Tall Blacks on countdown to FIBA World Champs
The Tall Blacks begin their final preparation for the FIBA World Championships with a domestic series against Qatar in mid-August. In July the Tall Blacks played a four-game, home-and-away exchange with Australia, then a four-game series against Brazil
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The Tall Blacks begin their final preparation for the FIBA World Championships with a domestic series against Qatar in mid-August.
In July the Tall Blacks played a four-game, home-and-away exchange with Australia, then a four-game series against Brazil.
They then went on to Argentina for a four-nation tournament featuring the hosts, Brazil and Venezuela.
Before leaving for the world championships in Japan on August 17, the Kiwi side will face emerging Asian powers Qatar in Dunedin on August 11 and Invercargill on August 13.
In last year's FIBA Asian Championships, Qatar, ranked 28th in the world, edged out South Korea for the third and final qualifying berth to Japan with Daoud Musa named the tournament's best guard.
They have already begun their world championship build-up with a two-game series against Australian NBL club Perth Wildcats in Doha.
"The visit from Qatar will be another new experience," said Tall Black coach Tab Baldwin.
"They are a developing basketball nation that are not highly ranked, but have always performed reasonably well in an Asian zone dominated by China."
At the 2002 world championships the Tall Blacks were beaten by eventual repeat champions Yugoslavia in the semifinals.
On that occasion, the Kiwis played seven games en route to the tournament.
Also, New Zealand have managed to avoid playing any of their world championship pool rivals - Germany, Spain, Japan, Angola and Panama.