By JULIE ASH
After several retirements and a woeful domestic women's basketball league, Tall Ferns coach Tracy Carpenter has less than a month to prepare a side to take on the world No 2, Australia.
Carpenter will next week name a squad of 12 to meet the Australians in a best-of-three
test series - the winner to qualify for next year's world championships in China.
The first test is in Invercargill on September 14 and the second in Christchurch the next day. If the series is tied, a third deciding test will be played in Christchurch on September 16.
New Zealand's preparation was badly affected after a planned series against Croatia fell through.
Carpenter said going straight into a series with Australia was tough.
"The Australians are unbelievably talented. They are clearly No 2 in the world and are probably the only team that could beat the US."
He said Australia have tremendous depth with two domestic competitions plus several players overseas.
This was in contrast to New Zealand's small seven-team national league which Carpenter has had to turn to for players after losing many of last year's Olympic Games team.
Among the casualties have been Julie Ofsoski, Megan Compain, Dianne L'Ami, Leone Patterson and Kirstin Daly, who have either retired, are unavailable or have gone overseas.
"We realise that we are in transition. Lots of women made huge sacrifices to be part of the Olympics last year and now a lot of players have redirected their goals."
Despite the tough times, there is hope for the future. New Zealand Basketball have allocated money from the Sports Foundation to hire a fulltime national high-performance coach, to be named in October. There is also a possibility that players will be involved in a sports academy.
Carpenter said it was a much needed boost for the sport.
"That means the players will have access to physios, doctors," Carpenter said. "It is really exciting."
The national women's league is also set for a revamp with Basketball NZ hoping to improve the standards.
"The league was probably at one of its lowest points this year," said Carpenter. "The standard wasn't outstanding and now we have to find a way to beat Australia - a team of professionals. We have got to do something to get more teams playing more games," he said.
"The Olympics were the highlight last year and basketball is an official sport in the Commonwealth Games in 2006, which keeps the carrot dangling.
The New Zealand team will assemble in Christchurch in two weeks' time for a camp before moving to Invercargill for the first test.
New Zealand last competed in the world championships in Australia in 1994.
They won only one match, against Kenya, but their pool included top-ranked teams.
By JULIE ASH
After several retirements and a woeful domestic women's basketball league, Tall Ferns coach Tracy Carpenter has less than a month to prepare a side to take on the world No 2, Australia.
Carpenter will next week name a squad of 12 to meet the Australians in a best-of-three
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