Basketball: Baldwin signs up the foreign legion

By PETER JESSUP

The impact on the national league of New Zealand-eligible players who have been overseas is marked in the selection of the first national training camp for this year.

Six players in Tab Baldwin's initial squad of 25 have been at college in the United States or Canada and have returned to this country with the goal of making the Tall Blacks.

All in their mid-20s, they join nine out of the 12 from last year's world championships team.

The missing trio are Sean Marks and Kirk Penney, who are in the United States, and Rob Hickey, who has retired.

Then there are former Tall Blacks Tony Rampton and Glen Newbold, returning from injury, and a host of impressive new talent, including Waikato's Glen Joe, Callum McLeod from Wellington and Auckland's Lindsay Tait.

Among those with overseas experience is Auckland's Aaron Olson, who has a New Zealand mother but tried out for Canada for the 2002 world championships. He missed out and has set his sights on the black shirt for Athens 2004.

The 1.9m guard top-scored for the Stars at the weekend with 25 in their 86-78 away win over Hawkes Bay.

Import Casey Frank shot 22 and Tait 12.

Stars forwards Daryl Cartwright, (age 25, height 2m) who was on standby in 2002, and Mike Homik, (24, 2m) who brings US experience, get a chance as Baldwin seeks depth in the frontline. New Zealand-born Adrian Majstrovich top-scored for the Hawks with 26 in Saturday's game and continues to impress but is unfortunately not available for New Zealand after representing Australia at junior level.

Guard Glen Joe (24, 1.9m) has been selected despite minimal court time in a star-studded Titans side. They dumped Otago 104-81 in Te Awamutu on Friday night to maintain their unbeaten record and the league lead, Dillon Boucher top-scoring with 19 and Riki Strother and Prem Krishna each nailing 16.

Import Issiah Epps was shut down, restricted to 19 points against an average 31. Their only other major contributor was Hayden Allen, who has also returned to the national squad after injury layoffs, with 16.

Saints' centre Callum McLeod is the youngster at 20, there for his 2.11m height as well as potential. But Baldwin hinted he is in for the experience and as promise for the long-term rather than the immediate future.

The Wellington side hold second place on the league table after a 74-72 win over Canterbury earned by new Australian import Ben Knight as the buzzer went. That makes new coach Mike McHugh three-from-three and vindicates his decision to bring Knight in at the expense of Geordie Cullen.

Brendon Polyblank equalled Knight's 21 and is another back from overseas to compete for a forward spot in the national side.

Tall Blacks forward Ed Book showed he is climbing back to best form with 36 points as the Giants turned their fortunes around with a 97-68 win over North Harbour.

The home team were 40 points up in the fourth quarter as the Heat again struggled for size with Milos Pejovic and Jason Greig both out injured. Rob Tuilave shot 19, import John Smith 18.

Taranaki scored a third win of the season, the third time the Mountain Airs have ambushed a team coming off the first round of a double-header, dropping Otago 76-73. It was their Americans who led the scoring, Willie Banks 23 and Lincoln Abrams 22. The Nuggets are rumoured to be signing Tall Blacks guard Mark Dickel for the rest of the season after his team were knocked out of finals in the Turkish league, though he is not expected to be available for Thursday night's game against Auckland in Dunedin.

The Stars play Canterbury on Friday night and Harbour also have a double-header next weekend, the Palmerston Jets on Friday and Hawkes Bay on Saturday.

Baldwin has indicated he is looking for three missing ingredients for his 2003 team: forward depth, a small forward who can shoot three-pointers and guards who can play both point and shooting positions.

* Jeff Green's Breakers apparently have two player contracts before the Australian National Basketball League for approval regarding salary cap and other details and expect to announce signings early this week.

The hot tip Australian is former Sydney Kings forward Ben Melmeth. There's also talk about Titans American Samoan import Iona Enosa and Tall Black guard Paul Henare.

Tall Blacks calendar

* The Tall Blacks lead up to their Olympic qualifying series against Australia with games against Czechoslovakia in Christchurch on July 7, Invercargill on July 9 and in Hamilton on July 10.

* They attend the World Cup in Istanbul, Turkey, from August 20-24 then return for the Olympic qualifying series against Australia.

* Dates for the three-test series were set this week, starting with the Victorian country towns of Bendigo on September 1 and Geelong on September 3, finishing in Melbourne on September 4.

Tall Black squad for camp in Lower Hutt from June 1-4:

Hayden Allen (Otago Nuggets), Ed Book (Nelson Giants), Dillon Boucher (Waikato Titans), Pero Cameron (Waikato Titans), Daryl Cartwright (Auckland Stars), Mark Dickel (Otago Nuggets), Judd Flavell (Nelson Giants), Paul Henare (Hawks), Mike Homik (Auckland Stars), David Hopoi (Waikato Titans), Glen Joe (Waikato Titans), Phill Jones (Nelson Giants), Terrence Lewis (Wellington Saints), Callum MacLeod (Wellington Saints), Glen Newbold (Manawatu Jets), Aaron Olson (Auckland Stars), Miles Pearce (Manawatu Jets), Brendon Polyblank (Wellington Saints), Damon Rampton (Nelson Giants), Tony Rampton (Cairns Taipans), Luke Ruscoe (Brown University), Lindsay Tait (Auckland Stars), Michael Tompson (Wellington Saints), Mika Vukona (Manawatu Jets), Paora Winitana (Hawks).