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Friday January 30, 2009

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Dragons Stay On Top

Joel Tiller, Sportal
The South Dragons have maintained their No.1 position in the Australian NBL with a 101-94 win over the NZ Breakers at the North Shore Events Centre.

New Zealand’s offence was once again a shade off its full potential, outgunned by a superb Dragons team effort that boasted no less than six players in double digits for points.

EOI - Ferns Head Coach

Basketball New Zealand invites expressions of interest for the position of head coach of the national women’s basketball team – the NZ Tall Ferns.

After attending three consecutive Olympics, this young team is ranked 16th in the world and has the potential to crack the top 10 in the next four years.

In 2009, the Tall Ferns will undertake a schedule designed to prepare them for the Oceania Championships in September. It is hoped this programme might include the World University Games in Serbia, July 1-12.

Another First For Marks

Kiwi NBA pioneer Sean Marks achieved another career first last week.

With a start against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday, just his ninth, Marks was in the New Orleans Hornets starting-five in three straight games for the first time in his nine-year career.

Marks produced season-highs in points, field goals made, field goal attempts, rebounds, assists and minutes in the 116-108 road loss to the T-Wolves, going for 10 points (5/9 FG), seven boards, two assists and a block in 29:13.

All-NZ Q&A - Spooner-Knight

When head coach Sue Pene tested her Emerging Junior Tall Ferns squad’s listening skills on the first day of the All-NZ Camp in Palmerston North, Rhaiah Spooner-Knight did not exactly pass with flying colours.

No matter, although she failed to notice her name had been purposefully not called out, the 14-year-old makes up for it on-court.

One of the bubs of the EJTFs, an under-17 squad, Rhaiah, often the team comic relief, was a tournament-team selection and national title winner from Waikato at last year’s under-15 national championships.

Vucinic's Streak Stops

Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic and his Estonian club BC Kalev/Cramo suffered two crucial losses last week, which could hurt their title chances in two competitions.

Kalev fell 80-62 to leaders TU/Rock for the second time this season in the Estonian KML on Tuesday, remaining third at 8-3 but leaving an uphill battle for the domestic crown with 14 games left in the regular season.

Kalev also had their seven-game winning streak in the Baltic Basketball League (BBL) halted on Friday, falling 72-69 to Latvia’s ASK Riga on the road. The loss put them back to third at 8-5, with ASK Riga taking over second spot.

Barnes A Winner

Kim Barnes made sure her last two points were the most important.

Barnes, a Counties Manukau product, hit the game-winning turn-around basket in the post with 1.5 seconds remaining as UC-Irvine collected their first Big West conference win and ended a 13-game losing streak 48-46 over Cal State Northridge at home on Saturday.

The former Junior Tall Fern scored 10 of her season- and team-high 11 points in the second half, shooting 5-of-10 from the field and 1-of-4 from the foul-line, to go with four rebounds and two blocks in 28 minutes for the Anteaters, who improved to 4-15 overall and 1-5 in conference play.

Tournament Due Dates

Basketball New Zealand has released due dates for all its 38 tournaments in 2009 on Tuesday.

The due dates includes team entry and online team rosters (five weeks prior) and entry fees and final roster changes (four weeks prior), enabling draws to be finalised no less than two weeks before tournaments.

All-NZ Q&A - James Ashby

As a coach walks by, he encourages James Ashby “tell them you’re the beast, tell them you’re the beast”.

Ashby just laughs and shakes his head.

Rather than bragging about what he can do on the court, the 1.88m forward from Massey, would rather talk about what needs improvement or what he is yet to learn about the game.