Men's Basketball Looks Ahead

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31089, 18 June 1966, Page 11

Men's Basketball Looks Ahead

"VOW In Its 21st year as a sport organised and administered on a national basis, men’s basketball in New Zealand is embarked on an ambitious and far-ranging programme under an intensively active “new look” administration. This programme has participation in the Mexico Olympic play-offs at Acapulco as the middle-term aim and world ranking as its ultimate. In outline the programme began last season when New Zealand gained fourth place in the Australian inter-state carnival at Brisbane behind South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria. This performance surprised and pleased most Australians and New Zealanders as it showed New Zealand administrators they were on the right lines, and gave promise of worthwhile opposition in their own area in the not-too-distant future to the Australians. Neither country.now feels quite so divorced from Asian basketball nations. These nations have not given any positive response to negotiations which New Zealand began in 1960 with entry to the Asian Basketball Conference as its aim. Indeed a direct result of the Brisbane visit by New Zealand, and by the Australian territory of Papua— Buinea—is a firm move

toward an Oceania Zone sponsored by the international basketball control body, FIBA, and the International Olympic Committee. One of the most pleasing aspects of the present programme is the continuity of planning undertaken by a small but active tours committee of Wellington administrators. In the past basketball suffered because of lack of follow-up to tours to Australia in the mid-1950s and to Asia in the early 19605. In the latter case this was through no fault of New Zealand, but rather the result of extreme difficulty in continuing protracted negotiations with Asian authorities. But the present programme began three years ago with a visit to New Zealand by an American coach, Mr S. K. Inman, of San Jose State College, California, under State Department People-to-People Programme sponsorship. It was followed up last season with tours of New Zealand by a team from the Adelaide and District Association of South Australia and another from North Queensland, and an extensive caching clinic conducts ed bx Mr Inman and the

national coach, Mr C. Agnew, of Hamilton, who also spent five weeks in America last year on an extensive study tour.

New Zealand then went on tour of North Queensland, winning three of four games there and three of six at the Brisbane carnival. While this record does not at first glance appear spectacular, the three states to which New Zealand went down have tremendous strength of basketball population and all admitted the New Zealanders’ ability and strength of purpose first surprised and then worried them.

For this season. New Zealand has a coaching clinic at Tokoroa preparing the national training squad for matches against Inman’s college team which is on tour from July 9 (Invercargill) to July 30 (Auckland) with “tests” at Palmerston North on July 18, Rotorua, July 20, and Lower Hutt, July 23. This will be followed by a two-week tour of New South Wales and Victoria, with participation again as guests in the Australian inter-state carnival at Melbourne in October. From there will follow further coaching clinics in 1967, tours by strong Australian State sides and a visit to Australia by a New Zealand Junior team before th e bigqjld in 1968.