Image Credit: Southampton University Men’s Basketball Instagram
SOUTHAMPTON Solent University’s Basketball Club has been cut down to just one BUCS team.
After two consecutive years with two teams in the BUCS (British University and Colleges Sport) competitive leagues, and three teams prior to that, just the one roster remained available for freshers for the 2026/27 academic year.
Head Coach of the University 1s team, Zach Holden: “Two, three years ago we had three teams, with each having two sessions, two hours each and now it’s gone, we’ve got one team and one, one-and-a-half-hour session a week.”
Sport Excellence Programme student, Joe Faulkner is into his second year on the basketball team: “It obviously feels different to last year … it feels more performance-based.
“The first team had about eight players at the most and the second team had a full roster, so the first team were really struggling to have people come to training sessions to even have a competitive training session.”
James Gardiner, a first-year student who successfully went through the basketball trial process gives a fresher look on the setup: “The practices have been slow because people are still trying to understand drills and some people know more than others.”
Despite the University having spent a reported £28 million on the Southampton Solent University Sports Complex in 2019, the support for basketball seems to be dwindling.
Other University sports at Solent have seen a reduction in funding, along with the number of BUCS teams going down to one.
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