Basketball: Tall orders for Tab's Tall Blacks

By PETER JESSUP

None of last season's Tall Blacks should regard their positions as set in concrete for the upcoming internationals, says coach Tab Baldwin.

A show of good form in the national league will be essential to ensure selection.



If anyone is too comfortable they won't have the attitude he wants.

Baldwin is pleased there will be a wider pool for him to choose from this season, not least because players such as Miles Pearce at the Manawatu Jets, Mike Homik and Glynn Hunt at Auckland, Michael Thompson at Wellington, Adrian Majstrovich at Hawkes Bay - if the FIBA agrees to change his card after he played for the Australian juniors - and others have returned "home" to push their chances.

"Some spots are not secure by any stretch of the imagination," Baldwin says. "Some guys are already aware they'll be fighting hard to hold their spot."

Baldwin says incumbents will be treated as such - they know the routines, the calls and game plans, and the coaching staff know what to expect from them.

But he will not be loyal to players for the sake of it: "There are several spots that can be challenged."

Anyone with height, talent and drive would be welcomed because lack of size remains their main problem. Baldwin also hopes to beef up the defence, where they "stuggled at times" at the world champs.

He has been working with NBL coaches and that would continue as demands of the national job permit.

Baldwin sees the league as being a lot more even this season - although Waikato were clearly in a league of their own.

"I see them as setting the standard the way Auckland did in the 90s [when he was coach and they won six titles] and it's up to the rest of the league to follow that standard."

He says the Canterbury Rams won't be easy and he expects big things from the Jets and Nelson.

The Hawks and Saints have as good a starting five as anyone and "Auckland have potential and can improve significantly."

Baldwin was a director, remains a shareholder but has stepped back from the day-to-day operation with the Stars.

The biggest quandary for him has been determining to what extent the "Baldwin system" should be mixed into the league.

He favours the triangle offence. But if evey team in the league plays it, what happens when they come up against teams competent in defending it? Would they adjust?

Half or more of the 10 national league sides have prepared that way in pre-season.

"I have a strong relationship with almost all the NBL coaches. They want to give their players the best chance and so they want to work them into the system, and sometimes that leaves me between a rock and a hard place.

"We have to be careful - it's good to have diversity in the league and I wouldn't want to see everyone playing the triangle, but as long as coaches and players are benefiting, that's good."

His first squad selection will be for a Queen's Birthday weekend camp from June 1-4, for which he expects to invite around 24 players.

From that he will choose 12 to start the home series against the Czech Republic in early July.

Form there and in the NBL will govern selections for the World Cup in Istanbul in August and the Oceania Olympic qualifying in Australia in September.