NZL - Vucinic aims to get Tall Blacks back to London

WELLINGTON (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament) - New Zealand's men national team has played in the Olympics on two occasions to date - in 2000 and 2004. One common denominator on both occasions has been Nenad Vucinic.

Vucinic was a player on the Tall Blacks team at the Sydney Games and four years later in Athens served an assistant to then coach Tab Baldwin.   

After moving from his native Serbia to New Zealand in 1988, Vucinic quickly adapted to his new surroundings, first as a player - he made his debut for the Tall Blacks in 1992 - then as a player-coach before joining Baldwin's staff and experiencing the memorable fourth-place finish at the 2002 World Championship, which to date is still the best result ever by an Oceania team in FIBA's flagship event.

In December 2006, Vucinic succeeded Baldwin, who has since gone on to great success in charge of Jordan's national team, leading them to the Final of last year's FIBA Asia Championship.

The two coaches will be in Caracas, Venezuela, this summer for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT). Both will be keen to have their respective teams clinch one of three berths on offer for the London Olympics.

After helping his team reach the Eight-Finals at the 2010 FIBA World Championship, Vucinic wants to get New Zealand back to the Olympics.

“Qualifying for the Olympic Games is the dream for every professional athlete and coach, but it's a very hard process and we are aware of this difficult task," said the 47-year-old Belgrade native.

"We missed out on direct qualifications by losing the Oceania series in Australia last year. Fortunately we have another chance. Unfortunately it is an even tougher road to do the Olympics."

Vucinic believes anything is possible, because this is the Tall Blacks' spirit.

“The Olympic Qualifying Tournament is a knockout system that creates opportunity for weaker teams to surprise stronger teams," he pointed out.

“Our main strength has always been our courage to take much stronger teams head on. We have some capable individuals, but we are aware that only by playing hard and together can we compete with realistically stronger teams."

The only notable absentee for New Zealand in Venezuela will be veteran guard Mark Dickel.

Vucinic, who is currently coaching Forlì in Italy's Legadue, is expecting his young players to step up and confirm their progress.

He has kept a close eye on what has been going on back in New Zealand, with several Tall Blacks playing key roles in the New Zealand Breakers making it to the finals of Australian National Basketball League.

“They had another great season and it is great to see players like 24-year old Thomas Abercrombie and Alex Pledger as well as the same reliable Mika Vukona having very important roles in the success of that team," Vucinic offered.

New Zealand have been drawn in Group D of the OQT and will take on Angola - finalists at last summer's African Championship - and FYROM, the biggest surprise at EuroBasket 2011 where they reached the Semi-Finals.

The Tall Blacks will head to Venezuela after holding a three-week training camp.

“We will start (camp) on 10 June, we are looking at a short seven-day camp in New Zealand," Vucinic said.

“Then, we will play three friendly games in China on the way to South America and hopefully we will have a good tournament in Brazil leading up to the Olympic Qualifying Tournament."

FIBA