RAMBLINGS:
Off-Season Edition 10 (Tall
Blacks Edition)
6 FEBRUARY 2002
by Piet Van Hasselt1. INDY 2002 WORLD
CHAMPS DRAW DECIDED - 204 DAYS TO GO
The countdown is well and truly on for New
Zealand’s Tall Blacks after today’s
drawing of the 16 competing nations into four
groups of four teams. The Tall Blacks qualified
last September by beating Australia in the
Oceania Zone Finals, 2 games to 1.
Group A: Yugoslavia, Spain, Canada,
Angola
Group B: Brazil, Turkey, Puerto Rico,
Lebanon
Group C: U.S.A., Germany, People's
Republic of China, Algeria
Group D: Argentina, Russia, New
Zealand, Venezuela
NEW ZEALAND DRAWS ARGENTINA, RUSSIA,
VENEZUELA
The Tall Blacks have drawn traditional basketball
superpower Russia, American Zone Champion
Argentina (USA did not compete) and American 5th
place qualifier Venezuela in their group for the
first round of matches. Russia have not finished
out of the medals at the last 10 World Champs,
but only qualified 5th in the strong European
Zone. To guarantee a place in the next round, NZ
must beat at least one of these teams. In the 2nd
round NZ may face the USA, Germany (led by Dirk
Nowitzki) and China (with three 7 foot centres).
FORMAT:
In the first round, a round-robin tournament is
conducted within each pool. The top three teams
in each division advance to a second round-robin
tournament and are seeded into two new divisions
based on first round results. The top four teams
from each division of the second round advance to
the quarterfinals of a single elimination
tournament.
More information can be found at: http://www.fiba.com
2. SEAN MARKS REACTIVATED
Sean Marks, the first New Zealander to play in
the American NBA, has been taken off the injury
list and added to the playing roster of 12 for
the Miami Heat last weekend. He had been
sidelined for 20 games with a cervical strain.
Sean is posting career numbers averaging 5.7
points and 4.6 rebounds per contest in the 12
games (6 starts) he has played in this season.
To follow Sean’s progress check out the
Heat’s web site:
http://www.nba.com/heat/
3. KIRK PENNEY – IMPRESSIVE WITH
BADGERS
Tall Black guard Kirk Penney has been having a
stellar season for his US college basketball team
the Wisconsin Badgers. This is Kirk’s junior
(third) season and he has stepped up his play
following the graduation of a number of key
players at the end of last season. He is
averaging a team best 14.1 points and 4.6
rebounds per game and is shooting 45% from the
field and 35% from three point land. Kirk has
been named conference player of the week twice
this season. He recorded a career high 33 points,
and hit an amazing 5 out of 7 three pointers
against UW-Milwaukee in December. The Badgers
currently have an overall record of 12-11
including wins over Illinois, Michigan State and
Marquette.
To follow Kirk’s games visit the
Badgers’ web site:
http://www.uwbadgers.com - then select Men’s
Basketball from the list of sports
4. JETS & TITANS 2002 WEB SITES
As some of you may have noticed last week, the
newsletter announced the re-launch of the Jets
and Titans web sites. However, I forgot to supply
the addresses! Please visit these sites for team
related news:
Jets: http://www.jetsbasketball.co.nz
Titans: http://www.waikatotitans.co.nz
5. 2002 TICKET APPLICATION FORM ONLINE
The Season and 4-game Ticket Application Form can
be downloaded on the Canterbury Rampages web
site:
http://www.mang.canterbury.ac.nz/rams/2002RamsTicket.pdf
The document is in the .pdf format, so you will
need to have downloaded the FREE Adobe Acrobat
Reader at:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
6. NBL PLAYER MOVEMENTS
The following players movements/announcements
have been made since the last off-season edition
of Rams News:
Miles Pearce (from Aussie NBL to Manawatu Jets)
Pearce, 23, a 2.05m Centre is on the rookie list
of the West Sydney Razorbacks this season –
Australian National League plays in the summer.
He is Australian born-and-bred, but qualifies to
play as a NZer for the Jets, as his mother is a
Kiwi. Pearce is expected to see a lot of minutes
in the middle for the Jets alongside 2001 Tall
Black Glen Newbold.
Adrian Torrie (first year in the league with the
Manawatu Jets)
NEXT EDITION: Analysis of the
Tall Blacks Opponents, NZ players overseas …
and more
Please
feel free to forward this information to your
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