Boomers, Tall Blacks name teams for Oceania Championships

The final rosters of the Australian and New Zealand men's teams were submitted following the technical meeting held in Auckland New Zealand ahead of the tournament tip-off tomorrow evening.

New Zealand Tall Black coach Tab Baldwin has gone with the team he took last week to Australia in the four nations tournament culminating in the Gaze Cup. During that tournament as well as matching up with the Aussies the Tall Blacks were able to try out some combinations against national teams from China and Lithuania.

Baldwin's team includes a nucleus of players who he has now worked with through a World Championship and Olympic Games campaign. Mark Dickel, Kirk Penney, Phil Jones, Dillon Boucher, Pero Cameron and Ed Book are all familiar with the demands of international competition and coach Baldwin will be looking for them to deliver under pressure. At the same time the Tall Blacks have discovered some emerging talent in Aaron Olsen, Mike Homik, Lindsay Tait, Mika Vukona and Craig Bradshaw, who in the series in Australia showed they are ready for any chance the coach will give them. In an 86 to 77 win over Lithuania last week Olsen contributed 15 points behind a game high of 22 from Pero Cameron, indicating he is a scoring threat. In a 74 to 84 loss to the Australians earlier in the series Kirk Penney scored 25 and as usual guard Phil Jones reached double figures.

Australia have arrived in New Zealand with a 12 man roster not very different from that which won the Gaze Cup last weekend in the four nations cup in Australia. This is a relatively new look Australian side. Only CJ Bruton, Jason Smith, Glen Saville, David Adndersen and Matt Neilsen remain from the team which represented Australia in Athens last year. Some exciting new talent in the form of Jacob Holmes, Brad Newley, Alex Loughton and Mark Worthington have been added to the Boomers line-up, while more experienced players Pero Vasiljevic, Brad Davidson & Wade Helliwell have relished the call-up to national duties. For a full line-up of the two teams go to the event website and click on the event website http://www.sportingpulse.com.au/assoc_page.cgi?assoc=3161&pID=2 and click on "view clubs on the LHS menu .