Sad to see NBL NZ forward of the season Duane Bailey hobbling around in a moon boot at Tall Blacks training. The James Blond Super City Rangers player has sustained an ankle injury that appears certain to keep him out action for at least a week thus denying the athletic big man a likely Tall Blacks debut next week. However, that disappointment will be partly mitigated by the announcement that Bailey has signed a one-year contract with the SKY CITY Breakers for the 2014-15 ANBL season.
Canterbury Rams forward Richie Edwards has kindly headed back to the US without notifying Tall Blacks management that he wouldn’t be attending!!
Two players missing from training today with legitimate reasons were Tai Webster and Izayah Le’afa. Webster returns from the USA on Sunday to join the team in Wellington and Le’afa were absent due to illness.
Casey Frank and Nick Horvath are in direct competition for the single naturalized spot on the team. If it’s quality of their beards that decides it then Frank may just shade the contest.
The NZ U16 teams are currently competing at the Australian State Champs in Geelong.
The Girls finished pool play with a 2-4 record, the Boys with a game remaining this evening have a 4-1 record.
The Boys trailed Queensland South at half-time in the early game today. A strong second half took the Kiwis to a 75-66 victory. Sam Waardenburg contributed 22 points and 12 rebounds supported by Unique Naboa 14pts, Quinn Clinton 12pts and Matiu Spooner 10pts.
The U17 National Championships hosted by North Harbour got underway today. Auckland Counties Manukau, the 2013 beaten boys finalists will hope to go one better than last year and Waitakere West will be optimistic they can defend the girls title.
LACEY LOWDOWN 