LACEY LOWDOWN

The New Zealand team has been named today ahead of the FIBA Under 18 3×3 World Cup, which will be hosted in Chengdu, China, from 28 June to 2 July.

Rangimarie Mita, Thabo Manyere, William Heather, Isaiah Jones will depart for China this week to take on the world’s best young 3×3 talent.

Although considered underdogs this year, the team boasts a proud Kiwi history with two world titles in New Zealand trophy cabinet. The first is from 2011 when James Ashby, Tai Webster, Reuben Te Rangi and Isaac Fotu won in 2011. All have since gone on to become Tall Blacks. In 2015 New Zealand’s second World Cup was won by captain Nikau McCullough, tournament MVP Tai Wynyard, Sam Timmins and Matt Freeman, who brought the house down by beating Argentina in a tense final 20 to 18.

Head Coach Anthony Corban was at the teams’ helm for both of those world titles.

“I take pride in our outstanding history in the U18 3×3 World Championship. What made those teams world beaters was that they had been put through a tough training regime before the tournament. They experienced fatigue and failure in training and learnt from it,” says Corban.

This 2017 team is another group of talented young men who will need to adapt quickly to the hype that has become synonymous with 3×3 events, but Coach Corban says he’s picked a team that will gel on court, and that these young men have the grit required to overcome their underdog status at this World Cup.

“Will Heather is a post player with the ability to stretch the defence with his outside shooting ability. I like the fact he can strongly defend the post with one-on-one coverage.

“Then there’s Thabo [Manyere], who’s an athletic player. He can overpower smaller players on the perimeter and take bigger players off the dribble. I particularly like his on-court work ethic.

“Isaia [Jones] is athletic guard with inside/outside game. It will be tough for teams to match up on him and defend. I like his physical strength and ability to get to the basket.

“Rangimarie Mita is a tall shooting guard with ability to get to the basket off the dribble,” said Coach Corban.

Everyone one of these players will have to be on their game if the wish to advance through to the playoff rounds, as New Zealand has drawn formidable opposition in Pool B – Ukraine, Bahrain, Georgia, and Qatar.

“I wish it was easy to predict how we are going to go, but yes we are in a tough group. Qatar are defending champions, and Ukraine and Georgia were particularly good teams last year.

“We’ve trained with tough opposition in mind though. Our camps have been intense with these boys learning to play bigger and stronger teams, particularly through the training sessions we’ve had with our open men’s team. But at the end of the day, the main focus for this team is on what they can control, which is our decision making on the court – get that right and everything else takes care of itself.”

Coach Corban will meet the team in China after departing Nantes in France where he’s been at the open men’s FIBA 3×3 World Cup. In China, he’ll be looking to go at least one stage further than the open men’s team, with the playoff stages in mind. Corban says the junior programme in New Zealand is continuing to produce talented basketballers and predicts more world titles.

“With the Junior Tall Blacks team in Cairo and Under 18 team heading to Guam, solid performances on the court in China will further underline the continuing depth New Zealand is building in age group basketball,” says Corban.

“It’s us against the world.”

New Zealand U18 3×3 Team:
· Rangimarie Mita | Basketball Manawatu
· Thabo Manyere | Harbour Basketball
· William Heather | Harbour Basketball
· Isaiah Jones | Basketball Hawkes Bay

For more go to the FIBA U18 3×3 World Cup webpage: http://www.fiba.com/3x3u18worldcup/2017

Quinn Clinton amassed 34 points, 16 rebounds and 9 assists as he led Canterbury to the Under 19 National title on Tuesday. He then announced he has signed to play for St Mary’s Gaels for four years and is also about to head to the Junior Tall Blacks preparation camp for next month’s FIBA Under 19 World Cup.

In the words of the Manfred Mann classic “You’ll not see nothing like the mighty Quinn.” Those words are a somewhat exaggerated description of the former Christchurch Boys High shooting guard but he certainly has a commanding presence on the court and cuts a composed figure off it read more

The New Zealand Under 16 boys basketball team and the New Zealand Select Under 16 boys team have been named. These teams will travel to Australia in June and July to take on some of Australia’s top junior teams.

New Zealand Under 16 Boys Head Coach, Zico Coronel, says the team was selected following a comprehensive trial process beginning in December comprising of four national camps.

“As a coaching staff Morgan [Maskell], Danny [Page], and Manager Manu Hoque and I believe that the prolonged timeframe has allowed the boys to make major improvements. The team looks quite different now than if we’d had selected it earlier owing to the outstanding work done by many athletes with their local coaches leading to huge improvements. It was a difficult selection with so many boys performing at a high level, however after much discussion as a coaching staff and film study, we are very pleased with our squads and the quality of the reserves should they be required.

“We are fortunate to have skilled and intelligent players who, more importantly, are young men of very high character. This is a testament to the young men themselves, their parents, their wider whanau and their coaches in their local areas, at representative, school and at an individual level.”

The teams will be preparing for two different pinnacle events in 2017. The New Zealand Under 16 Boys team will prepare for the Australia Junior Champs on 4 to 16 July in Sterling, Australia. The New Zealand Select Under 16 boys team will prepare for the Medibank Classic, held in Melbourne 8 – 13 June. Coach Coronel says prior to the pinnacle events, they will be looking to develop certainty and confidence in the teams’ skill sets, understandings of the game and systems.

“The two teams have quickly become a very close group, so we will continue to operate as one large whanau celebrating each other’s success as much as possible. The May camp will be a joint camp but, as the two pinnacle events are quite far apart in terms of the dates, the final preparation camps will be separate.

“In terms of the competition we are primarily concerned with our own culture and our own play. We are working to become great basketball players and great basketball teams in our own right. If we can achieve this, I’ll be pleased and we will see how the results turn out at the two strong tournaments that are the Under 16 State Champs and the Medibank Classic,” says Coach Coronel.

New Zealand Under 16 Boys Team:
· Robert Coman – Basketball Auckland
· Cian Emery – North Harbour Basketball
· Samuel Jenkins – Canterbury Basketball Association
· Taine Murray – North Harbour Basketball
· Obadaiah Paea – Waitakere West Auckland Basketball Inc.
· Harrison Payne – Waitakere West Auckland Basketball Inc.
· Mac Stodart – Southland Basketball Association
· Okirano Tilaia – Canterbury Basketball Association
· Reihana Topia – North Harbour Basketball
· Ezrah Vaigafa – Wellington Basketball Association

New Zealand Select Under 16 Boys Team:
· Terence Abdon – North Harbour Basketball
· Dominic Chen – North Harbour Basketball
· Maximus Curry – Nelson Basketball Association
· Finn de Hamel – Nelson Basketball Association
· Misinale Fifita – North Otago Basketball Association
· Joshua Kooiman – North Harbour Basketball
· Xzavia Mason – Palmerston North Basketball Association
· Thomas Morgan – North Harbour Basketball
· Connor Ngan – Basketball Auckland
· Michael Ruske – Basketball Otago

Reserves (for both teams):
· Lain Haku – Counties-Manukau Basketball Association
· YuQing Jiang – Basketball Hawkes Bay
· Umuumu Kaufusi – Wellington Basketball Association
· Jack Pinder – Palmerston North Basketball Association
· Kopere Tanoa – Palmerston North Basketball Association

Staff:
· Zico Coronel – Head Coach
· Morgan Maskell – Assistant Coach
· Danny Page – Assistant Coach
· Manu Hoque – Manager

Schedule:
U16 Camp | 18 – 21 January | Auckland
U16 Camp | 23 – 26 February | Auckland
U16 Camp | 26 – 29 April | Auckland
U16 Camp | 19 – 21 May | Auckland
NZ Under 16 ‘A’ Camp | 6 – 7 June | Auckland
NZ Select Tour | Medibank Classic | 8 – 13 June | Melbourne
NZ Under 16 Camp | 22 – 25 June | Auckland
Under 16 Australia Junior Champs | 6 – 16 July | Perth

The Junior Tall Blacks have been drawn alongside European champions France, third placed Asian qualifier Korea and a yet to be announced fourth team from the Americas at the FIBA U19 World Cup.

The 16 team event will be held in Cairo, Egypt from July 1st-9th.

New Zealand qualified for the event following their stunning success at the Oceania Champs in Fiji in December where the JTB’s knocked off favourites Australia 57-51 in the final.

Group A – Americas TBA, NZ, Korea, France

Group B – Germany, Egypt, Puerto Rico, Lithuania

Group C – Canada, Japan, Spain, Mali

Group D – Iran, Angola, Italy, USA

Three young Kiwi basketballers have received an invitation from FIBA and the NBA to attend a global basketball camp that will be peppered with US College scouts, NBA Coaches and NBA players, albeit Sam Waardenburg has reluctantly declined the invitation due to his College commitments in the United States.

Waardenburg, Quinn Clinton and Taane Samuel attended Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Asia, held in Australia last June. After strong performances, all three were selected to attend BWB Global, an exclusive camp for only the best players from the regional 2016 camps in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe, with Clinton and Samuel taking up the invitation.

Basketball New Zealand Chief Executive, Iain Potter, says having three players selected from any nation is unique.

“The Global Basketball Without Borders camps enable FIBA and the NBA to tap into talent outside of the U.S. In the past, we were proud to have one player selected, with Matt Freeman selected in 2015 and Tai Wynyard in 2016, both of whom have gone on to secure scholarships to high ranking Universities. To have three young Kiwis selected is outstanding and an example of the exceptional basketball talent that is being produced in New Zealand,” says Potter.

Sam Waardenburg was named camp MVP of the BWB Asia camp in June while Quinn Clinton was named MVP of the camp’s All Star Game. Consequently, they were both guaranteed a spot at BWB Global. But Tanne Samuel was not automatically selected and he says the invitation letter comes as a pleasant surprise.

“I am grateful and humbled to be a part of this great event and given the opportunity. The BWB Asia camp in Australia really helped me improve as a player physically and mentally. It helped me to identify my weaknesses and work on turning that into a strength.

“To receive the elite level of coaching at BWB is a once in a lifetime opportunity and to share this with other players my age around the world is surreal. I’m really thankful,” said Samuel.

Christchurch’s Quinn Clinton is equally excited to be involved.

“I’m really looking forward to this experience. It’s going to be great for Taane and I to represent our country together and help promote New Zealand basketball on the world stage. I’m keen to learn as much as I can from the NBA coaches and players, and get an insight into what it means to play at this higher level,” said Clinton.

The international prestige of this event is gathering momentum as more BWB players are finding their way into the pinnacle events of the sport, including FIBA World Cups and the NBA. FIBA says over the years 43 alumni have been drafted into the NBA. The NBA Draft of 2016 contained three BWB Global participants, all selected in the top 10 picks. This is the third BWB Global Camp, while the NBA and FIBA have staged 48 BWB camps in 29 cities in 25 countries since 2001.

To add to the excitement of the event, BWB Global will centre around the NBA All Star Game in New Orleans. The NBA All-Star Game is a basketball exhibition game hosted annually by the NBA, which matches the league’s star players from the Eastern Conference against their counterparts from the Western Conference. Camp participants will attend and participate in NBA All Star activities throughout the weekend. The camp will also consist of basketball positional development, strength and conditioning, life-skills sessions, and games and competitions during the day.

The camp is fully funded with the players’ expenses covered, including flights. The 2017 edition of Basketball without Borders Global will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, from 17 to 19 February, 2017.

The invitation further underlines the growing reputation of the burgeoning talent pool coming out of New Zealand, with increasing numbers of young men and women securing scholarships into prestigious American Colleges.

Such opportunities further emphasize that basketball is not only a numbers game (amongst the fastest growing sports in New Zealand) but also a high performance achiever, with the New Zealand U19 Men set to appear at the FIBA Junior World Championships in Egypt in July this year, following on from their history making defeat of Australia at the Oceania Champs in 2016.

Basketball New Zealand have opened 2017 by running age-group development camps and say that competition for selection is fierce with a noticeable increase of players and talent.

Chief Executive of Basketball New Zealand, Iain Potter, says with more Kiwis sinking their teeth into basketball, it’s not surprising that Basketball New Zealand’s junior development programmes are filled with future Division 1 scholarship players and talent that he is sure will feature on the world stages of Europe, U.S.A and Asia.

“We run talent camps that feed into our National Junior teams, which in turn are an important pathway for players with their eyes on Tall Black and Tall Fern jerseys. We’ve just gone through our second phase of National Age Group Selection Camps, which hosted close to 250 junior athletes who were invited to trial for the New Zealand under 16, Under 17 and Under 18 Boys and Girls junior teams,” says Potter.

“The purpose of the selection camps is to name wider squads for the first of a number of intensive preparation camps for the teams’ respective pinnacle events in 2017, which will put New Zealand teams on the stage of some impressive global stages, especially with FIBA entering New Zealand into the Asian Zone.”

Those stages are spread around the globe, beginning with Australia. The New Zealand Under 16 Boys and Girls teams will be competing at the Australian State Championships from 8-15 July in Perth. The New Zealand Select U16 Teams Boys and Girls teams, another development team, will compete at the Medibank National Junior Classic in Dandenong, Melbourne. Both are strongly fought for by Australian State teams and have had well-known alumni grace their events including Matthew Dellavedova (Milwaukee Bucks), Dante Exum, Joe Ingles (Utah Jazz), Patty Mills (San Antonio Spurs), Ben Simmons (Philadelphia 76ers).

Moving further into Asia and the New Zealand Under 17 Boys and Girls teams will compete at the FIBA Asian Championships – the girls event will be held in October in Chennai, India. The hosts for the boys’ event are yet to be announced.

The New Zealand Under 18 Boys and Girls teams will compete at the FIBA Men’s Oceania Championships from 9-16 July in Guam.

For the members of these younger teams, they also have their sights set on a place in the Junior Tall Blacks and Junior Tall Ferns. The honour of that selection seems all the more prestigious after a herculean effort to knock over the vastly-favoured Australian side out of the Oceania Championships last December, and so the New Zealand Junior Tall Blacks have qualified to compete at the FIBA World U19 Men’s Championships this coming July in Cairo, Egypt.

“Our young players are capturing the global basketball community’s eye and proving themselves to be worthy of respect,” says Potter.

“We are continuing to foster this evolution of talent. Despite minimal high performance funding for a big sport like ours, we are blessed with coaches and support staff throughout the country who love the game and devote themselves to helping our juniors. These junior players’ parents sacrifice a lot of time and money to give their kids an opportunity to compete on the world stage. Also local associations around the country work tirelessly to give junior platers opportunities to develop their skills to meet the expectations of national squad selectors.”

A lot of the that devotion to talent is recognised at the National Development Camps where Mr Potter says it’s not just athletic ability that’s tested, but there is a strong focus on how players conduct themselves off the court.

“At the talent camps we look at how we can best support these young athletes. This year we offered a number of strength and conditioning, injury prevention, and social awareness workshops. We brought in the social awareness aspects by working with the Ministry of Social Development and the ‘Are you that someone?’ campaign and the ‘It’s Not OK’ campaign to discuss sexual and family violence. It’s modules like these that focus our players attention on how they should conduct themselves in situations that could confront them as sporting stars, and to think about their role as leaders in their communities back home. So not only do we want to educate and create awareness of the demands on a national athlete in international competition, but we also preach the responsibilities they have off the court.”