Basketball New Zealand

Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic and returning shooting guard Kirk Penney (Photosport)

It’s a new week, a new country, and more importantly, a new tournament for the New Zealand Tall Blacks.

After being swept up in two games against the Australia Boomers last week, Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic has welcomed the chance to get to Canada and leave the Al Ramsay Shield series behind.

Vucinic’s inexperienced line-up was outplayed in their first hit-out on the road to the Olympic qualifying tournament against a talented Boomers squad, losing 75-60 in Auckland on Thursday and 94-57 in Melbourne on Saturday.

“We have to move on now,” Vucinic said from Toronto on Tuesday.

“This is a young team. We all have games where if we don’t execute, we will get beaten. We had a video session after the last game and went over it and knew we had to move on. We don’t want to dwell on the losses or celebrate the wins too much.”

The Tall Blacks completed the 24-plus hours travel from Melbourne to Toronto, via Auckland and San Francisco, arriving Sunday night ahead of their first game of the Jack Donohue International Classic on Wednesday morning, tip-off 8am (NZ time).

New Zealand will look to shake off the disappointment of the Al Ramsay series against the Canadian national team on their national holiday, Canada Day, at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, before facing Lebanon 24 hours later in Hamilton, tip-off Thursday 11am (NZ time), and the Canucks again at the Ricoh Centre in Toronto, tip-off Saturday 11am (NZ time) before jetting to Slovenia.

Aiding the Tall Blacks build-up is the addition of stud shooting guard Kirk Penney, who missed the Australian series while in the United States, informally working out with the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.

Penney has been the Tall Blacks leading scorer the last two years and will inject much-needed international experience – joining captain Pero Cameron and swingman Paora Winitana as the only survivors from the 2002 FIBA World Championships – and scoring after New Zealand averaged 58.5 points per game against the Boomers.

“But Kirk on his own, is not going to be able to make a great amount of difference to the team. Everyone has to step it up,” Vucinic said.

During a light training run, as the team overcame jet-lag, Vucinic re-integrated Penney into the offence and working on the team’s press break offence, which struggled against the Boomers as they finished with 40 turnovers in two games.

“It’s a gelling thing,” said back-up point guard Jeremy Kench.

“We haven’t had a lot of time together so every game and every practice is crucial for us right now. We have to keep working and building. This is only the start to building up to the Olympic qualifying tournament.

“The confidence is still there. We’re trying to not let the Australian series get us down, we’re using it as a learning experience.”

The Canadians, who defeated Lebanon 89-67 on Tuesday in their first game at home in six years, will be led by Dave Thomas, a member of the 2007-08 Hummer Championship winning Melbourne Tigers, and also feature two current NBAers, centres Samuel Dalembert of the Philadelphia 76ers and Joel Anthony of the Miami Heat.

Veteran guards Rowan Barrett and Carl English, along with Thomas who debuted in 2002, provide the leadership to a team that finished fifth at the FIBA Americas tournament last August and has remained largely unchanged, with most players coming in from top European leagues or the NCAA system.

“We’ve been under-sized for the last 30 years, we’re used to that,” Vucinic said. “It’s a matter of the young players getting used to that and adjusting and playing much better than we did against Australia.

“Canada is very talented and we’ll have to play well and execute. If we can do that then we’ll be able to compete.”

New Zealand Tall Blacks

Pero Cameron (c) (Waikato Pistons, NZ), F, 1.98m
Kirk Penney (NZ Breakers, Australia), G, 1.95m
Craig Bradshaw (Efes Pilsen, Turkey), C, 2.07m
Mika Vukona (Harbour Heat, NZ), F, 1.98m
Lindsay Tait (Wellington Saints, NZ), G, 1.94m
Paora Winitana (Bay Hawks, NZ), G, 1.95m
Michael Fitchett (Nelson Giants, NZ), G, 1.83m
Nick Horvath (Wellington Saints, NZ), C, 2.08m
Ben Hill (Waikato Pistons, NZ), F, 1.96m
Corey Webster (Lambuth University, USA), G, 1.89m
Jeremy Kench (Canterbury Rams, NZ), G, 1.86m
Alex Pledger (University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA), C, 2.13m

Canada

Dave Thomas (c) (Melbourne Tigers, Australia), F, 6-8
Jermaine Anderson (Tuebingen, Germany), G, 6-2
Joel Anthony (Miami Heat, USA), C, 6-9
Rowan Barrett (Chalon-Sur-Saone, France), G, 6-5
Samuel Dalembert (Philadelphia 76ers, USA), C, 6-11
Carl English (Gran Canaria, Spain), G, 6-5
Olu Famutimi (Khimik, Ukraine), F, 6-6
Levon Kendall (Panionios, Greece), F, 6-10
Tyler Kepkay (University of Utah, USA), G, 6-0
Juan Mendez (Rishon, Israel), F, 6-7
Andy Rautins (Syracuse University, USA), G, 6-5
Jesse Young (Estudiant, Spain), F, 6-10