Basketball decision irks Mair

Press, 27 July 1989, Page 44

Basketball decision irks Mair

By

FRANK DUGGAN

and PA

An inconsistent decision by the New Zealand Basketball Federation about a possible play-off between Canterbury and Hawke’s Bay was attacked last evening by the Canterbury coach, Keith Mair.

The federation decided a few days ago that if Canterbury was beaten by Palmerston North in Saturday’s final second-round match, and Hawke’s Bay — now two points behind the Rams — defeated Waikato, there would be a play-off in Palmerston North in the "lull” weekend before the finals in Auckland in the second week of August. “Why should the rules change from year to year?” Mr Mair said last evening. “Last year Canterbury was in a somewhat similar position and Waikato got the nod because of aggregate to make the finals. “O.K. if we lose to Palmerston North at the week-end and Hawke’s Bay wins, Canterbury is on equal points with home and away aggregates, but Canterbury has the best over-all win and away aggregate,” said Mr Mair. “I feel the federation has to have a second look at the situation, and I believe the Canterbury association will tonight or tomorrow morning express its thoughts.” Mr Mair saw the decision as a double standard. “Why the devil should we play Hawke’s Bay in Palmerston North,” said Mr Mair. “It’s like playing on a home court and the federation have termed it neutral territory,” he said. “If you want something neutral play in Timaru.” Mr Mair said that Can-

terbury would contest a play-off. However, Canterbury will not accept the federation’s decision lying down and plans to “play” tough against the league commissioner, Barry Wilson (Wellington) and the executive director, Ross Williams (Auckland). Mr Wilson said yesterday that he had little choice other than to plan for a play-off to decide the fourth spot in the finals.

At the moment, only three teams are assured of a berth at the finals on August 11-12 — Palmerston North, Saints (Wellington) and Auckland. Although the decision to have a play-off, and more specifically the venue for it, has not met with Canterbury approval, Mr Wilson said there was little alternative. “There are three options. The first was that we look at the games where Canterbury and Hawke’s Bay played each other. When we did that, we found they each had a win by the same points differential,” he said. The second option was to have a play-off match between the two teams and the third was to look at points for and against over all the season’s games.

“We’re loath to even think about using that third option because teams in the league basically don’t play that way,”

Mr Wilson said. The Hawke’s Bay coach, Curtis Wooten, said yesterday that his team was concentrating on beating Waikato in Hamilton before thinking about any play-off. “It’s going to be tough for us to beat Waikato, and very difficult for Canterbury to beat Palmerston North at home.” Mr Wooten said he could understand Canterbury’s dismay at having to travel to Palmerston North to play: “The ideal situation would have been to play in Wellington. “But we’ve played in Palmerston North a couple of times, and haven’t gone that well, so it’s not too much of an advantage.” Alternative venues in Nelson and the capital were discounted as too impractical, leaving the Palmerston North stadium to host the play-off. Meanwhile, the Palmerston North basketball team is denying rumours it intends throwing its last game against Canterbury on Saturday night. The rumours doing the rounds contend that Palmerston North will roll over because both teams have the same sponsor. The coach, Joe Frost, has this week been beseiged by Auckland newspaper and radio reporters and has been denying any talk of bribes from Canterbury or the sponsor to drop the game.