Basketball: Young star up for next milestone

Tai Wynyard believes the Tall Blacks can win if they "band together as brothers". Photo / Dean Purcell

Tall Blacks face a big ask against Australia, but Wynyard is backing teamwork to win the Olympic honour.

Tai Wynyard might be only 17 but he's achieved a few milestones as a basketballer, and he's hoping for another tomorrow.

Last year, Wynyard became the youngster player to debut for the Tall Blacks - he's still the youngest in the team - and he's also played for the Breakers and secured a scholarship at the University of Kentucky.

Tomorrow, he will line up in Melbourne for the Tall Blacks in the first of two matches against Australia which have the huge incentive of Olympic qualification at stake.

New Zealand are big underdogs against a Boomers outfit stacked with players with NBA experience, but Wynyard believes his side's teamwork and team bond will give them the edge.

"We've just got to band together as brothers and as a team and work hard to beat them, I guess," said Wynyard. "We have to want it more than them and that's what we're going to go do."

Coach Paul Henare is also pushing the mantra of strength in numbers, repeatedly saying the Tall Blacks are not going to "out-talent" the Boomers to victory.

"We're undersized, there's no secret about that," he said. "Our only true big is [centre] Rob Loe.

"Two of our forwards who get the lions' share of the minutes are a six [foot] five Fijian and a six-five-and-a-half Tongan with an afro of three inches, but what they lack in height they make up for in the way they play.

"They're intense players. Isaac [Fotu] plays above the rim. He's a well-skilled player and it's been great to see his growth and development."

Fotu was a standout during the Tall Blacks' games in the Stankovic Cup and a key part of the team's victory in China last Saturday.

Henare said the team were almost in prime condition to "give it a good crack against the Aussies".

Their tight-knit group is a little looser now, as Duane Bailey is probably out of tomorrow's game following his hospitalisation for a serious case of gastro, but possible replacement Dion Prewster has a history with the other Breakers players.

Illness and injury have forced late reshuffles to the Tall Blacks and the Boomers, but Australia can draft in the likes of Patty Mills, who's on the books of the San Antonio Spurs, for the injured Dante Exum.

Even if the Tall Blacks don't win tomorrow, it's critical they try to keep things tight because the Olympic qualifying series is over two matches and the winner will be decided on point differentials if it finishes one win each.

The two teams meet again on Tuesday in Wellington.

The odds may be stacked against the Tall Blacks, but they have done it before " in 2009 an inexperienced Tall Blacks team beat the Boomers to become first seed for Oceania in the 2010 world champs in Turkey.

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