Basketball: Tall Blacks desperate for overseas competition

By PETER JESSUP

Tall Black coach Tab Baldwin is desperate to get international competition for the squad ahead of the Goodwill Games in September after chances of a June tour by the Czech Republic faded yesterday.

The Tall Black camp broke with an intense North-South game, the Northerners pushed all the way to a 75-69 win.

Wellington import turned Kiwi Terrence Lewis looked a sort of Fat-Shaq in top-scoring for the North with 26, while livewire Mark Dickel showed his competitive nature with 27 from point guard for the game-high for the South.

Baldwin was pleased with the attitude, commitment, talent and ability of the squad but not that pleased with where they are at in terms of cohesion, and even less pleased with the Tall Blacks' programme from now.

Nothing is planned until September if the Czechs, as is rumoured, pull out of their three-match tour.

"We have to look for competition between now and September," he said. "It would be pretty tough going to the Goodwill Games [in Brisbane] without it."

Straight after that, is the world champs qualifying series against Olympic finals players Australia.

"We came together well as a squad but I'm not pleased with where we're at in terms of cohesion on offence. The players need to execute better, and it's a complex structure we want," said Baldwin, not blaming them because time constraints meant there was a lot to learn in a week.

There had been little time to work on defence.

The Tall Blacks prospects had been told exactly what was expected of them in the national league from now on, what they had to work on and their personal development programme.

No team selection was made because play may now be so far away.

"Some guys were disappointed by that and some relieved in that they think they might still have a chance."

Lewis was top of the list of those who had forced themselves into contention.

"We were looking at Willie Burton and Ed Book [American imports now naturalised and both bigger than the similarly qualified Lewis] but he has forced us to look at him," Baldwin said of Lewis' return in the North-South game.

He was most pleased with Dickel - "he wants to be a standout every time he takes the floor" - with Auckland guard Paul Henare, who was tripped and snapped one-third of a front tooth late in the game, with 23-year-old Jets forward Glen Newbold for picking up the plan and with Canterbury's 19-year-old Luke Ruscoe, who struggled back from an ankle strain to make an impact.

Veterans such as Phill Jones and Tony Rampton had shown their usual top standard.

"We had good returns from the players, we felt they were buying into what we want," Baldwin said. "We had a lot of positive feedback."