Lisa Wallbutton will lead an inexperienced Tall Ferns squad against the Australian Opals next week
If you thought the Tall Blacks team that recently toured China was young and inexperienced, wait until you see the Tall Ferns squad.
The core of the team will feature regular internationals Lisa Wallbutton and Toni Edmondson ( West Coast Waves), Micaela Cocks and Casey Lockwood (Townsville Fire) and Jordan Hunter (Southeast Missouri University).
The experienced Natalie Taylor (Logan Thunder) will almost certainly be unavailable due to injury. Therefore it would appear there will be seven rookies named later this week to take on the Australian Opals at North Shore Events Centre next Wednesday evening – a daunting prospect against the world’s number two ranked nation.
Like the Tall Blacks, two athletes still at school are likely to be named. Forward Penina Davidson (Rangitoto College) and small forward Stella Beck (Hutt Valley High School) were stand out performers for the Junior Tall Ferns in 2012 and appear certain to transition into the senior team.
Another certain pick is 203cm/6’8” Megan Craig (University of Albany), the tallest member of the training squad and the only genuine ‘big’ by international standards.
Other American based players are Jess Bygate (Dickinson State University, North Dakota), Josie Stockill (Colgate University, Hamilton, New York) and Terai Sadler (Crowder College, Missouri) but there is unlikely to be room for all three of them as Kalani Purcell (Waikato Wizards) and Brooke Blair (North Harbour Breeze) are a couple of prominent New Zealand based players who are highly regarded. Both are heading to the US next month to take up basketball scholarships but I expect they will have added Tall Ferns caps to their resumes before they depart.
The Harbour Breeze pair of Anna Lacey and Becks van Kuyk, Shea Crotty (Canterbury Wildcats) and Samara Gallaher (Otago Gold Rush) were all solid performers in the 2013 Womens Basketball Championship but I expect only one of this quartet to feature when the team is named sometime in the next fourty eight hours.
LACEY LOWDOWN 