Basketball: Baldwin picking red-hot season

By PETER JESSUP

Tall Black coach Tab Baldwin is expecting the upcoming domestic season to be the best yet.

Competition for spots in his 12-man squad for the Athens Olympics will be hot and he is grateful for the Australian influence in the league, because he expects that to raise the intensity of the local game.

He said the Tall Blacks would play three tests against Australia here, with the dates and venues yet to be set.

That, and the increasing involvement of Aussie NBL players in the Kiwi NBL, was a mark of new respect from our transtasman cousins, because they'd been beaten in 2001 and the Tall Blacks went on to fourth place in the world in 2002.

"We can't live by that forever, [that respect] is not ours ad infinitum, we have to continue to perform on the world stage," he said.

The Australians sprinkled through the local league would bring a new physicality and accuracy and would raise the bar in most areas of the game, he said.

They were taking a roster spot, but some local players had simply been making up numbers and this would prompt those players to lift their performance.

"They won't be taking any opportunities from our better players."

Baldwin was pleased with the Breakers' first season.

"I admit I had doubts that a team of New Zealand players could foot it in that league. I don't anymore," he said.

"After a start that was interrupted by injuries and the coaching change they progressed and that's pleasing for all of us.

"Now I think that a team of New Zealanders can not only get by in that league but that they can make an impression in the playoffs.

"New Zealand basketball doesn't have the depth Australia does but there is not a lot in it now in terms of our best and their best." He isn't concerned that players like captain Pero Cameron and star shooter Phill Jones will back up after Breakers duty.

"They're not playing and training every day - it's good to keep them in shape but not over-working them. I expect them to come in ready."

The Tall Blacks begin their Athens build-up with the team going into camp on July 1, four days after the NBL final in what is a season compressed to allow the Olympic programme.

It's hoped another overseas team can tour before the squad leaves for games in Europe pre-Olympics.

He said the pool of players capable of reaching representative level had widened and he was hopeful still more players would put their hand up.

"First and foremost they must fit in, fit the chemistry we've already got, they must have the character and the willingness to do things the way we do them, to subjugate their own style to the culture of the team.

"I want players who can be pro-active for us, who can produce for us over a period of time - not someone who just comes on to give the starter a spell. I want people who can lift our game, change the face of a game."

He mentioned Dillon Boucher and Brendon Polyblank for his impact against the Czech Republic last season.

The news from overseas is good with Sean Marks, Mark Dickel and Kirk Penney all likely to be cleared by their respective overseas clubs to take part from July 1 until the Games in August.

Marks remains on the injury roster at San Antonio after shoulder surgery but is fit to play and awaiting his chance if someone else is hurt.