Hoops

New Zealand Tall Blacks WC lead-up

massive scalp for this Tall Blacks team!
great preparation and they are starting to find some form before Spain and nice to see the younger Webster step up in the absence of his brother.

good warm up for Spain having to play through some home cooking from the refs. Good to see Casey Frank pulling in some boards after Horvath was released.

Webster is balling.
He said the reffing was atrcious. Something along the lines of the refs would never let their home team lose. Sounds about right

Tom Abercrombie>Paul George ;)

A WUN IS A WUN...

Nah more worried about Kopenen from Finland (assuming he is playing).

He will have a field day against our PGs.

Its really not as hard as a pool as initially thought. But will still be tough.

But as mentioned previously, we stand a good chance of pulling off an upset against someone like Turkey on the basis that its a team that can win the game by the 3 ball - Webster and Penney in particular. Of course it can swing the other way as well (as vs Korea when we shot 3/23 from 3).

if the refs are Chinese and the game was being played in China, then the Chinese may have a shot.

Turkey just lost to Belgium the other day and Paul George is out so NZ's taking their group ;)

a win without Abercrombie & Vukona & softy Pledger is a good win

Tigers outfit with there imports would deal to the Wildcats no problem

Great Win from the Tall Blacks

shows how strong NZBL & ANBL talent and a great coach can be , Vukona & Abercrombie were rested i believe.
Fotu strong on the boards

Pledge who?

to keep a international team to 55 points is great
Penney getting it done as expected
this world cup will be tough

even with the good buildup we have had so far

Curtley, I wouldn't expect them too.

Will have to beat Aus in the 2015 Oceania qualifiers who will probably be even better than what they are now and thats saying something.

They could go through the olympic qualifying route but given the emergence of some really good basketball nations this is going to be harder than what it was in 2012 (and boy was it a mammoth task).

Im looking towards 2020. Sucks Penney will probably be past it. But we should hopefully have a really solid starting group of TWebster, Fotu, Loe and Adams.

The TallBlack youngsters are improving, Tai Webster & Isaac Fotu putting in decent performances.

Corey Webster will be huge off the bench in Spain, can come in and create something out of nothing or get open for a 3 and keep the scoreboard ticking over while Penney rests up or can play with Penney at the 1 or the 2 with Penney able to play some SF.

Turnovers still a big issue, wish Cedric Jackson was in the Tall Blacks.