O’Shannessy, who was born in Albury before moving to the South Coast as a young child, will play against teams from every state and territory, as well as an NBA Global Academy squad.

The NSW squad has already started working together ahead of their opening match against the Northern Territory on Tuesday, February 12.

“We’re all getting the system down really well, and trying to figure out our roles in the team,” O’Shannessy said. “It starts getting easier once you start getting to know how people play.”

The squad was meant to play a warm-up competition in Canberra last weekend, but a number of other factors stopped that from happening.

“We were supposed to play last weekend at the Canberra Classic, but we had a couple of injuries, and a couple of blokes in America doing college visits, so we couldn't play,” O'Shannessy said.

“We're going to go down next Saturday, and we'll have a mini training camp, a bit of a refresher, and then play against a couple of the teams we'll be playing in the competition.”

O’Shannessy is just over two-metres tall, but will play undersized as a centre or power forward at the championships.

“Normally I would be worried about facing seven footers, but I’m going up against guys that tall every time I train with the Illawarra Hawks,” he said.

“When you play against big guys who have good basketball IQs, and can also use their size and weight to their advantage, you learn to play smarter rather than harder.”

O’Shannessy profiles more as a small forward if he decides to pursue basketball as a professional, but he says the experience at power forward and centre will only help his development.

“Being able to play the four and the five roles consistently, while still being able to step out to the perimeter to play a wing role, that certainly helps with my development,” he said.

O’Shannessy credits a lot of his development to fellow Shoalhaven product Darcy Harding, and says he is always looking to Harding for advice.

“Darcy will be one of the first guys I call if I have a question about what I want to be doing in a basketball sense,” he said. “Whenever he’s in town, I’m always asking him questions, training with him, getting in the gym, and that helps because it’s training with a guy who’s been there, and is still going strong.

“Darcy plays more as a wing than I do, so he’s got a bit more skill. It’s good to be able to use his programs, and use his systems, to develop my outside game a bit more.”

O’Shannessy said he faced some challenges coming from a relatively small, country town, and now tries to help out wherever he can to make sure more South Coast kids can move through the Basketball NSW pathways.

“If you want to be at the elite level, and play against the best kids, you’ve got to go to Wollongong, Sydney, or Newcastle,” he said. “When we started in under 14s, it was harder for us to get to those pathways, but once you’re in, the travel is the only obstacle.

“I try to help out in Batemans Bay whenever I get the chance. If there’s a training session on, I’ll see if I can poke my head in, and even if I don’t have any input directly, I’ll still watch and talk to the coaches afterwards.

“Jason Funnell is one of our assistant coaches at the Shoalhaven Tigers, and he also has one of the junior squads for the Breakers. I’ll try and get in and work with them over the next couple of weeks.”

While O’Shannessy is fully focused on the National Under 20s Championships, he still has a plan for the next five years of his basketball journey.

“Hopefully I’ll be following in Darcy’s footsteps, maybe playing the South East Australian Basketball League or the Queensland Basketball League,” he said. “If everything falls perfectly, hopefully I’ll get an NBL spot, or even a development spot to get my foot in the door.”