to share their National Cup memories on social media too, using the hashtag #NatCupWeek.

We’ve also been digging up the archives for the best photos from All-Ireland Schools Cup and National Cup matches down through the years, which we’ll be showcasing on our Instagram page.

Missing the match action - we’ll also bring you each of the Hula Hoops National Cup finals from the 2019/20 season.

Basketball Ireland CEO, Bernard O’Byrne, said: “Obviously we’re desperately disappointed not to have the usual January buzz at the National Basketball Arena, with all our finals. Instead we are going to celebrate our All-Ireland Schools Cup and National Cup with ‘National Cup Week’. I’m looking forward to reminiscing about all the great days we’ve had down through the years and also to look forward to the future.”