Team Northumbria women's basketball coach Deirdre Hayes is spending her summer vacation in Izmer, Turkey, as assistant coach for Great Britain's World University Games side.
Hayes has operated as head coach for the English Universities team for the past three years.
She is working with England basketball performance manager Radmila Turner, who is also head coach. Turner has a vast amount of experience as an outstanding player for the Bulgarian national team and winner of the European Cup.
Hayes is also joined by Team Northumbria captain and England squad member Zoe Vickers.
This is the first time Britain have been included in the World University Games basketball event since 1991, when the competition took place in Sheffield. The GB team have nine players who are in the England squad.
The opportunity to take part in a multi-sport games which is second only to the Olympics in the number of participants was key as the England team prepare for the Commonwealth Games in March.
The squad flew out to Izmer 10 days ago but were initially without the services of head coach Turner, who was left stranded after a flood in Bulgaria, meaning Hayes had to step in to the role for four days.
An opening friendly against Australia saw GB start with eight unanswered points, only for their opponents to then hit a few three-pointers which saw them hold a 12-point lead at the beginning of the third quarter.
With their first game the next day, GB did not chase the game and Australia went on to win 88-55.
Hayes took the reins for the first game against the strongest team in their pool, Serbia and Montenegro.
Serbia took a 28-8 first-quarter lead and stretched that to 46-22 by the second quarter.
GB held them level in the third quarter at 16-all but were unable to make any headway in the fourth and Serbia took a 94-56 win.
Rosie Mason had 17 points and Kristy Lavin contributed 14.
Hayes was again in charge against Chinese Taipei the following day.
GB again started off slowly as Taipei led 21-11.
In the second quarter an aggressive defence helped the offensive end as GB closed the gap to 32-31, although a final three-pointer from Taipei at the buzzer gave them a 35-31 half-time lead.
From then on, Taipei slowly increased their lead as GB lost Lavin and Katie Crowley for the fourth quarter. Taipei ran out 70-55 victors, with Mason leading all GB scorers with 19 points.
Turner returned for GB's third pool match against Canada but the side were again made to pay for one poor quarter in an otherwise impressive performance. They lost 71-60, a score which really didn't do justice to the quality of play of the British team.
The Canadians used their height advantage to good effect to take a 41-29 lead at half-time and when that was stretched to 13 points early in the third quarter, it looked all over.
But Britain stepped up a gear and a mixture of strong defence and lively attack saw the deficit cut to just 52-51.
Britain then went four points clear but significantly then missed three shots from inside the key and Canada tied the score at 55-55 with five minutes to go.
It was the Canadians who were able to take a valuable lead which they then held until the end.
It leaves Britain needing a victory against Lebanon, who have also failed to secure a win, to take fourth place.
Hayes said: "This has been an incredible experience for me being involved with the team and the games it is a real honour.
"Some of the standard of play has really been outstanding both from ourselves and the other teams here.
"We have not been consistent and that has hurt us in getting the results we need, although in places we have played some very good basketball but to get the wins we need that has to be over an entire game.
"I hope I get the opportunity in the future to be a part of basketball at this level it will definitely help me when we start our season at Northumbria in September."
