Basketball: Hawks slump to whipping boys

Rangers 90 Hawks 88

Auckland

NBL basketball

They talked about getting the business done without certain elements in the squad for the most part of this season.

No captain Paora Winitana because of his religious beliefs on Sundays.

No Kareem Johnson because the American centre/power forward has been caught up in the doldrums of immigration procedures.

No Jarrod Kenny because the point guard was struggling to shrug off the bot before coming right only to succumb to an ankle injury that saw him take the court for 56 seconds the previous Saturday in their match against the Waitakere Rangers in Napier.

But what happens when there's no coach?

That's what happened last night in the return bout for the HBS Bank Hawks during their Bartercard National Basketball League (NBL) match against the Rangers on the road.

With new coach Tab Baldwin holed up in his motel yesterday afternoon, the Hawks lost 90-88 to the choirboys of NBL this season, stumbling at the Trusts Stadium, Waitakere.

Baldwin was serving a match suspension for loss of discipline after hollering at the referees in their defeat to the Taranaki MountainAirs in New Plymouth a fortnight ago.

It made perfect sense that the former Tall Black coach should sit it out yesterday after the Hawks' resounding 45-point thumping of the Aik Ho-coached Rangers at the Pettigrew-Green Arena, Taradale, the previous Saturday.

Baldwin confessed last night he didn't enjoy his exile from the venue.

While he expected the team to adhere to certain principles, he was the first to admit he expected them to expect him to reciprocate.

"I won't be putting them through that situation again," he said after what should probably go down in the Hawke's Bay franchise's history as the most shocking defeat.

Considering the previous round was almost reduced to a scrimmaging exercise at the PG Arena, the Hawks faithful had every right to expect a win, if not a similar result, form their basketballers.

Instead it all turned to custard.

Taking a mindset of losing to the flogging boys of NBL isn't the ideal prerequisite to going anywhere let alone a double-header against table-topping Otago Nuggets in Dunedin on Friday night and then the Southland Sharks in Invercagill the following night.

Baldwin, who was watching the video clips when contacted last night and was anticipating meeting his players past Hawke's Bay Today's deadline of 9.30pm, said it was fair to assume the Hawks would be mentally fragile.

Injured Kenny was the basketball brains in his absence as assistant while assistant coach Jackson Macfarlane had risen to assume the mantle of acting coach but more in a motivational capacity.

Baldwin understood his men had fallen into foul trouble early and the inexperience and depth on the bench had been exposed.

"In defence we didn't play the way we should or the way we can and we didn't rebound," he lamented, in what has effectively become an anthem for the Hawks this winter.

It didn't amuse Baldwin that certain elements from the Hawks "organisation" tried to tell him this was the perfect match to sit out because of the previously win-less Rangers' status.

"Our organisation needs to take a look at themselves before starting to spread this kind of talk around ... because it's a big mistake."

Instead, Baldwin reminded anyone guilty of worshipping before the temple of complacency that teams such as Waitakere and the Waikato Pistons this season also sported the tag of "spoilers" at the bottom of their underdog collars for a reason.

Using reverse psychology, he emphasised such crises were often simply "opportunities in disguise", as the franchise prepares to host the playoffs as the No 1 venue in the queue if the NBL board gives the green light but then, maybe, the franchise should flag such aspirations in what is turning out to be a medicore season here.