Super sams’ shot at world titles
SOUTH Australia has two Sams in Australia’s squad for the Under-17 men’s world championship- Southern’s Sam Johns and Sturt’s Sam Daly.
Basketball Australia released a 16-man squad under former NBL coach Guy Molloy, which will undergoing intensive training from March 9-12 at the AIS in Canberra.
They next will be in action on a China tour in May before the world championship in Lithuania from June 29-July 8.
“I think there is still a significant amount of work to get done before the team is ready to go for an assault on the world champs, but the raw materials to work with is pretty impressive,” Molloy said.
“We’ve got a lot more length in terms of height and wing-span as physical characteristics, and associated athleticism that goes along with it, that defines this group better than we’ve had previously.
“That should let us become a lot better at the defensive end of the floor, and a team that is able to cover a lot more floor space.
“We’ve also got an ability to open up the floor offensively, so we’ll be hoping to capitalise on those things.”
Two of the better known “names” selected belong to the sons of former Melbourne Tigers’ NBL stalwarts Nigel Purchase and Dave Simmons.
Victorians Jack Purchase, (son of 250-game forward Nigel) and Ben Simmons (son of 338-game Melbourne star Dave) are two of eight Vics in the squad.
The others are Nick Dean, Matt Jackson, Michael Luxford, Geremy McKay, Christian Petracca and Felix von Hofe.
Queenslanders Josh Derksen and Cade Towers, Darcy Malone of the ACT, and Nick Duncan, Fabijan Krslovic and Gerard Martin of NSW complete the hopefuls aiming to lock down a spot in the final team.
Australia qualified for the worlds by sweeping New Zealand in the Oceania Championship in September.
“The thing about international competition that these boys have to learn is there is a big difference playing USA one night, Spain the next night, China the next night in that the things that work against one country, may not be the solution or overly successful against the next one,” Molloy said.
“I think the flexibility we have in the group to shoot the ball a bit better, have a few post-up targets and a few penetrators, I just think we have a few more tools than we’ve had in the past and hopefully that overall versatility holds us in good stead.”
Tags: Australia, China