2008 Ramsay Shield: Australian "Boomers" vs New Zealand "Tall Blacks"

[Saskibaloia]

nbl.com.au


Boomers ready for Tall Blacks
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 4:09 PM
Source: Basketball Australia

The Australian Boomers will see some fresh faces when they take on New Zealand in the opening game of the 2008 Ramsay Shield in Auckland on Thursday evening.

While six players have returned from the 2007 Tall Blacks team, including Captain Pero Cameron and centre Craig Bradshaw, the team's other half consists of young guns being blooded on the international stage as Basketball New Zealand undergoes a rebuilding process.

Sharp shooter Kirk Penney will join the Tall Blacks when they tour Europe ahead of the pre-Olympic qualification tournament for men in July, but will not be available for the series against Australia.

The Boomers, without their two biggest stars Andrew Bogut and David Andersen, defeated FIBA Asia Champion Iran 3-0 in their international series last week by margins of 19, 44 and 23 points.

Despite the new additions to the Tall Blacks team, Boomers head coach Brian Goorjian is keenly focused on his own squad as they continue on the road to Beijing.

"We're looking at the continual growth and development of our team," Goorjian said.

"Specifically, we can hone in on some things after the last series, where we did a pretty good job of mixing up our defences and I thought we played with a lot of effort, but we were poor in the execution of our half-court sets."

"Our focus is with our own team. Right now it's all about the Boomers."

"I'm going into this series specifically to look again at the last couple of cuts, which are going to be tough, and to hone in on some offences that we executed poorly in the Iran series."

"The guys are all aware of that and I'm sure they'll be playing with some desperation because it would be a real disappointment to get this far and not get over the line to Beijing."

"I know the guys will b e really committed in this series."

Australia's squad currently stands at 16 players, with the Olympic twelve provided to the AOC by July 2nd.

Still in contention for Beijing but not contesting the 2008 Ramsay Shield are Andrew Bogut (Milwaukee Bucks, USA), David Andersen (CSKA Moscow, Russia), Matthew Nielsen (Lietuvos Rytas, Lithuania) and Nathan Jawai (Cairns Taipans).

The Boomers will touch down in Auckland this afternoon and are scheduled to undergo two training sessions tomorrow ahead of Thursday's game.

Tip off on Thursday 26 June at the North Shore Events Centre will be at 7:05pm (5:05pm AET) while game two will tip off on Saturday 28 June at the State Netball Hockey Centre in Melbourne at 5:05pm.

Both games will be broadcast LIVE on FOX Sports 1


AUSTRALIA

(name, position, height, last club played with)

Chris ANSTEY
Centre / 213cm / Melbourne Tigers

David BARLOW
Guard/205cm/Melbourne Tigers

CJ BRUTON
Guard / 188cm / Brisbane Bullets

Wade HELLIWELL
Centre / 213cm / Nuova Sebastiani (Ita.)

Joe INGLES
Guard / 203cm / South Dragon s

Luke KENDALL
Guard / 193cm / Sydney Kings

Patrick MILLS
Guard / 181cm / St. Mary's College Gaels (USA)

Brad NEWLEY
Guard / 198cm / Panionios (Greece)

Andrew OGILVY
Centre / 210cm / Vanderbilt U Commodores (USA)

Shawn REDHAGE
Forward / 203cm / Perth Wildcats

Glen SAVILLE
Guard / 197cm / Sydney Kings

Mark WORTHINGTON
Forward / 202cm / Sydney



Head Coach: Brian GOORJIAN





NEW ZEALAND

(name, position, height, last club played with)


Lindsay TAIT
Guard / 194cm / Wellington Saints



Mike FITCHETT
Guard / 183cm / Nelson Giants

Mika VUKONA
Forward / 198cm / Harbour Heat

Jeremy KENCH
Guard / 186cm / Canterbury Rams

Paora WINITANA
Guard / 195cm / Bay Hawks

Corey WEBSTER
Guard / 189cm / NZ Breakers (Australia)

Pero CAMERON
Forward / 198cm / Waikato Pistons

Alex PLEDGER
Centre / 213cm / University of Missouri KC (USA)

Casey FRANK
Forward / 203cm / Auckland Stars

Craig BRADSHAW
Centre / 207cm / Efes Pilsen (Turkey)

Ben HILL
Forward / 196cm / Waikato Pistons

Nick HORVATH
Centre / 208cm / Wellington Saints



Head Coach: Nenad VUCINIC

[donmar]

I live in New Zealand and with that I have to support the Tall Blacks... but I got a feeling its gonna be a series tied...

[mvblair]

I like both teams, but Australia is a lot more powerful, even without Bogut and Anderson. New Zealand will play well, but I predict victories for the Boomers.

[RetiredJordanStopper]

i didnt see Nathan Jawaii's name in the line-up. What's up with him, is he even invited to join the Boomers in this series and in Beijing? or is he just busy prepping for the NBA draft?

[Saskibaloia]

i didnt see Nathan Jawaii's name in the line-up. What's up with him, is he even invited to join the Boomers in this series and in Beijing? or is he just busy prepping for the NBA draft?


He is definitely invited to join the Boomers however, due to his decision to attend workouts, summer league games and other NBA activities jeopardises his chances of playing for the Boomers.

However, Coach Goorjian is more than happy that the big fella takes this route rather than to report to the Boomers camp because Goorjian definitely knows that this is a huge opportunity for his future as well as the Boomers because if this young fella is able to secure a contract and continously play in any NBA team even if he is only practising it will increase his chances of playing in the Boomers squad in the future because for Goorjian practising or being a bench warmer for an NBA club is definitely a better option than to be averaging 22ppg and 15 rpg in the Australian league. In addition the big fella has many more years to play for the Boomers but this chance of being drafted (especially in the first round) is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

[Saskibaloia]

nbl.com.au


Boomers down Tall Blacks
Fri, 27 Jun 2008 8:44 AM
Source: Adrian Warren - AAP



Australia coach Brian Goorjian praised his young guns and believed the Boomers were improving despite being exposed in some areas in their 75-60 victory over New Zealand in Auckland.

Goorjian called a timeout inside the first two minutes after Australia trailed 2-0, but the visitors quickly grabbed the initiative.

Sparked by eight straight points from veteran centre Chris Anstey, who finished with 13, and some suffocating defence, Australia bolted to a 26-9 quartertime lead.

Although New Zealand outscored Australia from there, the Boomers never looked like losing the game.

New Zealand enjoyed some success when they switched to a zone defence and cut the deficit to eight early in the final quarter.

Young Boomers point guard Patrick Mills effectively settled the issue with three three-pointers.

Mills (14 points), forward Shawn Redhage (13) and Joe Ingles (9) helped Australia to a massive 42-16 advantage in bench scoring.

Goorjian, who hopes to settle on his final Olympic squad of 12 plus alternates following Saturday's return match against the Tall Blacks in Melbourne, felt the performance represented an improvement on the series sweep of Iran last week.

“It was good to win a game on the road, it was a step forward from the Iran games,” Goorjian said.

“We got tested in the half-court more than we did in the Iran series and we did a better job tonight in that area."

“Again we got exposed in a few areas. We haven't done much against the zone and they zoned us a lot and got back into the game, so that's an area we need to address and get better at."

“But all in all, it was a good team performance. We played real hard again at the defensive end of the floor and our trapping defence did work for us.”

Goorjian said while there had been a lot of talk about New Zealand's youth, he felt his own crop of youngsters brought a lot of energy to the game.

“We've got a lot of young players that are exciting, we got great contributions from those guys consistently during the game and I felt very comfortable going to the bench during the game.”

Both Goorjian and starting point guard CJ Bruton praised Mills for his contribution.

Point guard Lindsay Tait hit a game-high 16 for New Zealand, but was the Tall Blacks' only double-digit scorer.

Australia shot 46 per cent from the field to New Zealand's 39 per cent.

New Zealand coach Nenad Vucinic said he was very happy with his team's commitment.

“I'm very happy that the boys haven't really collapsed and stuck with it,” he said.

“To play against a defence like the one Australia had on it's very difficult to actually get into the offence let alone get something out of it.”

The final match of the 2008 Ramsay Shield will be played at The Cage in Melbourne on Saturday afternoon.

The Boomers depart for Europe on Sunday where they will play a three game series against Croatia in Croatia and contest games against Greece and Brazil in Athens.

Starters:
AUS: Anstey, Worthington, Barlow, Newley, Bruton
NZ: Bradshaw, Cameron, Vukona, Winitana, Tait

Quarter by quarter:
1. AUS 26 NZL 9
H: AUS 38 NZL 26 (12-17)
3: AUS 53 NZL 41 (15-15)
F: AUS 75 NZL 60 (22

AUSTRALIA 75 - Patrick Mills 14, Chris Anstey 13, Shawn Redhage 13 bt
NEW ZEALAND 60 - Lindsay Tait 16, Craig Bradshaw 9, Paora Winitana 8


A nice convincing win for the Aussies!!!

[donmar]

Not a bad win for the Aussies indeed...

[NZTallblacks]

Tough match mate,we'll get back at them!

[donmar]

Tough match mate,we'll get back at them!

Yeah I know... never say die! :D

[kajacko]

the tv hype about the webster kid was so over the top. player of the game according to the NZ commentary. total joke. Tait was by far the best for NZ. And as for the commentators saying that webster was outshining Pat mills. Laughable.

[Saskibaloia]

NBL.com.au




Boomers sweep Tall Blacks
Sat, 28 Jun 2008 7:52 PM
Basketball Australia



Australia defeated New Zealand 94-57 at the State Netball Hockey Centre in Melbourne on Saturday and retained the annual trans-Tasman Ramsay Shield two games to nil.

Mark Worthington came alive in the second half and connected on 5-of-6 three-pointers to score a game-high 18 points.

Melbourne Tigers forward David Barlow paced the Boomers early and finished with 17 points while Perth Wildcat Shawn Redhage contributed 13 points in the 37-point victory.

Following a three-game sweep of Iran last week, the Boomers have now won five straight international matches and will depart for a European tour on Sunday on a high.

With Europe-based stars David Andersen and Matthew Nielsen joining the Boomers in Croatia, it is expected that head coach Brian Goorjian will release two or three players from duty before departure.

NBA star Andrew Bogut will return to the team at a training camp on the Gold Coast in mid July.

New South Dragons recruit Mika Vukona nailed a three-pointer and followed it with a reverse lay-up to give the Tall Blacks an early 5-0 lead before David Barlow swished a jump shot to get the Boomers on the board.

Tall Blacks captain Pero Cameron finished an old-fashioned three-point play and after Australia came up empty again, Lindsay Tait emulated his skipper to give New Zealand an unlikely 11-2 lead after four minutes.

Patrick Mills came off the bench and immediately energised the Boomers but when Tall Blacks reserve point guard Mike Fitchett nailed a three-pointer from one step inside the half way line to beat the shot clock the momentum swung back to New Zealand.

The Tall Blacks won the first stanza 16-13 but two minutes into the second Brad Newley threw down a thunderous two-handed dunk that supercharged the Boomers and sent them on a 20-5 run.

Australia’s extended defence confounded the Kiwis and as they struggled to get the ball across halfway the Boomers continued to score on lay ups and open shots that propelled them into the main break ahead by twenty-two points, 46-24.

Mark Worthington was on fire after the break, connecting on three 3-pointers in quick succession to turn back the covers on New Zealand’s night and when the third quarter buzzer sounded the Boomers were up by thirty-two, 70-46.

Australia cruised to victory in the final quarter, with Joe Ingles throwing down a sweet alley-oop in the final minutes to put the Tall Blacks to bed for good.

Starters:
AUS: Anstey, Worthington, Barlow, Newley, Bruton
NZL: Bradshaw, Cameron, Vukona, Winitana, Tait

Quarter by quarter:
1. NZL 16 AUS 13
H. AUS 46 NZL 24 (33-8)
3. AUS 70 NZL 38 (24-14)
F. AUS 94 NZL 57 (24-19)

AUSTRALIA 94 – Mark Worthington 18, David Barlow 17, Shawn Redhage 13 bt
NEW ZEALAND 57 – Lindsay Tait 14, Pero Cameron 9, Ben Hill 6
at State Netball Hockey Centre

[donmar]

That is one big thrashing!.... tsk tsk tsk....

[geeup]

If anyone has this dunk from Game 2 could they please post the clip on youtube? Thanks.

http://www.basketball.net.au/_uploads/img/1_90800m.jpg