Vukona Inks With Heat

Tall Black excitement machine Mika Vukona has signed with the Appliance Shed Harbour Heat for the 2008 Dominion Finance NBL season.

Vukona is one of the leading rebounders in both the Australian and New Zealand leagues. He was also an integral part of the Nelson Giants team that won the 2007 NBL.

Harbour Basketball CEO John Hunt was thrilled when Mika decided to sign for the Heat .

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Baldwin Bounces Back

Former Tall Black coach Tab Baldwin was officially relieved of his duties with PAOK in Greece, but has already landed another contract in Romania.

Baldwin’s job had been under threat for a couple of weeks now and his sacking was prematurely announced earlier this month.

PAOK management were clearly dissatisfied with the team’s 1-7 start to the HEBA Championship and fired Baldwin after their 64-87 loss to AEK last weekend, appointed Kostas Flevarakis as the new head coach.

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NT Staff Wanted

Basketball New Zealand invites expressions of interest for the following coaching and managerial positions within the Tall Blacks and Tall Ferns programmes …

Tall Blacks
Assistant coach
Video technician
Manager

Tall Ferns
Video technician

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Penney Trumped

Jonathan Healy, Sportal
West Sydney Razorbacks guard Troy DeVries has laid claims to being the best outside shooter in the Hummer Championship NBL by defeating NZ Breakers guard Kirk Penney in the final of the NBL All-Star three-point shootout.

After making it through to the final by a solitary point, DeVries nailed 10 shots and four money-balls to rack up 14 points, with Penney (nine points) unable to bring his strong first-round form into the final.

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Crowe Week's Best

Waikato Pistons import Jason Crowe has won Player of the Week for Round 12 of the Australian HUMMER Championship NBL season after connecting on a jaw-dropping 10-of-14 three pointers to help the Gold Coast Blaze beat South Dragons 127-116.

Crowe scored 33 points with a 73% field goal percentage, and also added eight assists, two rebounds and one block to beat out NBL veterans Chris Anstey and Shane Heal for Player of the Week honours.

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McLean Still Saintly

Veteran guard Troy McLean was today announced as the first Century City Wellington Saints signing for the 2008 Dominion Finance NBL season under new head coach Doug Marty.

McLean joined Saints originally in 1996 and next season will mark his 11th season with the Saints. He has played only one season outside Wellington - 2006 with Harbour Heat.

McLean has a wealth of basketball, having starred in Saints’ 2003 NBL championship victory over Waikato. During the following summer, he practiced with the Wollongong Hawks in the Australian NBL and his continued improvement in 2004 earned him a call-up for national honours in the pre-Olympic series against Australia.

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Back To Athens

The NZ Tall Blacks will return to Athens - scene of the previous Olympic Games - in their bid for one of three remaining spots at next year’s Beijing Olympics.

FIBA’s Central Board have named the Greek capital as venue for the 12-team repechage tournament next July 14-20. The event will be staged at the 18,000-seat OAKA Sports Arena at Maroussi.

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Marino Stays On Top

Tall Fern point guard Angela Marino helped Adelaide Lightning consolidate their grip on the top of the Australian Defence Force WNBL table with a pair of wins over the Australian Insitute of Sport and Townsville.

Marino had four points (1/5 FG, 2/2 FT), two rebounds, two assists and two steals in 19 minutes in the 89-69 defeat of AIS, then seven points (1/6 FG, 1/3 3pt, 4/4 FT), two rebounds, an assist and a steal in 24 minutes in the 86-79 result over Townsville.

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Bradshaw Back In Style

NZ Tall Black centre Craig Bradshaw returned to the court after recovering from an ankle injury and helped the Brisbane Bullets defeat West Sydney Razorbacks 120-102 in the Hummer NBL Championship.

Bradshaw came off the bench for 15 points (7/11 FG, 1/5 FT), seven rebounds and a block in 26 minutes. International team-mate Dillon Boucher also had his most productive performance as a member of the Bullets starting line-up, contributing two points (1/2 FG), seven rebounds, five assists, two blocks and a steal in 32 minutes.

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Sirens Topple Champs

The Christchurch Sirens claimed their biggest scalp of an unbeaten run at Cowles Stadium with a 71-70 epic overtime victory against reigning Australian Defence Force WNBL champions Canberra.

In many ways the match resembled a battle between David and Goliath, with the Sirens cast in the role of David, conceding a big height advantage to the Canberra forwards.

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Johnson Banned

The Sports Tribunal of New Zealand has banned Hawks national basketball league player Kareem Johnson for five weeks after testing positive for cannabis, but will suspend the punishment if he participates in a drug education programme.

He will not be allowed to play from February 15 to March 21, 2008 - effectively, the pre-season and opening rounds of the NBL - unless he participates in a suitable education programme designed to educate other athletes about doping in sports.

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X's & O's - Drills To Improve Free Throw Percentage

By Stan Jones, Florida State University associate head coach
Early in my career as a high school coach, an old-school coach said to me "Show me a team that shoots free throws well and I'll show you a lazy practice coach."

Being a respectful, impressionable you coach, trying to learn my craft, I wanted to give that statement some merit, due to that coach's status, but I just couldn't accept that. I kept hearing my college coach pound into us as players that "making free throws and lay-ups wins games"!

Even with the advent of the three-point as an offensive weapon, I have grown deeper in the belief of my college coach and moved further away from the lazy coach statement to a point of total disagreement.

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