Basketballers prepare to tackle Australia

Press, 12 October 1985, Page 80

Basketballers prepare to tackle Australia

By

FRANK DUGGAN

The coach of the New Zealand men’s basketball team, Mr Bob Bishop, of Christchurch, today embarks on what many critics consider “Mission Impossible.”

Along with members of the New Zealand squad, including John Rademakers, John Hill and Dave Edmonds, of Canterbury, as well as the assistant coach, Mr Keith Mair, also of Christchurch, the team will start training in Auckland today a week before leaving for Australia in a bid to qualify for the World Cup in Spain next year. New Zealand will play three matches against Australia. The first is in Sydney on October 24, and the other two matches are at Newcastle on successive days, October 26 and October 27. As a warm up, the New

Zealanders will play the New South Wales league side, Sydney Supersonics, next Sunday and then an invitation All Stars team two days later. Ronnie Joyner, who was New Zealand’s basketballer of the year this season, recently signed to play for the Supersonics. Yesterday, Mr Bishop was reasonably confident that New Zealand would do well against Australia. “All they have to do is to play as well as they can and to think positively," he said.

New Zealand has beaten Australia only once, and that was in 1978. In a threetest series Australia won the first by 15 points, New Zealand won the second by a point, and Australia completed the series with a seven-point advantage in the third test.

In the rare meetings between the two countries since then New Zealand has never got within “cooee” of beating the Australians.

Now it has its chance and Mr Bishop is well aware of the opportunity seeing the Australians have a new coach (Lindsay Gaze was surprisingly dropped earlier in the year) and three juniors have been promoted. Also lan Davies, an outstanding contributor to the Australian team in recent years, has been bypassed. Included in the Australian team is the former American, Kel Bruton, described by the executive director of the New Zealand Basketball Federation, Mr Joe McLeod, as a second Clyde Huntley, minus the hair. “We have to be able to get a proper line on our abilities,” said Mr Bishop.