Basketball: Two goals for Auckland's latest recruit

By PETER JESSUP

Australian Ben Pepper is the tallest man in the New Zealand Basketball League at 2.13m and is here to use that height advantage to play himself back into form for selection for his national side.

Pepper, aged 25, has been in the Boomers squad for three seasons, but a rash of bad injuries has stalled what was a career on the rise.

Off contract after three seasons with the Victoria Titans in the Australian league, Pepper has signed for Auckland and is looking to play himself out of a knee problem and into a new deal and new international focus.

"In a way this is a comeback. I need to get fit, to get into game situations and sharpen up my play," he said.

Pepper landed in Auckland in the middle of last week as the late signing of sponsor Blockbuster Video, unsettling budgets, and with coach Tab Baldwin away in the United States at his father's funeral.

So Pepper has had just a few runs with his new team, and fewer meetings with his new coach.

"Tab's a pro. He obviously works well with the young guys," he said.

Assistant coach Adrian Boyd led the side into their first-up clash with championship fancies the Waikato Titans last weekend, the Aucklanders losing 91-95.

Pepper had a fast start, with 12 points, including a big slam, in the first five minutes.

But then Waikato closed down the supply of ball to the big centre and he went quiet, something Baldwin is working on in training this week.

He wants Pepper scoring or attracting the defence so others can score.

Pepper aims to up his rebound count. He also aims to play in a winning team.

Born and brought up in Geraldton, Western Australia, Pepper was good at most sports, but did not try basketball until he was going on 18, driven in part by the bad jokes about his height and how the weather was up there.

Within a year he was in the state league, then came a chance to try for 10th and last place in the Newcastle squad. He forced his way into that job on the club's end-of-year tour to Korea.

After two seasons at Newcastle he moved to North Melbourne for a year, then the two city teams merged to form the Titans.

Pepper had a good first season for them.

The second, in 1999, was broken by a bad finger injury, and in the last he managed only seven games after ripping a knee.

Partner Julie Morris and their 3-year-old daughter Brittany move to Auckland soon.

Pepper is already more comfortable here after a game of his other favourite sport, golf.

His only other earning option was as runabout at his father's car dealership in Western Australia, so Pepper is fully focused on life as a pro-basketballer.

After his first experience of the New Zealand game he reckoned there was talent here that could make it in the Australian league - he knows that already because Tall Black Mark Dickel is with the Titans.

But the difference is the intensity in training, with the Australian squads on court twice a day and doing weights and fitness work.

"It's all basketball and no outside distractions," he said.

Pepper gets his next run with the Aucklanders against Otago at Unitec tonight.

He needs to dominate. So do Auckland. If the home side cannot dump the Nuggets, their season is in jeopardy.

The visitors will be out to pressure and unsettle a young Auckland side. Pepper's size and presence on court should go some way towards nullifying that, provided the youngsters can follow guard Lindsay Tait's lead of last weekend.

Tait's energy and three-point accuracy are a good omen for the season.

Otago cross the bridge to play the North Harbour Kings tomorrow night, with the Titans hosting Hawkes Bay in Hamilton.