Australia - Horvath trials for Tall Blacks

From www.southdragons.com.au
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Adelaide 36ers import centre Nick Horvath has been a surprise inclusion among 57 triallists for the New Zealand Tall Blacks team to play Olympic qualifying games against Australia in August.

Horvath, who is currently playing in the NZNBL with Wellington, has applied for New Zealand citizenship and will compete with Wollongong Hawks star Casey Frank for the one spot allowed a naturalised player under FIBA regulations.

Tall Blacks Coach Nenad Vucinic will hold three camps, from which a NZ Universities team will also be selected.

A total of 57 players have enlisted for the trials, but they do not include many of those who attended the FIBA World Championships in Japan last year.

This is Vucinic’s first official act as head coach after serving as Tab Baldwin’s assistant since 2001.

"We want to see who are putting their hands up for the Tall Blacks and the NZ Universities team, as well as introduce initial aspects of the system to the players," he says.

"It is a different system that uses parts of what Tab and I created over the past five years. It still requires the same amount of intelligence, execution and toughness from players."

"As a coach, I have to stamp my own style on the team, but the good thing is I have been part of the programme for some time and although this is a new system, players would be used to many things within it."

None of last year’s world championship roster have signaled their unavailability and Vucinic is hopeful of attracting NBA veteran Sean Marks back into the team.

With Horvath poised to challenge for inclusion and several youngsters pushing their claims through the Dominion Finance NBL, competition will be hot for places in the squad.

"I hope it will be the most difficult team Tall Black team ever to be picked," says Vucinic. "It is obvious that some very, very good players will miss out on the team."

"That’s tough, but a great situation to be in."