Basketball: Baldwin opens books as Tall Blacks' hone plans

By PETER JESSUP

Coach Tab Baldwin opened the homework books on the Tall Blacks' opponents for the world championships in August and September as soon as New Zealand's pool standing was announced yesterday.

The Tall Blacks are drawn with Russia, Argentina and Venezuela in pool D for the Indianapolis tournament and will play each of those sides in round one.

In pool A are Yugoslavia, Spain, Canada and Angola. Pool B comprises Brazil, Turkey, Lebanon and Puerto Rico. Pool C is the United States, Germany, China and Algeria.

After round one, the bottom four teams drop out and the remaining three sides from each pool go into a six-team round, A grouped with B, and C with D.

Points from round one carry through, but all teams drop any points earned against those four who have gone home.

Therefore if the Tall Blacks can stay in for round two, their next opponents would probably be the United States, Germany and China, as Algeria are weakest in pool C.

The top eight are decided after round two and those sides then play off through quarter-finals, semis and the final.

Baldwin said studying the opposition was a major part of his game plan and yesterday he was seeking videotapes, player statistics and even background information on the rival coaches. He will also seek comment from coaches who have played New Zealand's pool opponents.

Of the other 15 world championship teams, the Tall Blacks have recently played Canada, who toured here and were at the Goodwill Games, Brazil (Goodwill Games) and Russia (pre-Olympic tournament).

They lost to the United States and China and beat Angola (Olympics). The others are unknown quantities.

The pooling changed little in Baldwin's thinking.

"We're going there to win games, a game at a time," he said.

"I feel better knowing who we're facing and now we start the specific work on our opponents."