Live stream: NSW eye success at the Basketball Australia U20's & Ivor Burge National Championships

‘I felt like our guys were emotionally spent after the semifinal.’ Chastened by their defeat to WA in last year’s decider, NSW are chasing redemption. Catch the U20 nationals LIVE from Tuesday.

It took a Western Australian team full of future NBL and US college players to deny NSW their first men’s U20 national basketball title in almost two decades last year.

But while Brett Henshall, Alex Condon and Alex Kovatchev won’t be around this year, the task for NSW is certainly no easier, according to coach Brook Pearce.

They have to negotiate a tricky pool stacked with talent before even thinking of the finals. Their first three matches are against Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia

Catch all the action from the Basketball Australia Under-20s and Ivor Burge National Championships LIVE and EXCLUSIVE on KommunityTV at Ballarat from January 30.

Check out the full LIVE STREAM schedule below.

As Pearce grapples with age graduations leaving him with an almost entirely new squad to work with, he nominated two teams he was particularly wary of.

“Victoria, I think, will be the toughest competition, though every match will be tough,” he said.

“Then there’s Tasmania, they’ve got three really top players in their team and we have to play them first.”

James O’Donnell was one of the stars of the show in 2023.

That match-up against the likes of Jacob Furphy, last year’s U20 tournament top scorer Kai Savage and Lachlan Brewer on Court 4 at midday on day one could well be pivotal.

NSW hasn’t won the men’s gold since 2007 and Pearce said to come so close last year was frustrating.

“I felt like our guys were emotionally spent after the semi-final against Queensland,” he said.

“We definitely weren’t the best version of ourselves in that final, we didn’t have Josh Dent because of injury, so I don’t know how much that would have changed the outcome.”

Only three players, Dent, Will Mortimore and James O’Donnell, are returning.

O’Donnell and Dent will be key to NSW hopes.

O’Donnell was the points driver last year, averaging 17.25 points-per-game as well as 8.88 rebounds, while Dent was the second-highest scorer with 12.71 average points over seven games.

“Those three are going to be key for us as sort of guiding players for the team,” Pearce said.

“But all of them have played at nationals before, they know what’s at stake and they know what they need to do to get the best performance out of themselves.”

Pearce said he has high expectations for his team this year.

“We’re not here to participate, we’re here to win and that’s what I’m expecting from them,” he said.

“I don’t like being overconfident as a coach, but that’s the goal.”