Basketball: Let's be Frank, it's over

By GREGOR PAUL

The New Zealand Breakers and Frank Arsego are poised to go their separate ways as it is understood relations between the players and coach have broken down.

With the Breakers second to last on the table and having lost their third game on the trot on Friday night, Arsego's departure appears to be a case of when rather than if.

Some sources believe it could come as early as this week.

The Breakers' owners Michael Redman and Dallas Fisher took decisive action last year when they felt coach Jeff Green was steering the ship in the wrong direction.

Redman and Fisher's financial commitment is as significant as their desire to see the Breakers succeed. It is unlikely they will keep Arsego on if the players are no longer responding to his methods.

The season is slipping away from the Breakers and a change of coach now may be the catalyst the side needs to salvage something.

There has been no dramatic incident to drive a wedge between the players and Arsego, but during the last few months the squad has sensed the Australian coach lacks confidence in the New Zealand-born players and they feel he has failed to recognise the importance of the team's Kiwi culture.

Some players are also uncomfortable with Arsego's tactical approach, which requires them to operate on instinct rather than a more structured game plan.

Should the Breakers and Arsego part company, there will inevitably be calls for Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin to be installed at the helm.

Baldwin knows many of the players having coached them in national colours - a major plus given he would be inheriting an underperforming team midway through a campaign.

He is also aware of the need to pay homage to the team's New Zealand roots and has a profile and charisma that would be welcomed by the Breakers' corporate sponsors. The crowd at the Cairns Taipans game on Friday was the smallest of the season and interest in the team is dwindling.

It is not known, however, whether Baldwin's current bosses, Basketball New Zealand, would be willing for him to take on the Breakers job should he be offered it.

There are obvious benefits in having the same man coach both the Breakers and Tall Blacks, but BNZ would need to be totally satisfied that Baldwin could do justice to both posts.

Alternatively the Breakers may promote their inexperienced assistant coach Wayne Brown or look overseas again for a replacement.

Tension in the team first surfaced a few weeks ago when Dillon Boucher made derogatory remarks about Arsego in a text message to former coach Green.

The Breakers won back to back immediately following Boucher's outburst, which enabled the management to quash rumours of widespread dissent.

Despite the subsequent deterioration in relations within the camp, general manager Peter Chapman remains adamant the Breakers are a side in harmony.

"It's a bullshit story," he told the Herald on Sunday. "The board and players are 100 per cent supportive of Frank Arsego. I've spoken to all the players and they know that if they say anything to undermine the team they will no longer be here. Speculative stories like this only undermine the hard work we do."