Tall Blacks geared up for 'really exciting' home FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifier against China

AUCKLAND (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019) - New Zealand are already psyched up about their FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifying campaign and especially a home showdown with China in 2018.

The Tall Blacks will square off against traditional Asian heavyweights Korea and China, as well as Hong Kong in Group A in the First Round with the top three sides progressing. China, as the World Cup hosts, will take one of those three slots for the Second Round so the Kiwis will battle Korea and Hong Kong for the other two spots.

Isaac Fotu will be a key man for the Tall Blacks in their FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifiers

"Already we have locked in a game in November playing at home and then we will come together again at the end of June and early July," said Tall Blacks coach Paul Henare in a statement issued by Basketball New Zealand. "While it will be great to sell out all games, the last one (First Round Qualifier) is really exciting against China.

"I can't recall the last time we hosted a full-strength China team, I can already imagine a sold out Spark Arena with the fans maybe split down the middle, what a night that promises to be."

There is a significant Chinese population in New Zealand so Henare anticipates a lot of support for the Asian giants when they play the Tall Blacks in the Land of the Long White Cloud on 1 July, 2018.

Sixteen sides in Asia, including New Zealand and Australia, will play qualifiers with seven countries, as well as China, ultimately making it to the 32-team World Cup event.

When New Zealand are turning on all cylinders, they make for formidable opposition. Such was the case at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain.

The Kiwis bounced back from three straight defeats at the start and advanced to the Round of 16 before suffering a narrow defeat to Lithuania.

New Zealand, who take part in the FIBA Asia Cup this summer for the first time, open their World Cup qualifying campaign at home on 23 November against Korea. They will then play in Hong Kong for the second qualifying game three days later. In the February window that follows, the Kiwis will have to be road warriors. They will have games at China (23 February) and Korea (26 February).

In the third qualifying window, the Tall Blacks will play Hong Kong on 28 June and China on the first day of July.

"I have sat down with a couple of the key players in the Tall Blacks group and have others to catch up with in the weeks ahead," Henare said. "But we must have an eye on what the future looks like and work backwards from the Tokyo Olympics.

"To have a chance of getting there, we must go to the 2019 FIBA World Cup so for me the start of this year and the Asia Cup is about getting to the Olympics in 2020, and to do that we need the best group of players coming together as often as possible."

Every game is huge, taking as many points as you can to the second stage will help, but this is totally new for everybody. For us and our program and our team we are focused on each game in each window and making sure we have the best group possible for each game.HenareHenare

New Zealand last played at an Olympic Games in 2004, when the event was staged in Athens. Henare played for that team, which did not advance from the Preliminary Round. He served as an assistant for New Zealand for several years and has been the head coach since the 2015 FIBA Oceania Championship. Last summer, he coached the team at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Manila.

Henare knows that every opponent in a World Cup qualifying campaign can be dangerous.

"The first thing to note is we have been drawn into a very good group," he said. "China has been the mainstay and powerhouse in Asia for a long time, now that is going to be a good battle against a really tough team.

"South Korea, we had a five-game series with them in our 2014 buildup and outside of our first game when we got after them in Wellington, the series was a cracker and we had some good games against them.

"Hong Kong are an unknown quality but they have a good pro league and have the population and budget to assemble a competitive team for sure.

"Every game is huge, taking as many points as you can to the second stage will help, but this is totally new for everybody. For us and our program and our team, we are focused on each game in each window and making sure we have the best group possible for each game."

FIBA