Spencer Dunkley

Spencer Dunkley
Player information
Full name	Spencer Earl Dunkley
birthday	5th September 1969 (age 50)
place of birth	Wolverhampton (ENG), United Kingdom
size	210 cm
position	center
college	Delaware
NBA draft	1993 , 51. Pick Indiana Pacers
Clubs as active
1989–1993 UD Fightin 'Blue Hens ( NCAA ) 1993 Long Island Surf ( USBL ) 1993–1994 Maccabi Tel Aviv 1994–1995 Awtodor Saratow 1995–1996 KBBK Gent 1996 Connecticut Pride ( CBA ) 1996 Limoges CSP 1996–1998 Besançon BCD 1998– 1999 Felice Scandone Avellino 1999 Forum Valladolid 2000–2001 Lugano Snakes 2001 Scandone Avellino 2001–2002 Viola Reggio Calabria 2002 Aveiro CB 2002–2003 Maccabi Haifa 2003–2004 London Towers 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000
National team
1996-1997	England

Spencer Earl Dunkley (born September 5, 1969 in Wolverhampton , England ) is a retired British basketball player . Dunkley studied in the United States , but then returned to Europe as a professional, where he played in Israel , France and Italy , among others . With the Israeli serial champion Maccabi from Tel Aviv , he won the Israeli championship and cup double in 1994 . Dunkley also played a season in Switzerland , where he competed with the Snakes from Lugano in the European club competition ULEB Euroleague 2000/01 . Finally, Dunkley played at the Towers from London in the 2003/04 season as the only club station in his country of birth. After his active career, Dunkley worked, among other things, as a trainer of a " high school " team in New Castle County in Delaware , where he himself had graduated from high school in Newark .

Career

After graduating from Newark High School in Delaware, Dunkley went to study at the University of Delaware , where he played from 1989 on for the college team Fightin 'Blue Hens , which were then part of the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) of the NCAA . With this team, Dunkley won the championship of this conference in 1992 and 1993 and thus also the first qualification in the history of this university team for the national NCAA finals , in which they were eliminated in the first round. Dunkley is listed as the best rebounder in the history of the Fightin 'Blue Hens with 916 ricochets captured in their statistical yearbooks. In the " Entry Draft " of the highest endowed professional league NBA , Dunkley was selected in 51st position by the Indiana Pacers, who did not take him under contract for an NBA season in the fall of 1993.

After the end of his college career, Dunkley played in the "summer league" United States Basketball League (USBL) in 1993 , but could not get a lucrative contract in the NBA in this way either. Therefore, he went to Europe (in the sense of the member nations of the continental association FIBA Europe ) and joined the dominant Israeli basketball team Maccabi Tel Aviv for the 1993/94 season, which, however, had not won the national championship title for the first time since 1970 and in the previous season national title award came out empty-handed. Therefore, the team also had to compete in the third European club competition Korać Cup 1993/94 , where they only suffered one defeat up to the quarter-finals and made it into the round of the best eight teams. Here you lost both games against Panionios Athens . In the national title award, the shame of the previous season could be corrected and the double achieved by winning the championship and the cup . For the following season, Dunkley moved to the Russian Super League for the local runner-up Awtodor from Saratov . Dunkley missed with this team, however, a front placement in the championship. He then played a season in Ghent , Belgium , before he took another attempt at an NBA career in the " Minor League " Continental Basketball Association (CBA) in 1996. In May 1996 he also played for the English national team of his country of birth in the qualifying tournament in front of his own audience for the 1997 European Basketball Championship , which was successfully completed in second place.

Dunkley's auditions in the CBA were at least enough for a contract with a renowned European club, when he played at the beginning of the 1996/97 season at the French CSP from Limoges , including in the highest European club competition FIBA Europa League. However, the club released him from his contract soon after the start of the season and Dunkley moved within the LNB Pro A to Basket Comté Doubs from Besançon, who had risen from the previous year . At the end of the season, however, he was unable to qualify for the play-offs for the French championship. Before the actual final tournament, the European Championship in 1997, the English national team had to compete in a so-called semi-final round with the more established European nations. Here England won only one out of ten games and thus missed participation in the final tournament, with Dunkley only taking part in five out of ten games and subsequently not playing for the national team. In the 1997/98 season it was enough for Besançon BCD with a positive season record in eighth place for the first participation in the play-offs for the French championship, in which, however, they were eliminated in the first round against the main round first and French record champions ASVEL .

Shortly after the start of the 1998/99 season, Dunkley Besançon left BCD and in November 1998 signed a contract with the Italian second division club Felice Scandone from Avellino in the A2 series. At the end of the season, however, the team only finished twelfth and third from bottom of the table and could only avoid relegation because of the better direct comparison . For the following season Dunkley got a contract with the Spanish first division club CB Forum from Valladolid in the ACB league , but after an injury in November 1999 he left the club again. After the injury, Dunkley only signed a contract again for the following season. The sporting and economically leading European clubs and their league associations made themselves independent from the continental association FIBA Europe for the 2000/01 season and founded their own European league with the ULEB Euroleague . The Swiss champion Snakes from Lugano , who signed Dunkley for the new highest European club competition, was also invited to this European league . In the ULEB Euroleague 2000/01 , the Swiss achieved three home wins in ten preliminary round matches, which was not enough to qualify for the play-off round of 16. Dunkley left the club after the preliminary round, before defending his national championship title, and returned to Avellino, who had now been promoted to the Lega Basket Serie A and when they returned to the top division in ninth at the end of the season only barely the Missed entry into the championship play-offs.

In November 2001, Dunkley then got a new contract from Avellino's southern Italian league rival Viola from Reggio Calabria , for whom it was enough to stay in the league at the end of the regular season in 16th and fourth from bottom of the table. After the end of the season, Dunkley played three more games for the club from Aveiro in Portugal in the " postseason ". For the 2002/03 season, Dunkley got another contract in the Israeli Ligat ha'Al , where he had started his European career. With Maccabi BC from Haifa , however, he only finished penultimate in the table after ten wins this season. At the end of his playing career, Dunkley played again in his native England and reached third place in the regular season with the Towers from London in the British Basketball League . In the play-off semifinals they were eliminated from the runner-up and later title winner Sheffield Sharks , against whom they had already been eliminated in the semifinals of the BBL Cup. After the end of his playing career, Dunkley returned to Delaware, where he had spent his school and university days, and was here, among other things, coach of a basketball team at Appoquinimink High School between 2009 and 2012 .

Web links

• DUNKLEY, SPENCER - Player profile on the sides of the ULEB ( English )
• Legabasket: Spencer Dunkley - player profile on the websites of the Serie A ( Italian )
• archive.fiba.com: Players - Spencer Earl DUNKLEY (ENG) - Overview of participation in FIBA competitions (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Buddy Horlock: Ex-UD star Dunkley to coach at Appoquinimink. (No longer available online.) DelawareOnline.com, September 16, 2009, formerly original ; accessed on June 23, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
2. ↑ 2012–13 Men's Basketball Media Guide. (Flash animation) (No longer available online.) University of Delaware , Dec. 2012, p. 91 , archived from the original June 2, 2013 ; accessed on June 23, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ ACB.COM: Spencer Earl Dunkley. Liga ACB , accessed June 23, 2013 (Spanish, player profile). 
4. ↑ The information in the text is possibly misleading and incorrect.