NZL - Tall Blacks looking forward

AUCKLAND (FIBA World Championship) - Just don't talk to Tab Baldwin about 2002. Sure, the Tall Blacks' advance to the FIBA World Championship semifinals in Indianapolis captured the imagination of the country, attracting record TV audiences and earning New Zealand's ultimate sporting prize - the Halberg Award.

"But it was four years ago," protests the national men's basketball coach. "I'm so sick of hearing about it.

"I know we've played better basketball since then, we just haven't spun it into results."

It's that time again, though. The world champs are less than two months away and the Tall Blacks are back on the trail, hoping to retrace their steps back to world basketball's centre stage.

They're four years older, four years wiser and very aware that the landscape has changed since their feats in Indianapolis.

"Four years ago, no one - except the Americans - was talking about winning the world title," says Baldwin. "Now, every day on the FIBA website, I read about countries who believe they can win.

"That's what happens when the United States lose consecutive world champs. Everyone is starting to believe they can get there - and I believe we can get there.

"I don't think we are favourites, I don't expect us to win every game, but I think we can become a good enough team to win enough games to get us to the gold medal game. All we need is a sniff."

Twenty-one players have assembled in Auckland at the start of the championship campaign. They will be joined later in the week by veterans Mark Dickel and Tony Rampton, but by Friday, the group will be cut to 14 for next week's Jeep International Series against Australia.

Baldwin is under no illusions what it will take for his team to make another run at the world title and spent his opening meeting with the trialists explaining his expectations.

"We have to be the toughest team there," he says. "You have to be in people's faces, intimidating and dominant physically.

"We can't afford slippage. Our margin of error is that." Baldwin holds up his forefinger and thumb, pressed together tightly.

"We need to be the smartest team," he says. "This is an area we will have to work at.

"Most other teams take basketball knowledge for granted. We can't just go out and become experienced players, but those other teams aren't going to study the video, and won't have the complex and diverse system we will.

"If you dedicate yourselves to it, it will become your weapon for beating people who are bigger, more experienced and more talented."

One thing New Zealand teams have always had over their rivals is their camaraderie.

"We will have to be the closest team there. The final 12 will have to be so inseparable, nothing internally or externally can pull us apart even a little bit."

The Tall Blacks face a 13-game build-up before arriving in Hiroshima for their world championship pool games. Their first test will come from archrivals Australia in Napier, July 12 and 14, but Baldwin is at pains to put the series into perspective.

"We will devote a little bit of time thinking about Australia and once we get into it, we will adjust and adapt specific to them.

"But Spain, that's what I'm after - Game One of the world championships. They will be the strongest team in our pool, but that will also be the game that sets up everything else we want to achieve."

Basketball New-Zealand