Hooley hits the Big Time

South Australian Peter Hooley will achieve a feat most basketballers can only dream of, when he hits the court in the NCAA tournament this Saturday.

And as if this wasn't enough, his Albany team has drawn arguably the most loved and hated school in all of college hoops, the Duke Blue Devils, in a game that will be televised internationally.

Hooley, who turned 21 last month, grew up in Hahndorf in South Australia and was a member of the Basketball SA National Intensive Training Program for four years. He represented both SA Country and South Australia at state level, winning a bronze medal at the 2011 Under 20 Nationals. When college eligibility rules prevented him from suiting up in the Central ABL in 2012, he spent many months training with the Adelaide 36ers, and was all set to start his college career at Albany in late  2012 when tragedy struck - a stress fracture in his foot putting him out of basketball for the entire season.

With much support from parents Jeff and Sue, who have visited Peter three times in the last 15 months, Peter chose to stick it out at Albany, and was fortunate enough to be able to be "red shirted", meaning that he didn't lose a year of college eligibility while sitting out.

Hooley returned the faith shown in him by putting in a stellar freshman year, achieving selection in the "All Freshman" team for the America East Conference, and helping his team towards an unlikely conference championship which booked them a spot in the NCAA tournament.

The NCAA tournament is one of the biggest events in world sports. Games have a bigger attendance than NBA Finals, a TV audience in the millions and annual advertising rights are sold for over a billion dollars.

Duke are one of college basketballs most well known teams internationally and have a typically strong group this year, but the tournament's "knockout" format, coupled with potential nightmares of an early upset loss to Lehigh in the 2012 tourney, mean that Hooley's Great Danes are in with a shot.

The game is scheduled to be televised live on ESPN in Australia at 2:30am on Saturday 23/3/13.




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