PAUL James says he is looking forward to working alongside the University of Worcester’s new director of basketball Dale Ryan.

Worcester Wolves’ head coach has described the Australian’s appointment as a “really positive move” as he believes he can take basketball in the city to “the next level”.

Ryan, who arrives in January, will oversee the strategic development of all forms of the sport within the university and work with James to help his British Basketball League side.

“I met him a couple of times when he came over for his interview and we tend to talk every week, if not every other week,” James said.

“His appointment is really positive because the programme is huge with the BBL side, the second team, the university and the amount of people who want to play.

“It is a massive job to take on all of that. But the programme is ready now to go to the next level. Dale has been charged to do that and I am looking forward to working with him.”

Ryan’s 15-year coaching career includes spells as an assistant coach with Brisbane Bullets in the National Basketball League from 2004 until 2008 and head coach of Brisbane Capitals in the Queensland Basketball League from 2009 until 2012.

As a high performance manager or director of coaching, Ryan has worked for the likes of Basketball Victoria, Basketball Queensland and the Maribyrnong Sports Academy.

His involvement with Australian state and national junior team programmes included working with current NBA players, including Dante Exum (Utah Jazz), Aron Baynes (Detroit Pistons) and Ben Simmons (Philadelphia 76ers).

He was also among the coaching staff of the Victoria men’s team who won the Australian Under 20 National Championships earlier this year.

And James says Ryan, from Melbourne, will provide him with “another ear to chew on” when looking to strengthen his Wolves squad.

“Coming from Australia, Dale has got a lot of contacts with players having been a coach himself,” he said.

“I think we have similar philosophies on the way the game should be played, so I feel it is going to work fine.

“We also have very similar ideas of where we would like to take the programme and having him here will help with recruitment for the university and the BBL team as well.

“We want to give everybody the opportunity to play here regardless of what level they are at. It is about bringing everybody together, so we are totally one club.”

James added: “The appointment of Dale is a great one for the club and basketball in Worcester, so I am quite excited about him joining us in January and seeing where we can take it.”