Head coach Pero Cameron has named a 14-strong squad to play in six World Cup warmup games, with less than a month until tipoff in the Philippines.
Regular Tall Blacks players Ethan Rustbatch (injury), Corey Webster (personal reasons) and brother Tai (personal reasons) are unavailable, but Cameron is still happy with his squad that was put to work in an intensive camp in Auckland last week.
“It’s been a big week. It’s been really good energy in camp, especially from some of the newer guys. They’ve come in and just put themselves out there and given their absolute best – it’s been awesome to see,” Cameron says.
“Congratulations to the 14 who have made it through to the next part of this process. For us now it’s about making sure we can face whatever challenges pop up so we’re always good to go. There’s a lot of pluses and as always there’s a lot of work-ons too, so this next month [leading up to the World Cup] is when we can address the latter.”
Jordan Ngatai (Ngāti Toa Rangatira), Tohi Smith-Milner (Tūwharetoa), Isaac Fotu, Shea Ili and Finn Delaney are the only members of the squad with previous World Cup experience.
Tall Blacks veteran Reuben Te Rangi (Ngāpuhi), who has played more than 50 matches in the black singlet, was selected for the 2019 World Cup in China but a knee injury robbed him of an opportunity.
“I was definitely gutted to miss out on the 2019 World Cup due to injury but I was able to be part of their preparations in Sydney – and to witness the growth of the team during that time was just amazing to watch,” Te Rangi says.
“Looking forward that’s what I’m most excited about, us continuing to grow as a squad. The belief and the culture in this team is unmatched, what we stand for and what we play for. We play every single game to win but also know how to enjoy these big moments and have fun.”
Te Rangi says the competition ahead of the squad at the World Cup, where they will take on the US featuring reigning NBA Rookie of the Year Paolo Banchero and coached by Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, Greece with NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jordan in pool play, will be a mammoth challenge for players and coaches alike.
“Obviously we’re going over to win games and show the world how we play. This next month is important for us; building and working on the things we want to improve on – we’ll be playing against the best players in the world at the World Cup, so we need to be at our absolute best. It’ll an awesome test for our team that we can’t wait for it.”
The Tall Blacks squad of 14 is now in Japan, where they will take on the Japan national team in a pair of friendly games later this week before heading to Turkey for more training.
They then move to the FIBA SuperCup in Germany for games against Canada and either China or Germany, before contesting the Solidarity Cup against China and Italy.
A final Tall Blacks squad of 12 will then be selected for the World Cup.
The tour squad is: Dan Fotu, Finn Delany, Flynn Cameron, Hyrum Harris, Isaac Fotu, Izayah Le’Afa, Jordan Ngatai, Reuben Te Rangi, Sam Timmins, Shea Ili, Taylor Britt, Tohi Smith-Milner, Walter Brown and Yanni Wetzell.
