Basketball: Stockill adds to Tall Ferns' chemistry

Josie Stockill (No 13) brings a bundle of energy from the bench and her body language attests to that. Photo/supplied

Wearing that unmistakable gormless expression, countless basketballers have found themselves with meagre minutes while warming the bench.

If you ask coaches, they will tell you there's never enough time to spread the joy among 15 players with the shot clock continuously running down in 40 minutes of stop-start games.

But don't lump Tall Ferns Josie Stockill, of Napier, into that breed of myopic players.

"I'm happy with my minutes. It's more than what I've been getting previously. The coaches have been trusting me more to get out there to get the job done so I'm just trying to give back from whatever minutes I get," declares Stockill before arriving in Bengaluru on Monday for a build up to the week-long Fiba Women's Asia Cup tipping off this Sunday.

That is not to say the 23-year-old doesn't long for the day when she will do herself and her country proud in the starting five.

"Not this year but in the future is the goal."

Stockill has utmost respect for the likes of Micaela Cocks, Jillian Harmon, Kalani Purcell and Natalie Taylor who throw down the gauntlet.

For now she is simply delighted to be part of a "great team chemistry".

"I don't feel the cut-throat need to overtake my teammates because I feel like they're doing a great job."

The Tall Ferns are in group A with China, North Korea and Taiwan of a tournament that doubles as qualifiers (top four) for the 18th edition of the 2018 Fiba Women's Basketball World Cup in Spain from September 22-30.

The world No 38 Kiwis play No 10 China on Sunday (NZ time), North Korea (No 64) the following day and the Chinese Taipei (No 39, Taiwan) on Tuesday before the rest day on Wednesday. The quarter-finals kick in from Thursday and culminates with the final on Saturday next week.

No 4 Australia, defending champions Japan, Philippines and South Korea will battle it out in pool B.

"It was great to get four wins in Taiwan. The team's coming together and we're looking really good so really excited to get to India and start preparing there to get into the tournament," she says as New Zealand and Australia embark on their maiden Asia Cup.

The nomadic campaign is something Stockill is familiar with after hitting the global highway for the Rio Olympics qualifiers embracing four countries.

They competed in the William Jones Cup in Taipei, Taiwan, from July 5-9 and then the two days later got straight into the Singapore Series from July 11-16.

Coach Kennedy Kereama sees the former Napier Girls' High School pupil as the first player off the bench to give his starting five some time to suck in the big ones.

"I'm just really trying to fulfil my role and see what the team and coaches need me to do.

Whether that's playing solid defence or just trying to contribute in whichever way I can."

The neuroscience graduate from Colgate University in New York State, who finished studies on May 15 last year, seems to have all the attributes of a swingman.

In a match against China, she scored a game-high 22 points for the Kiwis and collected five off the boards (the team's second highest contributor) in the nail-biting 68-65 victory to endorse her potency in Kereama's rotation.

"It happened to be that I got a lot of great passes in that one game to score a few points but, mostly, defence is my focus."

Putting up the shutters isn't necessarily what's stated in her dossier but that's what
Stockill's preoccupation is now, although anytime one can do that and still rack up points speaks volumes.

"Yeah, you always want to be good all round."

She is relishing her maiden professional season with the Sunbury Jets in the Big V (Victoria) League in Australia where Kereama is coach.

"We're trying to stay in the first two spots with, I think, three more regular season games to go," she says, following the Jets' fortunes on live stats.

The continuity she receives with Kereama is priceless because she has built an affinity with his "defensive systems" and "offensive screens".

"He's obviously been a great help and puts in a lot of work to help me to get to where I am so I definitely see the improvements in my game."

Stockill, in 2014, became the first Bay player to make the Tall Ferns squad since Kirstin Daly-Taylor in 1985. She believes every year the Tall Ferns have made incremental gains leading up to the Asia Cup.

So far humidity has been a factor through the Indo-China region so hydrating is vital and will be no different in the continent.

"I've never been to India before. My dad's been and he really enjoyed it," she says of England-born Adrian Stockill and mother Karen.

Her rugby-mad parents, soon after she was born in England, returned to Napier after falling in love with the province during the Lions tour of New Zealand when they also watched the game against the Hawke's Bay Magpies at McLean Park.

While the cost and distance mean her parents aren't tracking her on tour now, they will be at the Jets' finals series in Melbourne from next month, with her partner, former Hawks forward Arthur Trousdell.

TALL FERNS: Georgia Agnew (Harbour Breeze/NZ), Jessica Bygate (Melbourne Boomers/Sandringham Sabres/Aust), Micaela Cocks (Townsville Fire/Mackay Meteorettes/Aust), Toni Farnworth (nee Edmondson, Perth Lynx/Perry Lakes Hawks/Aust), Deena Franklin (Harbour Breeze/NZ), Jillian Harmon (Le Mura Lucca/Italy), Rebecca Ott (Melbourne Boomers/Aust), Chevannah Palvaast (Townsville Fire/Mackay Meteorettes/Aust), Kalani Purcell (Brisbane Spartans/Melbourne Boomers/Aust), Erin Rooney (Artego Bydgoszcz/Poland), Josephine Stockill (Sunbury Jets/Aust), Natalie Taylor (Brisbane Spartans/Aust).

Non-travelling reserves: Tea Charlton (Nottingham University/Nottingham Wildcats/England), Charlisse Leger-Walker (Waikato Wizards/NZ), Krystal Leger-Walker (University of Northern Colorado/USA), Kayla Manuirirangi (Tulane University/USA), Katelin Noyer (Fresno State University/USA).