Coach considers mission 'possible’
By FRANK DUGGAN Mr Bob Bishop, the coach of the New Zealand men’s basketball team for the World Cup in Spain next month, left Christchurch yesterday morning considering his team’s task against 23 other top teams in the world as a mission “possible,” certainly not impossible.
The New Zealand team, including lan Webb and John Rademakers, of Canterbury, as well as the assistant coach, Mr Keith Mair, gathered in Auckland last evening for a final series of workouts before flying to Los Angeles on Saturday. The squad will play in the United States, including the national team, before going on to London where it will also have several games as a prelude to journeying to Spain.
New Zealand, ranked
No. 24, the lowest, will play its qualifying games at Tenerife in the Canary Islands against Yugoslavia, Canada, Argentina, Malaysia and the Netherlands. Qualification for New Zealand, on its first World Cup experience, would take the team to either Barcelona or Madrid.
Recent performances have placed New Zealand in a much better category than an outsider. It may have lost a three-test series against the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, but there was little in it, particularly in the last test in Christchurch when New Zealand should have won.
“We have to learn to win games,” said Mr Bishop yesterday. “The spirit is present but we have forgotten what winning is all about.”
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Press, 19 June 1986, Page 38
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236Coach considers mission 'possible’ Press, 19 June 1986, Page 38
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