New Zeland - Good draw for Kiwis at junior basketball worlds

From www.stuff.co.nz
DOwnload source here

New Zealand has avoided the big guns at today's draw for basketball's under-19 men's world championships which will be held in Auckland from July 2-12.

Kenny McFadden's Junior Tall Blacks were today drawn in the same group as Argentina, Croatia and Kazakhstan in Pool D of the tournament that will see the world's top 16 junior nations assemble for the 62-game event.

The United States, Greece and Spain are considered the three premier teams at the tournament and the Kiwis have done well to avoid them.

However, it's still a tough pool for the under-sized Junior Tall Blacks, with Argentina the traditional South American powerhouses and Croatia possessing an outstanding junior programme. The New Zealanders played both at last year's Albert Schweitzer international tournament in Germany and were well beaten.

Coach McFadden admits he doesn't know a lot about Kazakhstan but says all in all he's pretty happy with the pool draw. The top three teams out of each section will go through to a second qualifying stage to decide the eight quarterfinalists.

"I know it's going to be a tough task, but the positive thing is we have a lot of footage on Argentina and Croatia, so I think if we can knock off one of them as well as Kazakhstan we'll be on our way."

McFadden said it was a bonus to miss one of the real big guns like the USA, Greece and Spain who may have the NBA-bound Ricky Rubio in their lineup, but there was no such thing as an easy pool at an event like this which Fiba rates its third most important on the global stage.

"A lot of people have asked me about the lack of experience we've got, but I guess the only positive thing about junior basketball is for a lot of those other countries it's the first time they've been at the worlds as well," said the former Saints NBL star.

"It's our home crowd, as opposed to getting on a plane and going halfway round the world trying to find about what this international and European basketball is all about."

McFadden currently has a Junior Tall Blacks squad of 18 that will eventually be trimmed to 12 by their camp in May. That group includes US-based youngsters Dion Prewster and Richie Edwards.

The New Zealanders head to Melbourne, Australia, tomorrow to play in the Big-V pre-season tournament, an opportunity McFadden hopes to make the most of as he weighs the final selection cut that will have to be made.

Several of Fiba's top officials were in Auckland for today's launch and pool draw, with Sports Director Lubomir Kotleba confirming the seeds had been sown for the historic decision to bring a world championships to New Zealand way back at 2002's men's world championships in Indianapolis where the Tall Blacks finished fourth.

"We have never had a world championships in New Zealand and New Zealand has placed itself on the map since 2002 very strongly," said Kotleba.

"It is very significant for the country that it is here and I'm positive it will have a very good response from spectators and the media and will certainly help basketball for the future."

The tournament will be split between the main venue at the North Shore Events Centre and ASB Stadium in Kohimarama.

After the four groups of four finish the initial pool stage, the top three sides from each will go into two groups of six, eventually finding the leading eight teams for quarterfinal eliminations.

Serbia are the champions but have not qualified to defend their title - and indication of the strength of European basketball.

Australia, which won the world under-19 title in 2003 in Greece, has been seeded as one of the leading four sides.

In previous tournaments NBA stars such as Vince Carter (USA), Pau Gasol (Spain), Luis Scola (Argentina), Andrei Kirilenko (Russia) and Australian Andrew Bogut have been leading performers.

The pools for the world championships from July 2-12 in Auckland:

Pool A: Greece, Lithuania, Puerto Rico, Angola.

Pool B: USA, France, Iran, Egypt.

Pool C: Australia, Spain, Canada, Syria.

Pool D: Argentina, Croatia, New Zealand, Kazakhstan.