Basketball: City hosts Easter tourney

Missy Nuku training with the Tauranga Under-15 A girls' basketball team ahead of the Mel Young Easter Basketball Classic tournament over Easter weekend. Photo / John Borren

The country's biggest representative basketball tournament takes place across venues in Rotorua and Tauranga over the Easter weekend.

The traditional Easter tournament has this year been renamed the Mel Young Easter Basketball Classic as a tribute to the player, referee, coach and administrator from Hamilton who died last year. A fixture in the calendar for more than 25 years, the tournament is about much more than developing players, with top level coach and referee educators invited to pass on their knowledge and skills.

"It was set up by four associations originally to provide development opportunities for players," said Tauranga City Basketball Association general manager Mark Rogers. "Since then it's grown to be the biggest rep tournament in the country. We have teams from the top half of the North Island and Australia."

The Australian teams are all star teams selected from a national tournament held in Australia in January.

Coaches and referees have the opportunity to develop their skills and this year Peter Lonergan, the director of coaching at the Basketball NSW Campus of Australian College of Sport, and Patrick Hunt, chairman of the FIBA Technical Commission and president of the World Association of Basketball Coaches, will be conducting coaching clinics. On the referees' side, three top Australian referee educators, John Martin, Alan Garraway and Ken Coulson, will be passing on their skills.

"For me it's a chance to see all the kids out on the court, which is a real buzz for me, but so is the fact that we can bring in the high calibre of people from overseas to help us," said Rogers. "We're not having to send people to the States or anywhere else to get the best there is. It's a huge bonus and it's one of the highlights for me that we can attract those sorts of people to our event."

Many of the players involved in the rep programmes in their home associations will be at the tournament and the A teams will almost all be heading to the national tournament in July. "So it's great for the development of players and good preparation for that national tournament."

Rogers said it was difficult to predict which will be the strong associations.

"Waikato has traditionally been strong, especially the girls, Waitakere has been strong in the past and Palmerston North have had some very strong teams. Rotorua and Tauranga have been in the mix."

The under 11 and under 13 games will be played in Rotorua and the under 15, 17 and 19 games in Tauranga.

"That's something new we are trialling this year because of the growth of the tournament. We've split it to allow for less pressure on the draw because of the number of teams."

Games in Rotorua will be at the Energy Events Centre while Tauranga matches will be at the ASB Arena, Queen Elizabeth Youth Centre and Aquinas College gym. InPool play begins on Friday with the tournament continuing across the weekend.

- For full draw details see www.taurangacitybasketball.co.nz.