They are poles apart - the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, that is - but Tab Baldwin is adamant that isn't why his team are flirting with not making the playoffs this season.
"If you're looking at that, then you're barking up the wrong tree," says the new HBS Bank Hawks coach before his vexed troops jet off to the Deep South for the dreaded double-header this winter from which no team has won both games in the Bartercard National Basketball League (NBL).
The Paora Winitana-captained Hawks, two from four in the NBL, tip off at 7pm tomorrow at the Edgar Centre in Dunedin against the Otago Nuggets before doing it all over again at the Southland Stadium Velodrome, Invercargill, at the corresponding time the following day against the Southland Sharks.
Baldwin reckons the game has evolved, after introducing an up-tempo and pressure style he brought this year to New Zealand based on a European constitution.
The first coach to introduce the "triangle offence" in New Zealand in 1995, the former Tall Blacks coach says the players grappled with the concept for only a year before embracing it.
Juxtaposing it with rugby, he argues players in this part of the world adapted to the Northern Hemisphere rucking laws of 1996.
"You've got to be smart," says Baldwin, adding the relatively vertically challenged Hawks need to weigh up their strengths and weaknesses with those of oppositions to overcome disparities.
Fundamentally, he emphasises the offensive systems of the European philosophy isn't the problem - defence is.
With the lack of size in rebounding, it is imperative the Hawks "look at other things to compensate".
Forming more double-team defence to stifle the Otago Nuggets into forced shots at the perimeter and resorting to speed to negate the effect of Otago's size are cases in point.
"We didn't achieve that in the first game so we need to test that," says the five-time NBL title-winning coach after the Anthony "Alf" Arlidge-coached Nuggets created history late last month with an 81-74 victory in Napier, their first in a decade.
The prospect of victory tomorrow against table-topping Otago, who have won all seven of their games, becomes harder with versatile guard Hayden Allen in the equation after he missed the first match.
The Hawks hit rock bottom last Sunday in Auckland when whipping boys Waitakere, albeit above a winless Waikato Pistons now, beat them 90-88 for their maiden victory after soaking up a 118-73 hiding the previous weekend at Pettigrew-Green Arena, Taradale.
Baldwin was conspicuous in his absence, opting to serve a match suspension after comments made to the referees in their loss to the Taranaki Mountain Airs last month saw him ejected from the court in New Plymouth.
With the Bay franchise confirming it is interested in hosting the NBL playoffs and the board of the governing body confirming Napier is on the top of the list, the last thing the region will want is for the Hawks not to make the cut-off, although NBL chairman Sam Rossiter-Stead is upbeat the PG Arena faithful will come to watch the top-four qualifiers on a weekend of vintage basketball provided Sky TV and other interests come to the party.
The Hawks, with No 1 point guard Jarrod Kenny still not fully recovered from an ankle injury, will have Winitana back after he didn't play last weekend because of his religious beliefs.
No doubt, the mediocre beginning to the season has created an atmosphere of disbelief within the camp.
"We're greatly annoyed with where we're sitting and believe we're a better team than where we're at," says Baldwin after another soul-searching exercise.
The collective are well and truly beyond the point of motivational speeches.
"We've let ourselves down and the fans down in many ways."
Baldwin stresses it's not for the want of work ethics but the Hawks were guilty of complacency in their defeats to Waitakere and the Manawatu Jets.
The loss to the Mark Dickel-captained Nuggets "is clearly in perspective because they are a team to be reckoned with" while stumbling against Taranaki he puts down to a lack of discipline from all quarters.
In the team huddles before and after the scrimmages, the words "playoff games" now crop up with regular monotony out of a new level of urgency and desperation.
"We need to take care of the basketball, take care of our shots and shore our defence if we are to dramatically improve."
He points out former Tall Black maestro Dickel is familiar with the Northern Hemisphere style of play, as is Wellington Saints coach Pero Cameron who will be at the PG Arena the following Saturday.
With no one coming away with four points from the Deep South, Baldwin hastens to add the Hawks will find a challenge everywhere they turn.
"If we drop a game or two, then we'll find ourselves in a hole," he says, although wins will boost their confidence to turn their abysmal season around.
Fitness and health are among the variables the Hawks can bank on although Kenny's report card won't be filled out until the umpteenth hour each day despite his sizeable recovery in two weeks. Arlidge, who indicated before the match in Napier he was going to retire to spend time with his sons, has revised that stance to "see what happens at the end of the season".
"I'm cruising," he says.
So what's working for Otago in their long overdue dream run?
"A good bunch of guys," Arlidge says, singling out BJ Anthony, Brendon Polyblank and Allen before adding their youth development programme of four years is yielding dividends in the form of "the Buckrells and Rosses".
The 2200 crowd last round is the largest recorded in Dunedin.
He's mindful a "crafty Tab" will be ready to rumble, especially with Perth Wildcat Everard Bartlett putting up the figures.
"I think the imports are good and Brian Greene is a great player."
Rotorua Boys' won with a last-play penalty after their prop reached for the ball in a scrum, sealing victory over Hastings Boys' with a clutch final kick.