Basketball: Jets to fight Wellington for place in finals

The national basketball league rolls through round seven of 13 this weekend with those teams that have had a slow start to the season already looking like they're history.

While Auckland (8-1), Hawkes Bay (7-1) and Nelson (6-1) have cleared out at the top of the table, the rest are struggling for consistency and, in Otago's case (1-9), gone.

The Nuggets have let in the most points of this season at 894 and the Jets (5-5) are second-worst at 878. The Jets have also scored the most points at 863 to suggest they can make the playoffs and it appears they will scrap with Wellington (6-3) for the fourth and last place in the finals in June-July.

For others, changes of imports who have failed to deliver has meant lack of cohesion and scoring power.

Waikato's Ben Hill is the only Kiwi in the league's top-10 scorers, third on an average 22 per game behind the Rams' import Dennis Trammell with 26 and Garry Hill-Thomas of the Airs with 28. Tall Black Tony Rampton leads the rebounding stats with an average 11 per game.

The season is compressed to allow for the Tall Blacks campaign at the world championships and some franchises have clearly coped better.

DICKEL'S TEAM OUT

Tall Black Mark Dickel's team Lokomotiv Rostov are out of the Russian league playoffs after going down 3-0 to CSKA Moscow. Dickel led all scorers in the last game with 24, the team going down 107-82 after losing game two 94-55 and game one 82-71. He plans to recuperate in his old haunt Las Vegas before joining the national squad here for the games against Australia.

Tall Blacks shooting guard Kirk Penney hit the one three-pointer he shot as his Maccabi Tel Aviv side was beaten 73-69 by CSKA Moscow in the Euroleague final.

Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin's Banvitspor team has finished the regular season with a 21-9 record and fourth place and he, Pero Cameron and Paul Henare now go into playoffs.

Henare was intending to take part in Hawkes Bay's finals run but that may depend on how far Banvitspor go. The NBL requires players to appear in at least four regular season games before they can play in finals. Henare has just one appearance for the Hawks before he flew out unexpectedly. Waikato are counting on Cameron but he may not qualify.

Phill Jones' Italian team is eliminated from that league's finals and he is expected to be home to play for Neson next weekend.

MAJSTROVICH 'GOOD FIT'

The Adelaide 36ers claim to be close to signing Breakers bench forward AJ Majstrovich, revealing in the process that the player has been suffering a crisis of confidence.

Majstrovich, 26, was at Perth and Brisbane before signing for the Breakers but Adelaide's coach Phil Smyth was reported as saying he had no worries about his appearing in just 79 games since debut in 1998.

"He'd be a real good fit for us because he's a pretty versatile player. He's lacking a little bit of confidence and he's wanted to come for a couple of years.

"Normally when players want to do that and they get that opportunity, they flourish in that environment," Smyth said.

BOOMERS' SQUAD

The Australian basketball selectors have named a squad of 35 potential Boomers who will take part in the build-up to the world championships.

Boomers coach Brian Goorjian is back from the United States, where he had been to watch NBA players Andrew Bogut (Milwaukee Bucks) and Luke Schenscher (Chicago Bulls), who are expected to appear in the New Zealand games.

Also included are European-based Matt Nielsen (Leitvos Rytas), Wade Helliwell (Lottomatica Roma) and David Andersen (CSKA Moscow).

The Boomers have a huge forward/centre mix including 2005-6 NBL MVP Chris Anstey (Melbourne Tigers). The squad goes into camp in late June at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra before four matches against New Zealand, in Napier on July 12 and 14 and in Australia on July 17 and 19.

The Boomers then tour China before heading to Japan where their world championship campaign starts on August 19 against Brazil in Hamamatsu.

Basketball New Zealand has been negotiating to get more international competition for the Tall Blacks before their campaign in Japan and is believed to be close to signing another world championship team for a two-game series here. The Tall Blacks will then tour South America before going to Japan.

Boomers train-on squad: David Andersen (CSKA Moscow), Chris Anstey (Melbourne Tigers), David Barlow (Sydney Kings), Stephen Black (Brisbane Bullets), Andrew Bogut (Milwaukee Bucks, US), Aaron Bruce (Baylor University, US), CJ Bruton (Sydney Kings), Adam Caporn (Perth Wildcats), Peter Crawford (Perth Wildcats), Ian Crosswhite (Sydney Kings), Brad Davidson (Manawatu, NZ), Daniel Dillon (Arizona, US), Oscar Forman (NZ Breakers), James Harvey (West Sydney Razorbacks), Wade Helliwell (Lottomatica Roma, Italy), Russell Hinder (unsigned), Jacob Holmes (South Dragons), Nathan Jawai (AIS), Luke Kendall (Sydney Kings), Daniel Kickert (Saint Mary's, US), Matthew Knight (LMU, US), Sam Mackinnon (Brisbane Bullets), Alex Maric (Nebraska, USA), Steven Markovic (BC Red Star, Serbia & Montengro),

Damian Martin (LMU, USA), Patrick Mills (AIS), Neil Mottram (Melbourne Tigers), Brad Newley (Townsville Crocs), Matthew Nielsen (Leitvos Rytas, Lithuania), Damian Ryan (Italy), Glen Saville (Wollongong Hawks), Luke Schenscher (Chicago Bulls, US), Jason Smith (Sydney Kings), Greg Vanderjagt (Townsville Crocs) and Mark Worthington (Sydney Kings).