Assistant coach Chris Lucas says the Oceania Olympic qualifying series may have come too soon for the young Tall Ferns to rattle a world-class Australia.
Australian Lucas, coach of the WNBL champion Townsville Fire, says New Zealand's average age of 23 is a sizeable impediment to overcome against an Opals team who are older, taller and ranked 20 places higher in the world rankings.
He says senior players Micaela Cocks, Lisa Wallbutton and Natalie Taylor will need to show the way if New Zealand are to threaten in the opening game at Melbourne on Saturday. The second game is in Tauranga on Monday.
"The reality is that Australia are ranked second in the world and New Zealand are ranked 22nd. There is a big gap but if we can make that gap as tight as possible it will be a great achievement," he said.
"But it is exciting for the future. The way that New Zealand plays their basketball, they will take it up to Australia, they won't stand down.
"Australia is extremely talented ... they are bigger than us, and their scoring ability is going to be strong."
New Zealand bring unimpressive form into the series. They won one of six games at the William Jones Cup tournament in Taiwan last month before being thumped 3-0 in a home series against 15th-ranked Japan.
Lucas has attended six world championships as a coach with various Australian teams, the most recent the world under-17 women's championship last year.
When overlooked by the Basketball Australia for 2015, he accepted an approach by New Zealand head coach Kennedy Kereama and has committed to the Tall Ferns for two years.
He admits it will feel strange when coaching against many of his former charges at Rod Laver Arena on Saturday.
"But that is only natural. I'm not the first Australian coach to join the New Zealand programme and I won't be the last and I see it as a big challenge but exciting at the same time."
Share
