In The Huddle October 26 2007

Friday October 26, 2007

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Winds Of Change

Significant staff changes have taken place at Basketball New Zealand.

Communications manager Grant Chapman has taken up a new role within the organisation, that of national teams and communications general manager.

Chapman brings a valuable background in international events and communication, which will add a new dimension to the Tall Black and Tall Fern programmes.

He will be ably assisted by Natalie Tong, who will continue to oversee the athletes services programme. An assistant communications role will be advertised shortly.

Dragons Unveil New Recruit

Jonathan Healy, Sportal
Former Century City Wellington Saints import Bakari Hendrix believes he can make an immediate impact in the Australian HUMMER Championship NBL.

Hendrix has been recruited by the South Dragons to replace fellow American Nick Horvath, who will stay contracted to the club until his New Zealand citizenship is finalised.

And having played basketball in nine different countries outside the United States, Hendrix feels he has the experience to help the Dragons off the bottom of the ladder and into the playoffs in their second season in the NBL.

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Dial T For Tini

Veteran Tall Fern Jody Tini has been drafted into the injury-plagued Christchurch Sirens for their Australian Defence Force WNBL road trip to Melbourne this weekend.

Tini co-captained the national team at last month’s FIBA Oceania Championships and replaces Kiwi forward Lisa Wallbutton, who has been diagnosed with a stress fracture to her foot.

“She is with us for the weekend and helps make up for the loss of Lisa to a certain degree,” says Sirens coach Leigh Gooding.

“Jody knows most of our stuff pretty well, she fits into the group fairly well, and will bring experience and toughness to the team.

One Saint For Another?

Grantley Bernard, The Herald Sun (Melbourne)
South Dragons are trialing American big man Bakari Hendrix as a potential replacement for former Century City Wellington Saints team-mate Nick Horvath as early as Sunday’s game against the Harvey Norman NZ Breakers.

The Dragons have started the Hummer NBL Championship season with a league-worst 0-6 record and head coach Shane Heal says a change was imminent in an effort to get the team back on track.

“I told Nick about 10 days ago we were going to make a change,” Heal said. “So we’ve brought Bakari in for a tryout and we’ll see where it goes. He might give us that extra inside presence that we need.”

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Giants' Win Bonus For New CEO

Wayne Martin, Nelson Mail
Chris Varcoe didn’t chase the vacant Basketball Nelson chief executive’s job because the Blue Chip Nelson Giants won this year’s New Zealand NBL title.

It certainly made his move more attractive though after relinquishing the Basketball New Zealand field development officer role that he held for four years.

Varcoe replaced the association’s former chief executive, Daryl Fenemor, three weeks ago after Fenemor returned north for personal reasons.

Rickert Best Of The Week

Harvey Norman NZ Breakers forward Rick Rickert has been named Player of the Week award after helping his team to a perfect 2-0 record in Round Five of the 2007/08 HUMMER NBL Championship.

The 24-year old American import averaged 26.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists over the course of the week as the Breakers improved their record to 3-2 for the season.

Rickert was on fire Thursday night against Adelaide, scoring 30 points and pulling down 13 rebounds to lead his team to a 116-107 home victory over the 36ers.

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Marino, Lightning Strike Twice

After a tumultuous week, NZ Tall Fern point guard Angela Marino has helped her Adelaide Lightning to a pair of wins in the Australian Defence Force WNBL.

Marino’s father Vince, who owns the Lightning franchise, fired coach Chris Lucas on Wednesday, replacing him with former Opals point guard Vicki Valk.

Adelaide responded in the best possible fashion with wins over Bendigo Spirit (96-83) and Bulleen Boomers (94-87), and now sit in second place on the points table with a 3-1 record.

Tough Start For Baldwin

Former NZ Tall Black coach Tab Baldwin officially began his career in the Greek A1 league with a loss, his PAOK Thessaloniki club falling 66-76 on the road to Olympiakos.

PAOK lost valuable ground to their Euroleague opponents in the second quarter, which they lost 8-18, and could never quite claw back that deficit. Baldwin’s team enjoyed a rebounding edge, but turned the ball over 19 times.

His debut gets no easier next week, when he faces reigning Euroleague champions Panathinaikos Athens at home.

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Divisional & Wheelchair Results

Full results from the NZ Divisional & Wheelchair Championships in Tauranga.

Breakers Win First On Road

Darren Lai, Sportal
The Harvey Norman NZ Breakers won their first-ever game at the Singapore Indoor Stadium by downing the Singapore Slingers 116-99 to continue their recent good run of form, having now won their last three games in a row.

As expected, former NBA draft pick Kirk Penney and big centre Rick Rickert did most of the damage, finishing with 24 and 23 points respectively.

Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis was obviously elated with the result, which also happened to be his team’s first away victory in this season’s Hummer Championship NBL.

Veteran Rangers Just Dandy

The Dandenong Rangers stretched their winning streak to three straight game by defeating a gallant Christchurch Sirens 85-61 in the Australian Defence Force WNBL.

It was the experienced heads of the Rangers Michelle Brogan, Shelley Hammonds and Larissa Anderson that saw Dandenong turn a two-point quarter time deficit into a comfortable 24-point win.

In her first WNBL game since the 2003/04 season, Brogan tallied 16 points and 10 rebounds in 19 minutes on court while Hammonds bagged 13 points and five rebounds and Anderson contributed 12 points and five rebounds in support.

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X's & O's - Improving Team By Improving Player

By Italian national men's coach Carlo Recalcati

The improvement of a team is directly connected to the improvement of individual players.

Daily workouts to improve the fundamentals can enrich the technical skills of each player, who will then have more tools to use in various game situations.

By the end of every practice session, each player must make some improvement in their skill level, even if it's just a little.

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