A few months ago, the Tall Ferns set out to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics. They did not make it. So can the Tall Blacks end the drought instead?

When you send a developmental squad to the regional champs, you sort of have to temper expectations. The Tall Blacks weren’t exactly at full strength at the last Asia Cup but even that squad looks like men against boys compared this one

Oh yes. That is Tall Blacks basketball right there. Two more games to determine their exact finishing position and there just so happened to be a bit on the line as well with a spot in the Olympic qualifying tournaments next year to slip into the shopping cart as well if possible.

The result wasn’t the important thing as the Tall Blacks faced Greece in their final first round game at this basketball World Cup. It was a game where the winner would advance and the loser would fall into the classification rounds but when you’re the heavy underdog coming up against the NBA MVP then you don’t have the luxury of knowing that a positive performance would equate to a positive result.

This was their chance. This was the one they could really target. Lose this and the other two wouldn’t even matter, a win and they’d keep alive any legit hopes of advancing beyond the first group stage.

So when the Tall Blacks came up against Brazil in their World Cup opener it didn’t matter how well they’d gone in their extended preparations. Those preparations are just ways of ensuring they’re at their best as they try to bridge the talent gap that already exists between them and their opponents.

Last week they polished off a couple games against Japan, this week the Tall Blacks got some very useful preparation in against the might of Canada… who may have won both but the two games served up drastically different vibes for the Tall Blacks going into the World Cup.

Dunno about you but I’m getting pretty pumped about this basketball World Cup. Most teams are amassing as we speak, getting in the final licks that they hope will give them that crucial one percent extra, with a tad over two weeks to go until the big show tips off.

We’re still two weeks away from the day that Paul Henare announces the Tall Blacks’ official World Cup squad. Before then there’s a training camp in Japan (we’re they are right now) with a couple games against their hosts to follow, then two games against Canada in Sydney… and straight after that we’ll get the final cuts to the squad.

All them trips throughout Asia and back as the Tall Blacks sought qualification for the 2019 FIBA World Cup came to their conclusion in late February with a dramatic 69-67 win away in Jordan followed by a bit of a disappointing 86-80 defeat in Jordan.

The Tall Blacks already know that they’ve just got to take care of business. They qualified first from their initial group and are sitting pretty in first in their second stage group right now too.

The Tall Blacks are one step closer to partaking in the 2019 FIBA World Cup after taking care of business in their two home qualifiers over the last few days.

It’s been 12 years since the last and only time the Commonwealth Games featured basketball as a sport. Must be something about Australia because that was the Melbourne Games in 2006 with the hoops and the Tall Blacks won a silver medal.

That’s a quality win. A really solid defensive performance outside of the best player in the game, Yi Jianlian, against a more than decent opponent and away from home to boot. Then the win over South Korea was even better.