Big coup for Panthers with the signing of Wallace

PORTLAOISE Panthers Men’s National League team have secured a major coup with the signing of American point guard, Mike Wallace ahead of the 2025/26 season.

The former Tolka Rovers and SETU Carlow competitor will bring no shortage of experience to Jack Scully’s side, who, last week, parted ways with American, Seth Dawson only a few weeks into pre-season.

“We played four games, I got a look at him [Dawson] and unfortunately he just wasn’t what I needed,” explained Scully.

“Looking back now, I should have signed Mike at the end of last season, but obviously there was something about Seth that caught my eye. But look, it's a learning curve. Mike's proven in the league and I'm amazed he was still available when I went looking on Friday.

“He knows the league, he’s a proven scorer in the league, he's a really good attitude and we're really happy with the signing.

“He's a known and proven entity, so I've no real worries about the level of performance he’s going to bring to the team. I know he can dominate in this league, so that's a load off my mind,” he told the *****Laois Nationalist*****.

Certainly Wallace is one of the most highly-rated players in the National League, having averaged 24 and 23 points per game over the past two seasons, during which he has twice earned selection for the National League All-Star 1st team.

His familiarity with Men’s Division One basketball in Ireland was another key factor in Scully’s decision to bring him on board, the Portlaoise boss pointing out: “If you look across our squad, we’ve three pros and two of them are seasoned professionals in Ireland which is good for us, because of the level of experience of our squad.

“I suppose 99% of pros in the league would all be rookies, first-year pros, but our pros are definitely on the more experienced side, and they know what it takes to win at this level.

“They’ve been around the league and they’re really experienced, so it’s definitely a help for me as a head coach to have experienced players like that,” he said.

Wallace is no stranger to quite a number of the players in Portlaoise, having played with the likes of Xabi Arriaga, Kevin Donohoe and Gary Morrissey when at SETU Carlow.

And he will get the opportunity to quickly bed in with the squad when they line out in this weekend’s eight-team pre-season tournament in St. Mary’s Hall, Panthers going up against Tipp Talons, Templeogue and Tolka Rovers in one of the two groups that make up the competition.

“Mike's a good guy,” remarked Scully. “He knows the club, he knows the players. He’s spent a lot of time around the club over the last couple of years, on social nights out and things like that, so he's well known to everyone in the club. He knows the way we do things here and I think he’ll be ready to go straight away.” Wallace is certainly a valuable addition to a Portlaoise squad that has undergone a lot of change over the summer following the departure of high-profile names in the likes of American power forward, Eric Anderson, James Phelan, Liam Kinsella, Cormac Howson and Aleksandar Kovacevic.

In addition to Wallace, Scully has also brought in 6’8” centre, Rich Ashu from London, while still holding on to Arriaga, Donohoe and the core of the club’s stalwarts in the likes of Davin McEvoy, Dylan Dunne and Kyle Burke.

Gary Morrissey continues to work his way back from injury while Trevor Swayne will make a return to the Panthers set-up later in the season, and young guns, Jayden Umeh and Justice Iheme are poised to make the step up to National League basketball.

Portlaoise, who, last season, enjoyed their most successful year ever, reaching both the President’s National Cup and Division One play-off finals, will ignite their 2025/26 league campaign with a home game against Maree in St Mary’s Hall on Saturday 4 October.

Scully does anticipate a more workmanlike approach to the new campaign given the loss of so many experienced stars in the off-season and the introduction of several young players this time around, which makes the arrival of Wallace all the more timely and valuable.