Ferns Assistants Named

New Zealand Tall Ferns head coach Shawn Dennis likes who he has flanking him on the sideline this season.

Basketball New Zealand has confirmed a pair of former video technicians, Kennedy Hamilton and Aik Ho, as Dennis’ Tall Ferns assistant coaches for the FIBA Oceania Championship for Women in August.

“The good thing about both of them is that they have previous involvement in the Tall Ferns programme,” said Dennis, who took over from Mike McHugh as national women’s head coach in May.

“It’s a good mixture. Aik brings a very enthusiastic, energetic person to the floor. He’d do anything for the girls.

“Kennedy brings an intelligence to the game and does it in an understated way, which I think will really work well with the team. And his experience going to the Olympic Games last year is going to be good for us.”

Hamilton, who has just completed a coaching stint with the Albury Wodonga Lady Bandits in the South East Australia Basketball League (SEABL), was the Tall Ferns video technician in 2008, including the Beijing Olympics, and also served as assistant coach with the Christchurch Sirens.

Ho was the Tall Ferns video technician in 2006, including the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

Dennis and Ho previously worked together that year, when Dennis was the Tall Ferns assistant, also teaming-up as head coach and assistant coach with the national U21 women’s team.

“They bring good continuity,” Dennis said. “both are very astute and hard-working, which is good because when you go into a camp and series situation, you need guys that are willing to do the hard work . . . as coaches you don’t get much sleep because you’re trying to get the best information you can to the players.”

Hamilton coached the Lady Bandits to an 11-9 record in his first SEABL season, getting knocked out in the quarterfinals on Saturday, while Ho took the Waikatere City/New Plymouth team to fifth at the BBNZ U21 National Championships in May.

BBNZ national teams coordinator Natalie Tong was also confirmed as the Tall Ferns manager and Karen Sutton as physio.

A Tall Ferns squad for a week-long camp in Napier, starting August 23, and details of the team’s 2009 programme will be announced on Thursday.

Tall Ferns Coaching and Team Staff

Head coach: Shawn Dennis

Assistant coach: Kennedy Hamilton

Assistant coach: Aik Ho

Manager: Natalie Tong

Physio: Karen Sutton

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Olympians Back For T-Ferns

Six 2008 Beijing Olympians have been named in a young New Zealand Tall Ferns training squad, confirmed by Basketball New Zealand on Thursday.

Suzie Bates, Jillian Harmon, Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe, Angela Marino, Natalie Purcell and Lisa Wallbutton have been included in first-year coach Shawn Dennis’ squad of 16 to prepare for the FIBA Oceania Championship for Women later this month.

The Ferns squad, with an average age of 21, will assemble on Sunday, August 23 for a week-long camp in Napier, before taking on the defending world champion Australia Opals in two games.

“The great thing about this team is its youth,” said Dennis, who will be assisted by Kennedy Hamilton and Aik Ho.

“You look at these Olympians and most of them are only 21, 22, 23, so they’re just coming into their prime. They’re still young. Angela Marino has played at two Olympics and someone like Jillian Harmon has just come off a very successful college career, playing at a high level in the Pac-10 conference.”

Unavailable due to retirement, injury or personal reasons were Beijing Olympics captain Aneka Kerr, Noni Wharemate, Charmian Purcell, Jess McCormack, Micaela Cocks and Clare Bodensteiner.

“I think, particularly with the retirement of Aneka Kerr, and Charmian Purcell and Noni Wharemate not being available either, it takes away a lot of experience,” Dennis said.

“It’s a new era dawning on the Tall Ferns. We really have to start looking forward to London 2012 now. It’s going to be a young team and it’s going to be enthusiastic.

“After the Olympics last year there was a bit of a downer, so this is a chance to freshen up and look forward.”

Harmon graduated from Stanford University this year, where she averaged 9.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists as the Cardinal reached the Final Four of the NCAA Women’s Tournament for a second straight season.

Marino, Purcell and McMeeken-Ruscoe all competed in the Australia Women’s National Basketball League last summer, while Wallbutton played in Belgium and more recently with Albury Wodonga in the South East Australia Basketball League, where Hamilton was head coach.

Bates has recently returned to basketball, turning out for the Otago Gold Rush in the Women’s Basketball Championship (WBC), after playing in the New Zealand women’s cricket team at the ICC one-day and Twenty20 world cups.

Also named in the squad was former Tall Fern Toni Edmondson, the last player cut before the Beijing Olympics; Kim Barnes, based at UC-Irvine in California; and Natalie Moore, Chelsea Terei and Georgina Richards, all former Christchurch Sirens squad members.

The best talent from the WBC, NZ Women’s Academy and age-group tournaments fill out the rest of the squad – Harbour’s Pip Connell and Natasha Hall, Canterbury’s Erin Rooney, Taranaki’s Zoe Kensington and Otago’s Samara Gallaher. Hall and Gallaher are both 17.

The Tall Ferns team to compete in the two-game FIBA Oceania Championship, in Porirua on Monday, August 31 and Canberra on Wednesday, August 2 will be selected at the conclusion of the training camp.

New Zealand Tall Ferns Squad

Kim Barnes (UC-Irvine), Suzie Bates (Otago), Pip Connell (Harbour), Toni Edmondson (Albury Wodonga), Samara Gallaher (Otago), Natasha Hall (Harbour), Jillian Harmon (Stanford University), Zoe Kensington (Taranaki), Angela Marino (Adelaide Lightning), Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe (Townsville Fire), Natalie Moore (Taranaki), Natalie Purcell (Logan Thunder), Georgina Richards (Canterbury), Erin Rooney (Canterbury), Chelsea Terei (Harbour), Lisa Wallbutton (Albury Wodonga)

Coaching & Team Staff
Head coach: Shawn Dennis

Assistant coach: Kennedy Hamilton

Assistant coach: Aik Ho

Manager: Natalie Tong

Physio: Karen Sutton

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Tall Ferns to Play Japan

The New Zealand Tall Ferns will warm-up for the FIBA Oceania Championship series later this month with three games in four days on home hardwood against Japan.

The Tall Ferns, guided by first-year coach Shawn Dennis, assemble on Sunday in Napier for a training camp that will include two closed scrimmages and a full international against touring Japan next week.

New Zealand face the defending world champion Australian Opals in a two-game Oceania series starting Monday, August 31 at Porirua’s Te Rauparaha Arena.

The Tall Ferns and Japan will meet at Pettigrew.Green Arena, near Napier, on Thursday, August 27, tip-off 7pm, in a full international, and will also play scrimmages on Wednesday, August 26 in Napier and Saturday, August 29 in Porirua.

“It’s really important because we don’t have the budget of other bigger nations, so it’s always great to get international competition in New Zealand,” said Dennis, who has coached the Bay Hawks men’s National Basketball League team in Napier the last six seasons.

“To have the opportunity to expose our players to international teams is hugely beneficial to the future of the Tall Ferns.”

Japan, playing in the Asia zone, is ranked number 14 in the world, one spot ahead of the New Zealand programme, which gained a place in July, as Serbia dropped rankings points following the FIBA U19 World Championship in Thailand.

Japan has made the semifinals at the last two FIBA Asia championships, and in recent world tournaments finished 10th at the Athens Olympics, after losing in group play to the Tall Ferns, and finished 13th at the 2002 FIBA World Championship.

Tickets for the Thursday night test match in Napier, ranging from $10 for adults and $5 for children, will be available from Pettigrew.Green Arena.

“We’re hoping to get a crowd of 1800-2000 to our game next week,” Dennis said. “The Hawke’s Bay is really getting behind it – the schools, the arena and the local businesses, they’re really helping us put together a quality camp for the girls.”

Dennis has named a fresh training squad with an average age of 21, limited by a number of unavailabilities from the Beijing Olympics team 12 months ago, for the camp.

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Internationals Live On SKY

Basketball fans will see the New Zealand senior men’s and women’s teams live later this month during the FIBA Oceania Championships, with Basketball New Zealand and SKY Sport confirming a partnership.

The Tall Blacks game two meeting with the Australia Boomers on Tuesday, August 25 from Wellington’s TSB Bank Arena will be the first basketball game in New Zealand broadcast in high definition.

Game one of the FIBA Oceania Championship for Men from the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre on Sunday, August 23 will be screened live at 8pm, followed two nights later by the New Zealand leg of the two-game series, with coverage from 7pm on Sky Sport 2.

The Tall Ferns open the FIBA Oceania Championship for Women against the Australia Opals from Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua on Monday, August 31, with coverage from 7pm. Game two will be broadcast from AIS Arena in Canberra at 9pm on Wednesday, September 2.

“It’s great to have international basketball back on SKY Sport and having the Tall Blacks-Boomers game broadcast in HD will add another element to the audience’s viewing experience,” said BBNZ national teams general manager Grant Chapman.

“The recent FIBA U19 World Championship on SKY has hopefully whetted viewers’ appetites for international basketball. Our Tall Blacks will be playing for a better seeding at next year’s world championship while our Tall Ferns will be attempting to upset the defending world champion Opals for a place at the 2010 tournament.”

Dennis Katsanos will host SKY’s coverage of the New Zealand games, with Dan Hennessey, former Tall Blacks centre Ed Book and former Boomers forward Tony Ronaldson handling the commentary duties.

Broadcasts and commentary for the games in Sydney and Canberra will originate from Fox Sports Australia.

SKY Sport was the broadcaster for the two-game Al Ramsay Shield series between the Tall Blacks and Boomers in 2008, showing both games live, and in 2009 has also screened the National Basketball League playoffs and 23 games from July’s FIBA U19 World Championship in Auckland.

“SKY is pleased to be broadcasting the Tall Blacks vs Boomers game in high definition,” said Kevin Cameron, SKY Television’s director of sport.

“This is the first basketball game in New Zealand to be broadcast in high definition and adds to the increasingly high number of sporting events that are now broadcast in high definition to MY SKY HDi subscribers.”

FIBA Oceania Championship for Men

Game One

Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre, Sydney
Live on Sky Sport, 8pm

Game Two

TSB Bank Arena, Wellington
Live on Sky Sport 2, 7pm (HD)

FIBA Oceania Championship for Women

Game One

Te Rauparaha Arena, Porirua
Live on Sky Sport, 7pm

Game Two

AIS Arena, Canberra
Live on Sky Sport, 9pm

* All in NZ times