In The Huddle October 5

Friday October 5, 2007

Hi there

BBNZ Labour Weekend Workshop

October 20-22
AUT, North Shore

This year’s workshop focuses on coaches across the basketball community with topics aimed at elite, development & participation coaches and arguably the most comprehensive line-up of speakers in the events history!

2007 Speakers
Ian Stacker – Head Coach of Australian Junior Men World Champions and Townsville Crocodiles Australian NBL Side
Nenad Vucinic – Head Coach Tall Blacks
Mike McHugh – Head Coach Tall Ferns
John Herdman – Head Coach NZ Football Ferns who recently competed in the FIFA World Cup for Women
Graeme Robson – Manager of Coaching NZ Academy of Sport North, former National Badminton Coach
Murray McMahon – Head Coach Waikato Pistons
Brad Conza and Kirsten Mackenzie – New Zealand Academy of Sport Sports Science team
National Junior Team Coaching staff
New Zealand Breakers Coaching staff

2007 Workshop Topics
Building team systems that develop players
National team playbooks
The European system for developing coaches
Effective plays to beat zone defence
Scouting the opposition
Play over plays – using games to teach athletes
Helping elite athletes learn
Conditioning elite athletes
The Breakers ‘pack’ defence
An assault on Beijing: Planning HP coaching
Fuelling athlete energy systems
Coach development through coaching practice

Pigs Rip Breakers

John Lazo-Ron, Sportal
The West Sydney Razorbacks continued their early winning form with a hard fought 104-96 victory over the Harvey Norman NZ Breakers at the North Shore Events Centre in Auckland on Thursday night.

Last season’s cellar dwellers made it three wins from four matches after repelling a Breakers side who were looking for their first win in the 2007/2008 Hummer Championship NBL.

Wilkins Rushed Into Action

Geoff Longley, The Press
NZ Tall Fern Donna Wilkins will step off the plane from Europe and almost straight onto the court for the Christchurch Sirens in its Australian women’s national basketball league opener against Townsville on Friday night.

Wilkins had been on a honeymoon holiday, watching World Cup rugby in France but will be drafted into action immediately after landing back in Christchurch.

It’s probably handy the Westpac Arena in Addington is not far from the airport, although Sirens coach Leigh Gooding is not pushing Wilkins into the starting line-up.

Local Coaches Assist

Promising Canterbury coaches Kennedy Hamilton-Kereama and Craig Hickford have been named assistant coaches of the Christchurch Sirens for their Australian WNBL debut season.

Hamilton-Kereama (23) has been identified by Basketball New Zdealand through its High Performance programme. This year, he guided Canterbury to the national U21 women title and helped the province to the NZ U17 girls final.

Bring Back Gordie

Former coach Gordie McLeod has been targeted by Century City Wellington Saints as they prepare for the 2008 Dominion Finance NBL season.

The closing date for coaching applications passed last Friday with 25 applications arriving before the deadline.

Of the 25 applications received, only two were New Zealanders, with the remaining applications coming from Europe, USA, and Australia.

WOF Check

Steve Smith, FIBA Oceania Secretary General
When you travel to many countries, it’s sometimes the everyday things that the locals take for granted which capture your attention.

When travelling in New Zealand during the FIBA Oceania Championships, I have wanted to woof, woof in response to the WOF signs displayed at every second petrol station.

Of course, Kiwis see these signs as part of the wallpaper of everyday life and never give them a second glance. They understand that a WOF is a Warrant Of Fitness - the certification that your motor vehicle is roadworthy.

Top Marks

Colin Tilley
A week of top basketball came to a fitting end at the North Shore Events Centre with the Furnware NZ Secondary School Championships girls and boys finals played in front of an enthusiastic and vocal crowd.

Rangitoto College vs Church College
Rangitoto came into the game with the more likely lineup with forwards Mikayla Blair and Hope Thompson expected to establish a dominant presence under the boards on offence leaving their livewire shooters Milika Nathan and Candice Marsh freedom to pick their shots from around the perimeter at will.

Bradshaw Top Kiwi

NZ Tall Black Craig Bradshaw continued his solid early form in the Australian Hummer Championship NBL, helping the champion Brisbane Bullets to a 113-88 road win over the Wollongong Hawks.

Bradshaw had 15 points (5/10 FG, 2/2 3pt, 3/3 FT), six rebounds and five turnovers for the Bullets, who had defeated Yao Ming and the Chinese national team earlier in the week. Kiwi team-mate Dillon Boucher had four points (2/5 FG), eight rebounds and three assists.

For Wollongong, Tall Black guard Lindsay Tait had his third game of double-figure scoring with 11 points (4/8 FG, 3/4 FT), adding six rebounds, two assists and a steal, while Canterbury guard Jeremy Kench chipped in two points (1/2 FG), an assist and a steal in his limited time off the bench.

Simply The Best

Like the champions they are, the Australian Opals repelled a promising Kiwi comeback in the best manner possible, pounding the NZ Tall Ferns 87-46 in Dunedin to maintain their unbeaten record in the history of the FIBA Oceania Championships.

The home team were battling strongly and had closed to within 12 points late in the third quarter when the Aussies simply decided enough was enough, unreeling a 35-2 run that carried them well clear for another regional title.

Mission Accomplished

The NZ Tall Ferns took care of the easy part, securing a spot at next year’s Beijing Olympics with a 118-31 win over Fiji at the FIBA Oceania Championships in Dunedin.

Now they face a much tougher challenge – convincing the New Zealand selectors they are capable of progressing to the Olympic quarterfinals, as they did in Athens three years ago.

“We’re delighted,” confirmed coach Mike McHugh. “Basketball is played in 213 countries and only 12 teams get to the Olympics.

X's & O's - Panathinaikos Offence

By Zelimiar Obradovic, six-time Euroleague winning coach
If we cannot run in transition, we set up this half-court offence.

I use this offence with all my teams. It has a lot of options for all the players and the playmakers must be able to read the situation and run the different and simple options.

The premise of this offence is to give the ball to players who are able to effectively play one-on-one.

We set with two players low and wide, and two posts at the high post position, where I need players who are able to score from the three-point line and also read the defence.

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