Tall Blacks ’smacked’: what went wrong?
by Niko Kloeten 
It’s one of those questions no one wants to have to answer: what went wrong?
After losing the first two games of the Oceania Olympic qualifying series to the Australian Boomers, the Tall Blacks have to ask themselves exactly that.
While the first game was relatively close, the second game was a blowout, with the Boomers winning 93-67.
How did the gap between our teams, which had narrowed in recent years, suddenly become a chasm again?
I’ll look at where it went wrong in game two.
Scoring
Besides Kirk Penney, none on the Tall Blacks were even close to being able to put the ball in the hoop consistently.
Phill Jones tossed bricks, Pero Cameron was dominant but only for brief stretches and Craig Bradshaw had his moments but mostly looked bewildered.
This allowed the Aussies to harass Penney, and although he had 21 points, he also turned the ball over seven times.
Turnovers
You had to feel for Penney, but he wasn’t the only culprit: the Tall Blacks had 20 turnovers in the game.
Just about everyone had a turn at throwing the ball away to the Boomers.
On one play Casey Frank missed both his free throws, redeemed himself by getting two offensive rebounds, then wasted his good effort with a travelling violation.
But perhaps the biggest surprise was Mark Dickel, who at one stage threw the ball away three times in a row.
It’s clear he wasn’t 100 per cent because he never normally does that.
Free throw shooting
At this level there is no excuse for poor free throw shooting.
At half time the Tall Blacks had only made four of 13 freebies, while the Boomers had converted 10 of their 12.
We could have been ahead by eight or nine points at the half time break if we’d shot better from the line, and the game could have been a whole lot different.
Worst of all, it was people like Jones, Cameron and Penney who were missing them, guys who can normally make free throws in their sleep.
That’s enough complaining for now.
In my next blog I’ll look at some creative ways to improve the Tall Blacks squad in time for the 2010 world champs.