Basketball: Best of the rest press claims for Tall Blacks

By PETER JESSUP

New Tall Blacks coaches Tab Baldwin and assistant Nenad Vucinic have started their assessment and selection process to rebuild the team disbanded after the Olympics.

A camp for 13 hopefuls has been held in Nelson.

There is still a team's worth of obvious starters overseas, but Baldwin said yesterday that others would have the opportunity to press their claims when the national league started early next month.

Among those overseas are captain Pero Cameron, who has helped London's Chester Jets to win the England title.

Cameron has National Basketball League contract offers from his five-season Auckland team and from Waikato where he started.

The North Harbour Kings are also believed to be interested in securing Cameron.

Other Tall Blacks overseas are star shooters Phill Jones, in Finland, and Kirk Penney, in Wisconsin.

Livewire guard Mark Dickel is with the Victoria Titans in the Australian league and forward Tony Rampton is with the Cairns Titans.

Former NBA Toronto Raptor guard turned Tall Black forward Sean Marks is in Europe, and Michael Tompson is playing United States college basketball.

The New Zealand administration has yet to name the 13 who were at the camp and Baldwin would not disclose the list.

But he said it included some players who went to the Sydney Olympics and others who made Tall Black camps last year but were eliminated.

Among those should be Paul Henare and Dillon Boucher from Baldwin's Auckland team, Andrew Gardiner, who has shifted from Wellington to Canterbury, and new team-mates David Langrell and Rob Hickey.

Brendon Cathie-Pongia at Harbour, Riki Strother and Chris Tupu at Waikato, and Brad Riley and Judd Flavell at Nelson would also be contenders.

Newcomers worth consideration would have to be Auckland's Daryl Cartwright and Mason Le Pou, David Hopai at Waikato and Damon Rampton at Nelson.

Those who retired after the Sydney Olympics are the now-coaching Vucinic and Nelson team-mate Ralph Lattimore, along with long-server Peter Pokai.

Those selected will go on special training schemes and their NBL coaches told what was required.

This contact with the NBL coaches will be a new move for the national side.

By Queen's Birthday weekend, Baldwin and Vucinic expect to have the squad whittled down to those that they want.

The first assignment will be the Goodwill Games at Brisbane in September.

An Oceania playoff for a spot at the world championships follows, with Australia, as usual, the big obstacle.

The Boomers had a mass retirement after the Olympics, but have named a train-on squad of 42.

Baldwin has not lamented the loss of New Zealand's best players overseas, planning to make the most of the opportunity to test the rest.

"All the guys came with a great attitude. We're lucky we have the opportunity to look at them all."