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*** OCEANIA CHAMPIONSHIPS U20 MEN ***
Check
also Oceanic Championships U20 for Women
 | All-Stars: U20 Australian Nationals draw | |
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| |  | The 2006 FIBA Oceania All-Stars will participate in the U20 Australian Nationals Tournament in Perth. The best players of the FIBA Oceania Youth Tournament will play against the best U20 players from the australians states.
“FIBA Oceania introduced it's Oceania Development Plan in 1995, and the last 10 years has seen basketball improve in participation numbers, skill and tactics across the Pacific zone,” said head of the All-Star delegation Judy Smith. “Without that plan, which included the employment of zone development officers and in-country national basketball development officers, we certainly would not have been able to put these teams on the floor. It is a great honour for our Pacific Island players, coaches and referees to have the opportunity to come together and to compete against Australia's best.”
The All-star teams provide a talent development pathway for the elite young basketballers of the Pacific and aims to produce future national team players.
“Our expectations are the same as any coach at such a prestigious event,” Smith said. “We have short term goals we want to achieve that include improved skill development, increased tactical knowledge of the game, greater understanding of tournament play and of course we would like to win some games. Our longer goals are to develop a love of basketball in these players so that they will become basketball ambassadors in their home countries. We want them to take back and share their new found skills and knowledge and we want them to coach kids when they retire from the courts.”
Oceania All-Star teams have toured Australia in 2001, 2003, and 2005 where they won a bronze medal at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in 2005, but have never played in the U20 national championships. The All-star teams are currently undertaking an extensive fitness and skills program.
Pool A:
Australian Capital Territory
New South Wales
Queensland
South Australia
Pool B:
Oceania All-Stars
Tasmania
Victoria
Western Australia |
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| Oceania All-Stars to play in the Australia U20 Championship! | |
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| | | In a fantastic jesture of cooperation, Basketball Australia have invited FIBA Oceania to enter their All Star teams in the Australian Under 20 years Championships in February 2007. We will cover the All-Stars games on this page.
The proposition was quickly accepted by FIBA Oceania Secretary General Steve Smith. Information sheets have been sent to all federations today for their All Star participants, outlining details of the tour. Participants will come into Melbourne around Monday 12th February 2007 for a pre-tournament training camp. The Championship will be played in Ballarat from 18th - 24th February. |
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| EXCLUSIVE Interview with Judy Smith | |
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| | | We spoke with Judy Smith, member of the FIBA Oceania board and organizer of the FIBA Oceania Youth Tournament in Auckland. We spoke about the tournament, the improvement of basketball in the region and the upcoming Oceania All-Star Tour. We would like to thank her from taking the time to do this interview.
How was your time in New Zealand?
The Youth Tournament continues to be the focal point of FIBA Oceania's Regional Development Plan. It brings together 16 national teams from across the zone to compete, learn, improve, make friends and develop basketball tradition.
What was the highlight of the tournament, on and off the court?
On the court, the fabulous improvement in standard, both from players and coaches. Perhaps the highlight for me was the overall improvement in the coaching of teams - every team had a coach who had prepared their teams well for the tournament. I was obvious that coaches had taught their players the skills and team tactics; the coaches were providing valuable feedback to their players during the games, and they had a variety of options to run in offence and defence. Improved coaching makes improved players, and because the standard of the teaching and training of the teams had improved, the standard of the play improved.
Off the court, undoubtedly the Cultural Performances. The program of cultural performances was commenced in 2004, and is now an integral part of the tournament. Each participating country performs a number of traditional songs. This year the performance was held before 150 local primary school children, who had also been involved in basketball coaching clinics with the players prior to the tournament. I think there is a belief that because the island nations are all 'in the Pacific', they have the same culture - however, these performances soon give kids from every nation the opportunity to see how different each culture is.
Did some teams really impressed you during the week?
Of course, the Australian and New Zealand teams were superior, and the success of the development programs in each of those countries was evident.
However, from the Pacific Island nations, I was most impressed with:
-The Tahitian men's team was perhaps the biggest surprise of the tournament. Under their new coach Christian Varsovie, the boys were highly skilled, very accurate shooters and played some interesting team tactics. In the round games the Tahitians scared the Australian boys, keeping the score to a 9 point difference for most of the game. Although they ended the tournament in 4th place, they had many younger players who will remain in the team for the next tournament in 2008.
-The Papua New Guinea women were also a vastly improved team. Veita Diro did a fabulous job with these girls, who had little preparation time because of the difficult transport and geography of the country.
Which players really made the greatest impression?
Soana Lucet from New Caledonia and Sera Colata from Fiji - both girls made the All Star team for the second time, and their experience, skills and manoeuvrability made them the stand out girls of the tournament. For the boys, I was pretty impressed with Joe Blas from Guam and Kevin Avvenenti from Tahiti were at their first Youth Tournament and showed skill and determination.
Fiji and New Caledonia were not very far from New Zealand in Women basketball, this should be a great thing for the Oceania region?
Yes, of course this is good for the Oceania region. New Zealand's success has come from their improved development program over the past few years, but the larger Pacific Island nations are also developing and improving. Obviously the lack of full-time staff in the Pacific Islands is the biggest hindrance to their improvement - the reliance on volunteers at the national level is an issue that we work with daily, but which each federation must address if we are to progress our sport across the zone.
The All-Stars has been selected, are they going to be on Tour like the previous all-stars teams?
Yes, the All Star team will tour Australia in January 2007. The final details of the tournaments we will play in are yet to be finalised, but we expect to play the Dandenong-Eltham tournament in Victoria & visit the Australian Institute of Sport.
Where the 2008 FIBA Oceania Youth Tournament will be host?
The FIBA Oceania Committee of Management have yet to vote on the 2008 host - but applications have been received from Guam, Fiji, American Samoa and Papua New Guinea. None of these countries have hosted the event before, so it will be interesting to see which country wins the bid. This should be determined by the end of this year.
Do you think one day this kind of tournament would be used as Oceania World qualifying tournament?
Perhaps it might, but we are not planning it that way at the moment. We see the tournament as a development tournament, with a very different focus to a qualification event.
Do you have news on the third Oceania team that would have to play in the 2008 Olympics qualifying tournament?
No, again, there needs to be discussions with our Committee of Management and with FIBA about this issue. |
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| Tournament recap & Best players | |
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| | | As expected, the host nation New Zealand won the Gold medal in the FIBA Oceania Youth Tournament. The team led by Corey Webster (180-G-88) (180-G-88) (180-G-88), David Beck (203-F) and Dion Prewster (193-G-90) easily defeated every opponents and even a great australian team made of 16-year old players was unable to stop them. Behind these giants, New Caledonia reaffirmed its stronghold on the Pacific region while Fiji and Papua New Guinea were the most disapointing teams. You can read a complete recap of each teams on the dedicated countries pages.
Australiabasket.com Awards:
Here are our All-Tournament teams, unlike the FIBA Oceania All-Stars we had players from New Zealand and Australia to make these teams more accurate.
MVP:
Corey Webster (180-G-88) NZL
All-Tournament First-Team:
Corey Webster (180-G-88) NZL
David Clarke (183-G-88) (183-G-88) NZL
Dion Prewster(193-G-90) NZL
Dwayne Radcliffe (201-F-90) (201-F-90) AUS
Mitchell Young (202-F-90) (202-F-90) AUS
New Zealander Corey Webster was a legitimate MVP and carried his team all the way to the Gold. Of course it's easy to score 35pts against teams like Guam or PNG but Webster made the same kind of game against Australia. David Clarke made a great all-aroung tournament and was close the record two quadruple-doubles during the week! Dion Prewster was the third member of this Big Three and he's the youngest of them, born in 1990, this kid might turn into something great. Two australian found their way to our First-team, Dwayne Radcliffe and Mitchell Young. They were the two more consistent australian players during the entire tournament.
All-Tournament Second-Team:
Jorden Page (177-G-90) (177-G-90) AUS
David Beck (203-F) (NZL)
Christian Salecich (190-G-90) (190-G-90) AUS
Tony Kolokimoana (197-C) (197-F) NCA
Andrew Borja (F) GUA
Jorden Page and Christian Salecich could have been a port of the First-team if you only look at the Final game but they were not at their best in some easier contest. Anyway, these guards has a lot of skills and offensive talent. David Beck was the better frontcourt player of a running New Zealand team and made the paint his own. Tony Kolokimoana was the best caledonian is the tournament and led New Caledonia to the Bronze medal. Andrew Borja displayed his great skills all week-long but was unable to lift Guam to the semifinals.
All-Tournament Third-Team:
Stephane Saminadin (175-G-86) (178-G-86) NCA
Kevin Avvenenti (F) TAH
Isikeli Mara (202-C) (202-C) FIJ
Ata Perese (185-F-87) AMS
Houston O'Riley (F) NZL
Stephane Saminadin was the caledonian floor general despite some shooting problems. Kevin Avvenenti was an amazing wing scorer for a surprising Tahiti team who reached the semifinals. Isikeli Mara is the first legitimate center from Fiji in years, he's 202cm tall and still growing. Ata Perese is not that tall but the undersized forward was one of the best player on the court anyway. Houston O'Riley closed our tournament's team thanks to his great shooting skills and ball handling.
Mentions:
Tony Wallbutton, Robert Loe, Zach Makavilitogia (NZL), James Orr, Sean Mullan, Shane Harris-Trunk (AUS), Jean-Jacques Taufana, Karyl Paillandi, Ludovic Souque (NCA), Raimoana Liu, Rahiti Teriierooiterai, Larry Teriitemataua (TAH), Joe Blas, Jude Martinez (GUA), Erwin Hussain, Jesoni Kuruyama (FIJ), Vailili Malauulu (AMS), Apia Muri, Tau Gali, Shadrach Ghabiliha (PNG)
Recap:
Powered by a devastating back-court, New Zealand went all the way to the Gold medal thanks to a dazzling offensive game. Corey Webster was unstoppable during all the week but he will have to prove he can be valuable against older players. Australia secured the Silver medal with the youngest team of all, but against other teams of the same age, this australian team would have been unstoppable. The best team when it comes to potential. New Caledonia confirmed its position of Pacific's best nation with a Bronze medal, this team was well built, well-prepared and play at its best during the important games.
Tahiti caused a nice surprise and reached the semifinals over Fiji and Guam, led by a talented forward (Avvenenti) and lot of good teamates. Guam claimed the fifth place thanks to Andrew Borja and Joe Blas but size remains a factor for the guameses and this factor couldn't be overcomed in this tournament. Fiji made a disapointing tournament and ended at the 6th place, the potential was there though with players like Erwin Hussain or Isikeli Mara. Ata Perese led American Samoa to avoid the tournament last place. This place goes to Papua New Guinea, a team unable to fullfilled its potential and who is showing little improvement over the years.
Final Standings:
1- New Zealand
2- Australia
3- New Caledonia
4- Tahiti
5- Guam
6- Fiji
7- American Samoa
8- Papua New Guinea |
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| Oceania All-Stars Team | |
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| | | At the conclusion of the Youth Tournament, Patrick Hunt and Zoran Radovic announced the 2006 Oceania All Star team and staff. Players from every eligible federation (all the teams except Australia and New Zealand) at the tournament were included in the teams. The players should be aged between 16 and 19 year old, that's why players like Stephane Saminadin (175-G-86), Apia Muri or Andrew Borja were not selected. We will post a recap of the tournament as well as our All-Tournament team tomorrow.
Oceania All-Stars Men:
Larry Teriitemataua (Tahiti)
Kevin Avvenenti (Tahiti)
Rahiti Teriierooiterai (Tahiti)
Vailili Malauulu (American Samoa)
Ata Perese (American Samoa)
Joe Blas (Guam)
Shadrach Ghabiliha (PNG)
Jesoni Kuruyawa (Fiji)
Isikeli Mara (202-C) (Fiji)
Ludovic Souque (New Caledonia)
Coach: Sid Guzman (Guam) |
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| The Stats Leaders | |
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| New Zealand wins the Gold! | |
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| | | New Zealand won the Gold medal game of the FIBA Oceania Youth Tournament with a 104-94 win over Australia. The MVP Corey Webster (180-G-88) led the host nation to a brilliant win, the fourth for the Kiwis in the tournament's history. We will post a complete recap of this tournament with the stats leaders and the best players in the next days.
Gold medal game:
New Zealand - Australia: 104-94
The Kiwis' win secured their fourth title in the history of the event, but not without some anxious moments after building up a 14-point lead early in the second half. But in the great tradition of Tall Black v Boomer contests, their opponents fought back. Behind some sharp play from tiny point guard Jorden Page, Australia produced a 21-6 run over the latter stages of the third quarter and the start of the fourth to finally snatch an 81-79 lead. Page seemed to wage a personal battle with New Zealand guard Corey Webster, but with three minutes still remaining and the hosts ahead just 94-88, both fouled out in the space of a few seconds. Someone else would have to decide the outcome. First Dion Prewster picked his opposite's pocket midcourt and followed through for an emphatic dunk, then point guard Houston O'Riley nailed a three-pointer with 1m 48s remaining to seal the result. Webster finished the game with 37 points (14/27 FG, 1/7 3pt, 8/9 FT) for New Zealand to reaffirm his scoring title, while Christian Salecich had 25 points (8/15 FG, 5/8 3pt, 4/6 FT) for the Aussies. Houston O'Riley helped Webster with 19pts 4/9FG 6ast while Dion Prewster added 12pts 5/11FG. On the australian side, Jorden Page recorded 15pts 4/10FG while Dwayne Radcliffe added 15pts 5/10FG 7rbs.
Final Standings:
1- New Zealand
2- Australia
3- New Caledonia
4- Tahiti
5- Guam
6- Fiji
7- American Samoa
8- Papua New Guinea |
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