Basketball: Coach plans build-up for world title

Coach Tab Baldwin wants the Tall Blacks to play at least 25 internationals in preparation for the world championships in Indianapolis next August.

Currently in Sydney studying the operation of the Sydney Kings - fifth in last season's Australian league - Baldwin said the wish-list of opponents would be clearer when Basketball New Zealand chief executive David Crocker returned from Europe.

"It would be great if we could have eight games around Christmas, 12 in June or July, and five or six just before [the championships]," Baldwin said.

A number of other options had been considered, including putting a Tall Blacks side into next season's national basketball league.

That idea fell over because key players such as Sean Marks, Kirk Penney, Mark Dickel and Tony Rampton, who are all contracted to clubs overseas, will be unavailable.

Without them, Baldwin saw little value in entering a national squad for the competition.

The NBL season will be moved to accommodate the preparation of the Tall Blacks and to ensure teams do not suffer from losing them. A starting date for the NBL should be set shortly.

Baldwin confirmed that he was shifting to Wellington as national high-performance coaching director. He was giving up coaching Auckland and had turned down an offer to coach Saints next season.

The move will reportedly take his salary close to six figures - doubling his previous pay as Auckland's NBL coach - but Baldwin is reluctant to reveal too much detail until Crocker's return.

Meanwhile, Australia appear to have moved a step closer to agreeing to annual matches with the New Zealand men.

"We had discounted it because we didn't think the New Zealand men were competitive enough," Basketball Australia chief executive Scott Derwin said.

"Well, obviously they are and that's cast a different light on it for us."

The Boomers lost to the Tall Blacks in the world championship qualifiers last month.

- NZPA