Basketball: Jess should rebuff poach says coach

MELBOURNE - Basketball officials are putting plans in place to convince star teenager Jessica McCormack to resist overtures from netball.

McCormack, 16, had been approached by senior netball officials with a view to switching codes but Basketball New Zealand aren't prepared to let her go without a fight. The 1.95m (6ft 4in) prodigy mainly plays goal keep in netball but can shoot as well.

"There definitely is interest [from netball] but I honestly believe basketball is the best sport for Jessica," Tall Ferns coach Mike McHugh said. "There's no doubt she could potentially be a Silver Fern but with basketball she could have a career in the WNBA like Donna [Loffhagen]."

Loffhagen, a former Silver Fern, recently signed to play with Connecticut Sun in the most lucrative women's basketball league in the world. "What Donna has done is pioneered a way for New Zealand girls to make a living from their sport. In basketball you can do that better than netball, with greatest respect to the sport."

Netball, however, remains a higher-profile sport in New Zealand and the attraction of playing for the best team in the world must be high, as opposed to the Tall Ferns who remain in the second tier of the sport on a global level. But McHugh believes that dynamic may soon change.

"I was in Australia when they had the same thing. Girls stopped playing netball to play basketball for exactly those reasons I've mentioned. I have the greatest respect for the Silver Ferns and their programme but I think for young New Zealand girls, basketball could become their sport of choice for the options it offers."

Basketball New Zealand haslooked at a couple of options for McCormack to ensure her future remains in the five-man sport.

One is a placement at the Australian Institute of Sport's (AIS) basketball programme and another is to fast-track a US basketball scholarship at the University of Oregon. McCormack is currently in her fifth-form year at Auckland's Northcote College.

"We want to invest in the kid, she's got such great potential," McHugh said. That potential began to be realised in the third test against India recently, when she pulled down 18 rebounds and scored 11 points.

"We've looked at the AIS option and Oregon, where former AIS coach Bill Brown is currently. That would be the perfect environment.

"The great thing is she's got a lot of options but in basketball we're limited to what we can give her in New Zealand."

McCormack is one of McHugh's young guns that include 19-year-old Micaela Cocks, Lisa Wallbutton (20) and Angela Marino (20).

"It's scary, as a coach, to take so many inexperienced, untried players into a critical event. But my confidence has grown significantly in terms of our preparation."

The Tall Ferns' preparation began in June last year with a tournament in Taiwan. They then hosted the Australians in the three-test series before heading off to Cuba earlier this year.

The preparation was rounded off with a home series against India last week.

It was the trip to the Caribbean that told McHugh he was on the right track. Against one of the toughest teams in the world, the Tall Ferns competed well in every test and beat Cuba Juniors.

"You can't explain how great it was for our preparation. The girls not only developed as basketball players but also as people."

The Tall Ferns, like the Tall Blacks, have a tough programme being shunted around interstate Victoria for their preliminary Commonwealth Games matches.

"It's a little more difficult than normal, when you're playing out of the same facility," McHugh said.

The Tall Ferns' crunch match against Nigeria, ranked just behind them in the Commonwealth, is tomorrow at Bendigo, McHugh's hometown. They play Malaysia today in a match that should give them few problems.

"If we lose to Nigeria it means we'll probably face a crossover with the Australians, which we don't want to do. We want to play them in the gold medal game."

"If we lose to Nigeria it means we'll probably face a crossover with the Australians, which we don't want to do. We want to play them in the gold medal game."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY