Basketball: NZ boss leaps to defence of referees

By PETER JESSUP

Basketball New Zealand has defended its referees from criticism of their handling of the England-New Zealand series.

England's coach, Lazo Nemeth, threatened to walk his side out of the Queens Wharf Events Centre in Wellington midway through the second-test loss to the Tall Blacks on Monday night and later accused the home side of playing basketball the way the All Blacks play rugby.

Nemeth aimed barbs particularly at Olympic-accredited ref Stan Battock, claiming Battock had "gone after" the England centres, but that was dismissed by the general manager of Basketball NZ, David Crocker, as rubbish.

Battock's partner from Monday night, Dallas Pickering, calmed things down with Nemeth and the game continued to a 78-75 home win.

Pickering and first-test ref Ken Coulson will officiate tonight at the Hamilton Leisure Centre as the Tall Blacks seek a confidence-boosting clean sweep over the visitors.

Coulson also has international governing body FIBA's approval to referee at Sydney 2000, with Nemeth's comment on Battock being: "God save the teams he will referee at the Olympics."

Nemeth was particularly upset about US-based Tall Blacks' point guard Mark Dickel landing an elbow in the face of England guard Ray Carter.

That was not called, but on the next play Carter was handed a technical foul when he retaliated, and it was then that the walk threat came.

Tall Blacks coach Keith Mair was not saying what had caused his jumping around on the sideline, but suggested officials would want to review the videotape after the Wellington victory that secured the series.

Mair said a 30-minute delay to the tip-off as pre-match entertainment wound up did not help either side or the refs.

"We're not used to sitting in the dressing room for an extra 30 minutes after the warm-up, and maybe both teams were a little up-tight and maybe that affected their [the refs'] performance, too."

Crocker said complaints about refereeing standards had also been received from recent visitors Slovakia, China and Canada.

"The game is different on each continent. The interpretation of the rules is different in Australia and New Zealand than it is in Europe or Asia."

New Zealand were not overly physical, he said, and the home-town referees did not go out to deliberately favour home teams.

"We listen to what they have to say, obviously, and we accept that our referees are on a learning curve internationally."

The Tall Blacks have no injury worries going into tonight's match. They will have the same game plan, with big men Phill Jones, Robert Hickey and Tony Rampton in a three-pronged attack off Pero Cameron, supported with speed from guards Dickel and Nenad Vucinic.

England are out of league season and midway through the European competition, where they have beaten Bulgaria and Portugal and lost to Hungary, in overtime, to Slovakia and to world No 3-ranked Croatia 78-81.

The Tall Blacks squad leaves for the William Jones Cup in Taiwan on Friday. Main expects that tournament will provide a better gauge of exactly where they are in the Olympic frame.