The Tall Blacks got their World Cup qualifying campaign off to a rocky start on Thursday night with a sloppy 86-80 defeat in Wellington against South Korea. It was a game they should’ve won and they didn’t. Things were then much better in Hong Kong in the early hours of Monday morning as the TB’s romped to a 133-74 victory… a hundred and thirty three points in 40 minute game!? Yo, that one was wild.

It’s been odd getting international basketball in the middle of the Breakers season. Odd but pretty exciting as the Tall Blacks finally get to play some meaningful games outside of major tournaments and double headers against Australia. That’s thanks to this World Cup cycle absorbing Oceania into the Asian qualifying process, as is the new standard. Not the best for World Cup qualifying as before all the kiwi team had to do was turn up against Australia, with two spots open for Oceania, but it should still be a done thing. 16 teams are gunning for six qualifying spots. Four groups of four supply three qualifiers to two secondary groups of six, with the top three going through and the two fourth-placed finishers playing off to get the bonus seventh spot supposing hosts China finish among the six automatics (which they should).

New Zealand made the semis of the Asia Cup earlier in the year despite resting damn near most of their first choice squad, so getting into that top six (seven) should be the minimum expectation. Amidst that they’ll also get some valuable experience playing in competitive games as a team and also getting some practice playing in China before the World Cup proper in 2019.

By the way, if you’re a trainspotter then you’ll have noticed that the last World Cup was in 2014, the next is in 2019. Five years out? Yeah, that’s to separate it from the football World Cup in 2018; the four year cycle will continue from 2019. Also, because of the new timing the World Cup’s gonna happen the year before the Olympics so this’ll also double as qualifying for that event meaning that to get to the Olympics, the Tall Blacks either have to finish better than Australia at the World Cup or go through a wildcard tournament for the last four spots. There will be 12 teams competing at the 2020 Olympics, while the World Cup is expanding to 32 teams in 2019. They’re shaking this sucker up, baby.

So let’s talk Tall Blacks then. Losing to South Korea was not the ideal start to things. In fact it was rather infuriating. They looked exactly like a team that had only had a couple proper training sessions together, like a team with players that’d flown halfway around the world for this thing. That’s exactly what they were… but still.

Corey Webster was hitting shots early on, Tai Webster and Shea Ili also got on runs later on in the contest. Yet for most of this thing the kiwis looked flat. Defensively more than anything, as the quick guards for Korea were able to get around screens and pick their spots time after time. That meant open three point shooters and big fellas with simple layups. Choi Jun-yong had seven assists off the bench, starting swingman Lee Jung-hyun added another five. Then there was that Jeon Jun-beom lad dropping 6/8 from deep and… ouch.

There was some pretty stuff in there, although you still got the feeling that the Tall Blacks were always a run away from getting back on top here. Yet… it never came. Corey Webster only scored three points in the second half. Foul trouble limited Mika Vukona’s effectiveness. Rotations were understandably raw with a lot of similar players to ease in – Tom Abercrombie only took six shots in 26 minutes and that ain’t acceptable.

And Korea are too good to let you get away with an off night, especially when they’re shooting like that. 10/21 from the outside and a smooth 50% overall, with 27 assists to only 14 for New Zealand. Jeon top scored with 22 points while Corey W had 16 for NZ and his brother Tai had 14p/5r/5a. Isaac Fotu and Shea Ili each scored 10.

Frankly South Korea looked like a unit. Aotearoa did not. It shouldn’t come as a surprise after South Korea beat New Zealand twice at the Asia Cup earlier in the year, including in the 3rd/4th playoff. Bit of a bugger as while it won’t change things in terms of making the next round, you do carry your points over so they can’t fully escape this one.

What they could do instead was move on swiftly and give Hong Kong a good pasting and that’s exactly what they did. China had beaten them 96–44 a few days earlier so you already knew that Hong Kong were the leaky ones in this group. That didn’t look entirely true early on as the two sides traded hoops but Hong Kong couldn’t sustain that while the Tall Blacks just never slowed down. Like, seriously. Hotter than Christmas shootarounds with the Webster clan.

Funny thing is though, it wasn’t them doing the damage. Reuben Te Rangi must love leading a good haka because he just strolled in midway through the first quarter in Hong Kong and hit three triples in the frame to help bust things open. There’s something about that dude in a Tall Blacks jersey, aye? There’s also something about a game in which even RTR cannot miss (dude was balling with three steals and a block too).

It’s not like the New Zealanders went out there and tossed up threes for fun either. They earned those looks by getting Isaac Fotu involved around the hoop (14 pts & 4 reb). They moved the ball with ease and precision to find the open shooter, that unselfish attitude evident in the 34 assists and seven different scorers in double figures. Hong Kong didn’t have the size, to be honest. They had nobody that could match up with Fotu and their main point guard, Lee Ki, is 5’11 and he looked even smaller. Fair play to him, he may not be the most skilled guard out there but he played his goddamn heart out, love watching a bit of that in any circumstance.

But yeah, this was never to be the most competitive game and with NZ scoring 36 points in the first, 35 in the second, 35 in the third and a cool 27 in the fourth they cruised to this one. Kinda fascinating to see how smooth they made this blowout win. 68% shooting from the field despite all 12 players getting significant playing time – Corey Webster’s 13:01 on the court made him the least used bloke on the roster here and yet he still scored 12 points, shooting 4/5 from deep. That’s, erm, efficient.

Take a look at this scoring progression, if you want a simple summary. The lead got as high as 59 points.

Every player took at least three shots, every player scored at least six points. Jordan Ngatai scored 18 to lead all scorers. Alex Pledger was a perfect 6/6 with a few slick layups in there. Five rebounds for Pledge as well. Tai Webster only scored 6 points on 2/5 shooting but his 9 assists were quality, really dictating the pace of this thing. Gotta save some criticism for Tohi Smith-Milner though, who had a team-worth +19 on-court differential. Only +19!? Come on, bro. Sort it out. Issac Fotu was +33 for the best in show.

20 of 32 shooting from deep, including 12 of their first 16. 68% from the field for the game after 73% in the first half (27/37). 43 rebounds to 24. 34 assists to 14. 52 points in the paint. 81 points off the bench. It was only against Hong Kong… but at least we got some curious stats out of it.

The next round of qualifiers is when things’ll get interesting. It’s not until late-February but the Tall Blacks will travel to both China and South Korea – their two toughest games in a row. China went and beat Korea away in their second game to take control of this group and, again, with points being carried over those two games could be critical if they don’t wanna leave all their qualifying work to do until late in the journey.

Smack an ad if you got something out of that, then you’ll be giving the big thumbs up to the TNC revolution. You ain’t gotta stand for crap kiwi sports (/music) media no more, chief.