Basketball: Tall Blacks keeping their powder dry

The Tall Blacks are playing a game of cover-up in the four-way tournament in Australia this week, using only as much from their arsenal as is necessary to win.

They do not want to give away secrets unnecessarily or show the Boomers too much ahead of the Oceania competition next week.

Coach Tab Baldwin admitted the Tall Blacks had played within themselves when dishing out a 90-70 win over China in their first game, and they were taking the same philosophy into the game against Lithuania in Perth late last night.

China's coach, Jonas Kazlauskas, was disappointed with his team's effort, saying they were not ready for the physical contact the New Zealanders dished out.

"The referees allowed too much contact. It was for both teams equally, but we were not ready for it," he said.

Baldwin was not too concerned about the comments.

"There was nothing out there that you wouldn't expect to see in any international game. The Chinese coach said that we're too physical, but everybody sings that song when they lose to us.

"We play basketball not unlike a lot of teams in the world - we're physical, but we're certainly not outside the rules.

"We ran the more basic offences that are probably the hallmark of Tall Blacks' basketball, but we'd like to think that we've got some curve balls we can throw out there. We didn't need to use any tonight because we executed very well.

"We'd like to practise everything we've got, but we don't want to over-expose Australia to it. We're walking a little bit of a fine line right now."

Ed Book still had some soreness in his hamstring but was equal top-scorer on 13 with Pero Cameron and Phill Jones. It was a young Chinese team, without their NBA players, including Yao Ming.

The scores were tied 4-4 early, before the TBs went on a 12-0 run, after which they were never headed. China's best was their 2.15m centre Zhengdong Tang, but he lacked support.

Australia beat Lithuania 71-66 with a late flurry, coming from 10 points down with eight minutes remaining.

Sky TV and TV2 will show upcoming Tall Blacks games in Sydney and the three-test series in New Zealand.

Shipley leads Breakers

Burton Shipley will take over as board chairman at the NZ Breakers.

Shipley has been a director of Basketball New Zealand and on the committee for its fundraising arm, but he resigned those posts yesterday to avoid any conflict of interest, while saying he hoped that experience would strengthen the relationship between the two.

"The Breakers are in the public eye playing in the Australian NBL five months of the year and have the potential to captivate the basketball community and attract new players and supporters to the sport," said Shipley, who played five seasons for Canterbury.

"With a new administration, a new coach and a fresh team, it is the right time to join the club. My personal goal is to help make the Breakers an incredibly competitive team and to establish an enduring culture of excellence."

The three owners had previously rotated the chairmanship. Outgoing chairman Keith Ward yesterday said Shipley would add commercial acumen, basketball knowledge and innovative thinking. Further board members might be added as candidates with complementary skills were identified.

The Breakers were expecting their second American import, Brant Bailey, to arrive late yesterday, to train today and fly out with them for a two-game pre-season hit-out against the Melbourne Tigers.

The Breakers' next pre-season games come just before the competition starts and include the Cairns Blitz tournament.

Wildcats look to China

Perth Wildcats owner Andrew Vlahov is suggesting his team will soon sign Chinese players and will suggest to the ANBL board that they be given the non-import status enjoyed by New Zealanders.

The Asian market was huge, Vlahov said, a fact confirmed by the 60 million watching the four-way tournament via ESPN Asia.

"We should consider how European sport is now opening up borders to teams and players," he said. "I think you'll see this week very high quality Chinese players who are more than capable of playing NBL."

Nuggets need coach

The Otago Nuggets, who have finished last in three of the past five seasons, are having trouble filling the vacant coaching post.

Last year's coach, Bernd Kupka, has not responded to a call for applications, and requests for more information from Australian coaches are the only show of interest. The Nuggets have not had a major sponsor since 2000. Aussie for Saints Australian Gordon McLean was yesterday named as head coach of Wellington Saints for next year.

The Saints were 2003 league champions and 2004 semifinalists.

McLeod said he would take up his role in the next few months.

He replaces Mike McHugh, another Australian, who guided the Saints for three years and now coaches the national women's team, and is a national coaching adviser for sports funding agency Sparc.