KEY POINTS:
The Tall Blacks must overcome a tough draw if they are to earn one of the three spots still available for the Beijing Olympics when they travel to Athens in July for the final qualifying tournament.
Familiar foes Germany, with their reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Dirk Nowitzki,
and unknown African quantity Cape Verde will be first up in pool play, followed potentially by a quarterfinal against either world championship runners-up Greece or a Brazilian team full of NBA talent.
With the top three teams from the tournament filling the final spots available at Beijing, the Tall Blacks must win at least one pool game and their quarterfinal to give themselves a chance of going to the Olympics.
Germany have become something of a bogey team for the Tall Blacks, beating them three times during the 2002 world championship campaign that catapulted the Kiwis into the world spotlight. They defeated New Zealand twice in the tournament proper, including the bronze medal playoff, and also prevailed in pool play of the 2006 FIBA World Championships in Japan.
After finishing fifth at last year's Eurobasket championships, they are ranked ninth in the world, tied with Australia and four spots ahead of the Tall Blacks.
Cape Verde are ranked 56th in the world, but earned their spot at the qualifying tournament by finishing third at the 2007 FIBA African Championships.
"As we expected, it will a tough road to qualify from a tournament that is as strong as the actual Olympics," coach Nenad Vucinic said. "There are plenty of teams here that, on their day, can win a world title.
"Germany have always been a difficult team for us. We have yet to get within 20 points of them, so they present a challenge we are looking forward to.
"Cape Verde are unknown now, but I don't think they will be unknown for long. They have a lot of players in top US colleges and will be a difficult proposition for us, but they are a team we are targeting to beat."
Vucinic said this year would mark the start of a rebuilding programme for the Tall Blacks, aimed at qualifying for the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey.
"We have been relying on the same players, in some cases, for more than a decade. The reality is we need to rebuild and it was going to be difficult for us whenever that happened."
