Basketball: Three days of biff and bash

By DAVID LEGGAT

He didn't actually say so in as many words, but Australian coach Brian Goorjian was making underdog noises last night ahead of the opening international against the Tall Blacks at Mystery Creek in Hamilton tonight.

Given that the Boomers have won 34 of the 37 games against their transtasman rivals since 1971, that might be pushing the boat out a bit.

But Californian-born Goorjian, highly successful coach of the Australian NBL champions the Sydney Kings, argued that although the Tall Blacks' buildup may have been inferior to the Boomers, the home team have superior teamwork to call on.

"I guess we have had more preparation, and they do have a few guys missing," Goorjian said.

"But the thing the Tall Blacks have is a group of players when they're together - Pero Cameron, Mark Dickel, Phill Jones, Tony Rampton - that have played together a number of years.

"They remind me of the old Boomers - Andrew Gaze, Mark Bradtke, Luc Longley - a group who have played together a long time and have a good feel for each other.

"We've got a lot of new personnel. We're struggling, but hopefully our execution will improve in this series."

Goorjian presided over a three-win, two-loss tour to Italy last month, but the cancellation of a five-game series against China has put extra importance on this weekend for the Boomers boss.


He reckoned the 12 players here for the three-game series against the Burger King-sponsored Tall Blacks are most likely bound for Greece next month.

The Boomers have finished fourth at three of the last four Olympics and will fancy their chances of making a dent again this time.

But while the weekend suggests an exercise in fine-tuning for Goorjian, his counterpart, Tab Baldwin, still has selection issues to resolve, needing to prune probably five players from his squad of 15 for Athens.

He might have to do without his talismanic captain, Pero Cameron, for a large chunk of the series - which continues in Christchurch tomorrow night and finishes in Invercargill on Sunday afternoon - as the Waikato forward strives to get over a recurrence of a calf muscle injury.

Baldwin said he would be guided by the medical staff. He wants Cameron on court but knows it might not be possible.

For Baldwin there are two ways of looking at it: he believes the team functions better when the big man is on deck, but argues his players must also learn to cope without Cameron.

"Our team is better when it can revolve to a degree around the way he plays because he's so unselfish," Baldwin said. "He makes the players around him better and he's a great cog to have. When he's not there we tend to go in a lot of other directions, and sometimes that's not good.

"We don't want to live without him, but the team has to learn to play without him. He's nowhere near where he needs to be."

Still, Cameron's competitive juices are flowing. He wants to tangle with the Boomers. He's used to playing in some discomfort, and points out that the Games are still several weeks away.

If wise heads prevail, Cameron might be, at best, a bit-part player tonight.

He calls his injury "more inconvenience than pain", but it's enough to stop him functioning at full efficiency.

Cameron and Goorjian talked about the biff and bash of last year's three-game Olympic qualifying series in Victoria. Some of the square-offs bordered on the x-rated, and don't expect any lessening of the desire to succeed this weekend.

Goorjian reckoned the Tall Blacks posed the toughest physical challenge of any team the Boomers have faced under his charge. As long as the refereeing is consistent, Goorjian will be happy.

As for Cameron, "hopefully we'll keep control of our emotions. But we want to win. There's a lot at stake and it's not like we get to play Australia much. So we would like to give a good account of ourselves."