The Tall Blacks play a rare home court three game series against South Korea this week.The squad of 17 players are all likely to suit up at some stage during the three tests in Wellington (Tuesday), Tauranga (Thursday) and Auckland (Saturday).
Some major discussion points will be:
Who will win the heavyweight contest between Casey Frank and Nick Horvath to secure a trip to the World Cup?FIBA rules state only one naturalized player can be selected so one of these two players will miss out.
Which other 11 players will make the trip to Spain?
Will Waitakere teenagers Tai Wynyard and Tohi Smith-Milner make their Tall Blacks debuts this week?
What sort of crowd numbers will turn out for the internationals?
It was heartening to see the NZ U16 Boys teams do so well at the Australian State Champs in Geelong last week.
The Boys finished third in the competition, the likes of Sam Waardenburg (North Harbour), Quinn Clinton (Canterbury) and Unique Naboa (Auckland) all enjoyed outstanding performances at the tournament. Waardenburg was the leading rebounder in the tournament averaging 11.3 per game, added 13 pts at 65% shooting and was rightly named Tournament MVP. This follows on from the fifth placed performance of the Under 18 Men back in April.
The U17 National Championships hosted by the North Harbour Association was a successful event. Congratulations to Auckland Counties Manukau (Boys) and North Harbour (Girls) on lifting their respective trophies. Good to see the likes of Mark Dickel, Kenny Stone, Jody Cameron, Trent Adam and Aik Ho who have played or coached at an elite level passing their knowledge on to our up and coming athletes.
A former U17 Tournament MVP Rob Loe is currently trying out with the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Summer League. In his first game he played just 10 minutes, recording a block and 1 from 2 free throws.
Breakers coach Dean Vickerman is also in the States, he is coaching at the Worldwide Invitational Camp in Los Vegas this week. The camp enables players to showcase their skills in front of coaches and scouts from around the world. Australian NBL coaches Gordie McLeod (Wollongong), Joey Wright (Adelaide) and Aaron Fearne (Cairns) are also coaching at the three-day event, July 13-15.
LACEY LOWDOWN 