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Who ever makes it, is still a joke in the tournament anyway
link - http://www.tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488122/604857
Losing to the Australia last week certainly has not dented the Tall Blacks confidence heading in to the opening test of the Jeep International Series on Wednesday.
The Boomers dealt New Zealand an 84-74 loss in the four-nations tournament in Australia last Friday. But far from being disheartened, the Tall Blacks are upbeat about their chances in this week's series which will determine the top qualifier from the Oceania zone for the 2006 world champs.
Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin wasn't fazed by his side's loss to the Boomers last week and says we are yet to see New Zealand play their best basketball.
"Based on our performance against Australia the other night, I feel that it's going to be a very tough, very compe ive series. But I certainly don't feel that we were in any way outclassed and we're expecting to do well," he says.
While Australia gained the psychological advantage from last week's win, the Tall Blacks can also take a lot from the encounter. Not in the least a few ideas of what the Boomers may throw at them on Wednesday night.
"There's a lot of things tactically that we can take out of that game that you can plan for now having not just watched them on video but actually faced them and seeing what their style does against our style of play," Tall Black coach Tab Baldwin said on the eve of the opening test.
But Baldwin is still expecting Australia to have a few tricks up their sleeves.
"My expectation is that Brian will be holding some things back and we won't have seen everything that he wants to do tactically."
Last Friday's loss aside, the Tall Blacks have been in promising form in recent weeks, recording a good win over China and beating Lithuania twice in the four-nations tournament.
The tournament served as a handy build-up for the Oceania series and allowed off-shore Kiwi basketballers Mark el and Kirk Penney the opportunity to re-familiarise themselves with the Tall Black style of play.
But while Baldwin is generally happy with his side's preparation, he says the Tall Blacks could always have benefited from a bit more time.
"Kirk and Mark are reasonably well engrained in to the playing systems now and you'd always like more time together, more games, more variety in games but I think our preparation up to this point in time has been sufficient. I wouldn't rate it as excellent, but it's sufficient."
One concerning aspect of the Tall Blacks game that emerged from the build-up series was New Zealand's habit of making slow starts to matches.
In the Tall Blacks clash against the Australians last week, the Boomers blitzed the visitors 16-1 in the opening five minutes of the match. And in New Zealand's final game of the tournament against Lithuania on Sunday, they had to come from behind to defeat the European nation after stumbling out of the blocks.
Baldwin admits the Tall Blacks tend to take a while to hit top gear during their matches but says a match is never won and lost in the opening quarter.
"I don't think the Tall Blacks have necessarily suffered because of them over the years. They do seem somewhat endemic to the way we play, I don't know why."
And while Baldwin says the lacklustre starts are not major concern for him, he does have some strategies for ensuring they won't be a factor in Wednesday night's match.
"I have some beliefs as to why that happens when we play Australia, but hopefully that won't be the case tomorrow night. We'll talk to the guys about being a little bit more composed, we want the emotion, we want the adrenalin there, but we don't want it to the extent that you go into almost lock-down."
New Zealand will be with Marks (retired from international basketball) and australia will be without Bogut(wouldnt have a clue why). its gonna be an awesome series
Who ever makes it, is still a joke in the tournament anyway
Oooh, you guys better hope to win.
Because its becoming less likely in future years. Australia is about to come out of there slump (after the Gaze years).
xcoriate u better watch out too, NZ has alot of up and coming stars. + We have big PC (Pero Cameron)
the mother ers won. oh well theirs still two more games to go
"the mother ers won"
shoot the messenger!!
*struts around*
I don't see how the Australian team in that state could beat the New Zealand team after watching both teams play last week. Maybe Aussie is just NZ's bogey team.
As opposed to the sheep ers...
what is a tall black?
the name of NZ's national team. Its a derivative of the "All Blacks" national rugby squad who dresses in all black.
(Our Kiwi brothers can correct me if I was wrong)
Nah thats Correct "Bro"
As opposed to the sheep ers...
haha, nice.
The All Blacks aren't called that because they dress in black, but other than that you are correctIts a derivative of the "All Blacks" national rugby squad who dresses in all black.
NZkickass said I was.
That's cool...it was just a guess...what is the real reason?
It was actually an error in naming the team.
They were supposed to be called the "All Backs", backs being a position half the players on the field play. Apparently there was a spelling or interpretation error and they were called All Blacks instead.
where did you find that out.
3-0 series whitewash to australia. they get the easier draw at the world chapionships in japan or where ever the its played. good on them good series
Yeah thats correct. I was a comment of the style of play. In fact I think the uniform was a very dark blue.It was actually an error in naming the team.
They were supposed to be called the "All Backs", backs being a position half the players on the field play. Apparently there was a spelling or interpretation error and they were called All Blacks instead.
I know loads about Rugby, just a little fact I picked up somewhere along the line.where did you find that out.
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