Basketball: Tall Ferns coach has been here before

1.00pm - By JENNI RUTHERFORD

ATHENS - Unlike his Tall Ferns charges, New Zealand coach Tom Maher has been here before, many times.

But the quarter-finals of the women's basketball tournament at these Athens Olympics will be a first for the Tall Ferns.

They made New Zealand basketball history against South Korea, by winning their first preliminary round match at an Olympics.

The previous best had been in the play-off for last place at Sydney in 2000 when they finished 11th ahead of Senegal.

Now yesterday's dying second 79-77 victory over China propels them not only further into New Zealand's sporting memoirs but deeper into the unknown.

Their coach, however, has been down this path before.

Melbourne-born Maher holds an illustrious coaching record with the Australian Opals.

He guided them to the silver medal in Sydney in 2000 and bronze at Atlanta in 1996.

He is a legend across the Tasman. He is about to be on New Zealand shores.

But Maher, who coached Canberra -- his Australian WNBL team -- to last year's title, is unlikely to stick around with the Tall Ferns, leaving a New Zealander, possibly assistant coach Kirstin Daly, to pick up the baton.

He was called in at short notice to replace Carrie Graf who took up a heading coaching job at the Phoenix Mercury WNBA team in the United States.

A two-month programme that encompassed 13 international build-up games is what Maher, a coach used to huge budgets and world-class warm-ups, has had to work with.

He knew better than anyone what his team of rank outsiders were up against.

"We were out of our league before we beat Korea," he said. "We shouldn't have beaten China and we did.

"I don't know about beating Russia or Australia or Brazil -- that is absolutely unthinkable," Maher said.

"We want to find ways to win and if all those ways add up to a win on the scoreboard -- great."

The Tall Ferns, who are unlikely to have Sally Farmer back after an eye injury in the warm-up for Wednesday's game with Spain, face the Czech Republic in their final preliminary round match on Sunday.

With a place in the top eight guaranteed a win against the Czechs will help to avoid a play-off with Group A's top qualifier -- likely to be unbeaten Australia.

"It will be fun for me to play Australia as a mischievous thought," he said. "The thought of beating all that talent."

But the Czechs are first on the agenda and after New Zealand's upsets the bookies must be shortening the odds.

"Talent, skills and mental abilities bred success," Maher said. "Self esteem to a degree can be a part of that but it will come down to whether we have enough skills, are athletically talented and are smart enough."

- NZPA