Draw holds key to Tall Blacks buildup

The New Zealand Tall Blacks will likely play Oceania rivals Australia in their only home series as part of their preparations for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in August.

The Tall Blacks learn their five group opponents for the 16th world championship, in the Turkish cities of Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara and Kayseri from August 28-September 12, at the official draw in Istanbul on Tuesday night (NZ time).

Then Basketball New Zealand (BBNZ) will go to work to put together a programme for Nenad Vucinic's team for July-August.

BBNZ and Basketball Australia have agreed informally on a series for the Al Ramsey Shield, likely in late-July. The series could be two games, like this year's FIBA Oceania Championship, or four games, like the 2006 pre-world championship series, meaning either one or two games on New Zealand hardwood.

"That's really the only thing we have at this stage. It's the same thing every year, it's really tough to get teams down here for games," said Grant Chapman, BBNZ national teams and communications general manager.

"We've put out feelers to a few countries but none have taken us up on the offer. That's just a reality we have to deal with. It's not good for our marketing, we'd love to have more games at home but it's tough to get teams to come down to New Zealand.

"I don't think we're going to have too long a build-up in New Zealand. We're looking at an Al Ramsey Shield series, probably home and away like this year, and we've got to go to China at some stage. Whether we do that before or after the Australia series is still up in the air."

The Tall Blacks will likely assemble for a training camp in early/mid-July before playing the Boomers, then head abroad, with possible games in China, South or North America and Europe on the way to Turkey.

Tuesday's draw - live on www.fibatv.com from 10.30pm (NZ time) - will produce the four groups of six for the preliminary round and set each group a host city.

FIBA does not disclose the specifics of the draw (seedings, pots etc.) in advance of the balls being picked from bowls.

The only thing New Zealand is guaranteed is to not face Oceania rivals Australia in the group stage. All other countries would be in play, meaning the Tall Blacks could end up with a nightmarish USA, Greece, China, Brazil, Angola group.

Even as Oceania champions following their record 100-78 win over the Boomers in August, the Tall Blacks aren't guaranteed any better chance of a favourable draw, with Chapman noting Australia, as zone champions, drew the toughest group at the 2006 world championship.

Chapman, the Tall Blacks manager the last two years, echoed comments from Vucinic that New Zealand would like to avoid Olympic champions USA and defending world champions Spain in the group stage.

Once world championship opponents were found, Chapman said countries would get to work finalising their pre-tournament schedules.

Complicating matters for teams like New Zealand, Australia and Canada is uncertainty around the FIBA Commonwealth Championship, currently set down for August 3-8 in India, which could be postponed to 2011.

"We haven't got a hard and fast schedule yet. We've had a couple of countries that have asked us to make a decision before the draw and we've got others that are waiting for the draw.

"Really everyone's waiting for the draw and waiting to see who they still want to play after that. Coaches have different opinions on whether they want to play a team that's in their group before the tournament.

"International basketball schedules take shape as you go. It's not like other sports where there's set competitions each year. We have been talking to a bunch of countries, mainly European countries that we can play on our way to Turkey. We have to go to Europe anyway.

"This year's schedule - eight games in 12 days - we're probably not looking at anything that tough but we still want to get a few games and maybe have some days early in the week for rest and practice so the guys are refreshed by the time the world championship arrives."

- © Fairfax NZ News