Basketball New Zealand

Kirk Penney v Spain (FIBA)

Scott Preston, Stuff
To paraphrase Brett and Jermaine from Flight of the Conchords, now it’s business time for the NZTall Blacks at the FIBA World Basketball Championship in Turkey.

With back-to-back double-digit, and expected, losses to Lithuania and Spain to start their Group D campaign in Izmir and coming off a rest day, the Tall Blacks enter a tournament-defining three days at Halkapinar Arena, starting with Lebanon at 1am tomorrow (NZ time).

To progress to the eighth-finals in Istanbul, New Zealand will likely need two wins from their remaining three games – Lebanon, Canada on Thursday (1am NZ time) and currently unbeaten France on Friday (6am NZ time) – so tomorrow’s game has taken on must-win importance for both teams.

“Right now we just need to forget about the first two games,” Tall Blacks shooting guard Kirk Penney, who is averaging 29 points per game, said.

“Lithuania and Spain are both very good teams. We wanted to play better than we did but we took a couple of defeats, we’re 0-2, and we just need to put that aside and focus on our next game against Lebanon, and the next three.

“For the young guys, some of them at their first worlds, the jitters are out of their system now and it’s time to work. Personally, I’ve been feeling good out there but I still want to pick my game up to another level.”

Lebanon, coached by former Tall Blacks mentor Tab Baldwin, defeated Canada 81-71 on day one and could go a long way to securing their passage through to Istanbul with a win over New Zealand.

The ”Baldwin Factor” hangs over this game, with neither camp keen to admit to an advantage from the familiarity between the two programmes – Baldwin knowing the strengths and weaknesses of Tall Blacks players and the Tall Blacks understanding what systems Baldwin likes to run.

New Zealand coach Nenad Vucinic was an assistant under Baldwin during his Tall Blacks tenure, including the fourth-place finish at the 2002 World Championship, while assistant coach Dillon Boucher was a player under Baldwin with the Auckland Stars and Tall Blacks. On the current Tall Blacks roster, Penney, Phill Jones, Pero Cameron, Mika Vukona, Craig Bradshaw, Lindsay Tait and Casey Frank have played for Baldwin in the National Basketball League or national team.

“I’m going to be boring and say it’s even,” Tall Blacks point guard Tait said.

“I know we’ve done some pretty extensive scouting work with Dillon on their tendencies and what they like to do. And having played under Tab, I know he’ll be doing the same thing, probably even harder. There’s not going to be a lot of secrets out there, we know what each other like to run. We’ll just see what happens when the ball goes up.”

Lebanon have four main scoring threats in Fadi El Katib, who dropped 31 points in the win over Canada, point guard Rony Fahed, and USA-born pair Matt Freije and Jackson Vroman but have a supporting cast that, like Baldwin’s past Tall Blacks teams, plays with high energy, very active on defence and aggressive on the offensive glass. The Tall Blacks will have to match Lebanon’s effort around the court to have a chance.

“They’re quite a balanced team from what we’ve seen,” Tait said. “The point guard, Fahed, is good and Fadi has been around for a long time doing this and we saw in the first game what he can do.”

Tightening up their defensive schemes was an area the Tall Blacks still needed to improve, Tait said. Despite conceding 101 points to Spain, New Zealand’s effort at the defensive end was a step up from the disappointing showing against Lithuania.

With the Tall Blacks-Lebanon game the first scheduled on day four in Izmir, New Zealand have opted for a final morning video session rather than a shootaround, instead holding an extended shootaround session during their afternoon practice on the rest day.

Despite it being an obvious talking point for media and fans, Tait said discussion about beating their former coach was limited within the Tall Blacks.

“To be honest it hasn’t really factored in that much. Apart from talk about tactics and what he knows about us and what they might try to do against us. This is a world championship, so every game is big coming from New Zealand. We don’t need any extra motivation to get up for a game like this.”

And especially with their tournament lives possibly on the line.

FIBATV Interview with Kirk Penney