Rams “Building Character”
Tagged in: NBL
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The financial plight of the Canterbury Rams ahead of the 2008 Dominion Finance NBL has been well documented and will remain a dark cloud hovering over the foundation franchise.
But how has the former league powerhouse club been shaping up on the practice court?
Even before the Rams entry into the NBL came into question, coach Bert Knops - back with the club for the first time 1999 – had been working and making progress with Christchurch-based talent.
When the extent of the financial struggles came to light earlier this month, that progress stagnated.
“Although they kept training, you could tell their hearts were starting to wonder where things were going. It’s hard to keep going 100 percent in that situation,” said Knops, who has a 54.3 winning percentage with the Rams.
“And also at that time we were also contacting other clubs to find out where they could go if we fell over. We didn’t want to leave them with nowhere to play.”
The financial squeeze cost them American import Nate Connolly – who informed them on Monday he would not be able to fulfill his contract – and put them way behind in recruiting a second restricted player.
Wilder Auguste, an American big, will arrive later this week and Knops, who will be assisted by Terry Brunel, hoped more overseas help would be signed sooner rather than later.
But through it all the Rams managed to hold onto promising point guard Jeremy Kench, who landed in Christchurch on Saturday after a summer with the Wollongong Hawks, his second season in the Australian NBL after a rookie campaign with the Singapore Slingers.
“We’ve already had a few trainings with him and he has picked everything up quickly. It’s just our import situation we’ve got to get sorted now.
“We’re in the process of trying to get a replacement now. Terry and I are working through a few contacts at the moment and trying to get someone here for Saturday.
“I’ve told the players we can’t make excuses about it and bitch about it. We’ve just got to get on with it.”
The Rams have also retained New Zealand Breakers development centre Mike Townsend and swingman Mark Morrison, who will join returning Rams of past seasons – Gerard Bowden, after his NCAA stint, veterans Dave Langrell and Rewi Manahi, who Knops has coaxed back for one more year and have a combined 377 games of NBL experience, Luke Ruscoe and Ben Van Oosten. Paul McFarlin and Willy McVitty also return from the ’07 Rams.
With Townsend, Van Oosten, McVitty and rookie Brent Fisher standing 2m-plus, and Manahi and Ruscoe just short of that, Canterbury do not lack for interior size but the unanswered question is where the consistent scoring will come from, as Langrell’s 9.9 points per game is the team’s highest career average.
“It’s probably a taller team than we’ve had for a while and there’s a little bit of experience there that will be useful, with Ben Van Oosten back, Rewi back and Luke Ruscoe, he’ll improve as the season goes on.”
“We’ve got no superstars. We’ve got no Tall Blacks but we’ve got the best local talent we could put together. We’ve got a good guard line-up with Jeremy and Gerard playing together again.
“The balance between the experienced guys and the young guys will hopefully come together. It will be very much a learning curve for a few of them . . . It’s going to build some character.”
The Rams return to Cowles Stadium, the traditional home of Canterbury basketball, has been viewed as a positive, a back-to-the-future move that is hoped to attract back fans disillusioned with the Rams in recent years.
“It’ll be a great atmosphere down there,” Knops said.
“You can have three people or 50 people there and there’s still atmosphere. It’s got good character to the stadium. It’s been upgraded and it looks good . . . Westpac (Arena), you could have a 1000 people there and it seemed like no-one was there.
“What we do this year is really building for next year. It’s about getting some momentum and some corporate backing and some support. We started at minus-50 and now we’re just above zero.”
Canterbury Rams
2007: Missed playoffs, eighth (4-14) in regular season
Coach: Bert Knops
Assistant: Terry Brunel
Imports: Wilder Auguste (USA)
Returning: Jeremy Kench, Paul McFarlin, Willy McVitty, Rewi Manahi, Mark Morrison, Mike Townsend
Additions: Auguste, Gerard Bowden, Marty Davison, Brent Fisher, Dave Langrell, Wade Parata, Luke Ruscoe, Ben van Oosten
Losses: Mychal Green (USA), Michael Joiner (USA), Joel Hart, Nathan Hyde, Ashley Rees
