Arsego defends team

Wellington
Frank Arsego refuses to place blame on the players for his demise from the New Zealand Breakers basketball franchise.
The Auckland-based Australian Basketball League club will ditch the coach at the end of this season ? ending his original contract a season earlier than scheduled.
Arsego said he did not see it coming and though he would not deflect any blame on to the players for the club's announcement yesterday of a release based on "mutual and amicable agreement", he expected changes to the team under the new coach.
"We're all accountable and I think the result of something like this happening is that it will have some domino effect in it in regards to the change," Arsego said yesterday.
"The next person coming in will have a different outlook. The reality is that not everybody will be there next season."
With the Breakers' hopes of a play-off spot receding over recent weeks with a string of losses, there has been speculation that the coach was on the way out.
"To be honest I wasn't really expecting it. I understand that our record should have been showing a little bit better," Arsego said..
"We had quite a few close results not go our way.
"From a result point of view ? six or so games that we didn't win we should have won. It makes that win-loss column a little bit skinny. But I understand that ? the coach is responsible for that.
"But at the same time I felt we showed great improvement from last season, where we had larger losing margins. We were closing the gaps but obviously not quick enough."
Breakers chairman Keith Ward said there were no plans for a new coach to replace Arsego before last Sunday.
The Breakers board discussed the situation and met Arsego on Monday, he said.
"The 40-point loss to Brisbane (last week) was for me a personal catalyst to say this wasn't working out," Ward said.
"I spoke to some other board members and we only met on (Monday).
Ward said it was time to look towards next season.
The Breakers, bottom of the ANBL competition and out of play-off contention, have five games left in the regular season and Arsego will see the season out.
Their win-loss ratio for this season is 8-19.
South Australian Arsego, 42, was Jeff Green's assistant before taking over when Green left one-third of the way through their debut campaign in November 2003.
The Breakers bounced back from a 2-7 win-loss record to record an almost 50 per cent winning record for the rest of that season under Arsego.
Arsego had spent five years as head coach at the Australian Institute of Sport before joining the Breakers.
Arsego said he understood the club's action against him five games from the season's end.
"I can see their point. When teams are not travelling there's always a little bit of anxiety within the group and they probably want to let the players know what's acceptable and what's not acceptable.
"By coming out early and doing this they let the players know there will be a new coach and they're entering into a new era. They put it out there they want to go in a new direction.
"I'm disappointed because we've worked through some issues and it hasn't been all smooth sailing in the first two years. I just felt like we'd got on top of some of those issues.
"I was really looking forward to the third year ? an opportunity to bring some things to fruition.
"It's (ANBL) obviously a very tough competition. Having come across from Australia and having some history about the league, I've always said we're in the formative years. History has shown that it has taken lot of teams quite a while to get up to level."
Arsego had to put up with internal ructions within the squad, including senior player Dillon Boucher swapping text messages uncomplimentary to Arsego's coaching style to his predecessor, Green.
Arsego said he did not think the Boucher incident contributed to the club's action.
"In the end that was something that was sort of leaked out of our inner circle.
"I think we resolved that in the best possible manner and Dillon and I have since moved on and that's why he's worked in such a professional manner. I give him a lot of credit to the way he's come in and gone about his basketball business. That issue had no bearing in it."
Arsego said he would now return to his family ? his wife and an 11-year-old son ? in Canberra and contemplate his future.
Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin has been touted as a possible replacement, although he has taken up an offer to coach in Turkey before returning for the national team's mid-year campaign. ? NZPA