Basketball: Now let's build on this base

By JENNI RUTHERFORD in Athens

Basketball New Zealand finds itself in an enviable predicament.

It now has two over-achieving national teams to nurture and develop. The Tall Ferns' highly commendable eighth place in just their second Olympic Games means that the national body will need to put structures in place similar to those for the Tall Blacks after they qualified for the 2002 world championships.

The women's team have no sponsor, a minimal development programme and are now without a coach. Tom Maher has indicated he will not stay on after the Games.

"This is an opportunity for New Zealand basketball," Maher said. "They need to commit to a strong international programme and they need to play every year. They need to access all their players."

Before the Games, these Olympics were considered an experience-gaining exercise for the Tall Ferns, who were not expected to finish with so high a ranking.

Now that the worldwide sport will be introduced at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006, New Zealand have a platform on which they have the potential to perform highly.

However, some of the core of eight members of the Tall Ferns who also competed at Sydney in 2000 - Leanne Walker, Gina Farmer, Sally Farmer, Donna Loffhagen, Tania Tupu, Rebecca Cotton, Megan Compain and Julie Ofsoski - as well as Jody Tini, may be looking to give away the game as most have been in or close to the team for more than a decade.

"New Zealand have to keep the basis of this team for the Commonwealth Games," Maher said.

Having taken time out from netball for the Games, the 26-year-old Loffhagen may be forced to choose between the two sports in the near future and for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

"If Loffhagen had a shot at being a professional basketball player she would be world class," Maher said.. "She's got absolute blue-chip, A-grade championship qualities, an absolute championship character. She just needs to get better skills.

"By the time she is 28 she could be making US$100,000 in Europe."

Loffhagen led the women's tournament in rebounding, averaging 10.6 a game, and Farmer was sixth overall in points scoring, averaging 16 a game.

Like the women, the Tall Blacks recorded their best finish at an Olympics, coming 10th.

However, it is a result the New Zealanders will not be happy with. The fourth placing at the world championships two years ago raised their expectations.

"For someone to read into a 10th place finish that we are the 10th in the world is a joke," said the Tall Blacks' stand-out player of the tournament, Phill Jones.

The team talked about lacking in mental preparation for the Games and were too slow off the mark against Italy and China. Had they beaten them, a quarter-final spot would have been guaranteed.

The 90-87 win over world champions Serbia-Montenegro became the upset of the tournament for a few days, but after the Eastern Europeans' dramatic fall from grace to finish 11th and the United States lost their second game of the preliminary round (to Lithuania), the Tall Blacks were quickly forgotten.

New Zealand again demonstrated that they can compete with the best in the world. Narrow losses to finalists Italy, winners Argentina and a talented Spanish outfit killed off their chances and after fighting to the death in every one of their preliminary games, the team had no kick left for the playoffs.

The 98-80 defeat by arch-rivals Australia was New Zealand's worst performance as they lacked their usual intensity and drive, while Shane Heal's scoring ran hot.

Jones and Mark Dickel were the most consistent of the New Zealanders. Jones finished second overall in points scoring with an average of 21 a game, just behind NBA player Pau Gasol, of Spain.

Dickel was fourth in assists with an average of 4.5, and Sean Marks was ranked sixth overall in rebounds.

The men's tournament proved there is a power shift at the top of world basketball after the United States were knocked out of the semifinals by Argentina and recorded three losses.

Before these Games the so-called Dream Team had never been beaten at an Olympics.

- NZPA