Timmins selected in Tall Blacks' pre-World Cup squad

Following an intense four-day training camp in Auckland, Tall Blacks head coach Pero Cameron and his coaching staff have selected a squad of 14 athletes, including Sydney's Sam Timmins, to travel to Japan, Germany and China in advance of the FIBA World Cup; held in the Philippines from August 25 – September 10, 2023.

Joining Timmins in the extended 14-man Tall Blacks squad are Dan Fotu, Finn Delany, Flynn Cameron, Hyrum Harris, Isaac Fotu, Izayah Le’Afa, Jordan Ngatai, Reuben Te Rangi, Shea Ili, Taylor Britt, Tohi Smith-Milner, Walter Brown and Yanni Wetzell.

The camp saw 18 players put through their paces by the coaching staff from Tuesday through Saturday, with trainings held both at Auckland’s Dilworth Senior Campus and the NZ Breakers facility on the North Shore.

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With Ethan Rusbatch (injury), Corey Webster (personal reasons) and brother Tai Webster (personal reasons) all late scratches from the camp, a trio of training-only replacements were bought in; Julius Halaifonua (NBA Academy), Charlie Dalton (Auckland Tuatara) and Isaac Davidson (Franklin Bulls).

Coach Cameron says that he is pleased with what he’s seen in camp over the past several days.

“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 said.

“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 plusses 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.”

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Cameron says that while it’s never easy for players to miss out on selection, he is extremely happy with the group that he and his staff have assembled for this tour.

“We’ve chosen our squad of 14 based on a lot of different reasons and merits and we feel this is the best group going forward. It’s been tough for sure, but from the start we knew a couple [of players] wouldn’t make the final cut, it is what it is and everyone here knows how it works," he said.

“Our focus is always to take things a day at a time, we’ve got more trainings to get through and then we play Japan twice [August 2 and 4], so we’re primarily looking ahead to these games. It’s all about trying to get a baseline of performance, a standard we want to meet – and then we’ll go from there.”

All but one of the 14 chosen athletes have appeared for the Tall Blacks across either the World Cup Qualifier games or the 2022 FIBA Asia Cup; Wetzell the lone exception as he looks to make his senior Tall Blacks debut.

Five of these players on this list – Delany, Isaac Fotu, Ngatai, Ili, Smith-Milner – have played in prior World Cups; all five appeared at the 2019 World Cup in China, where New Zealand led the entire competition with 99.4 PPG (points per game) for the first time ever.

The Tall Blacks squad of 14 are now in Japan, where they will take on the Japan national team in a pair of friendly games on August 2-4.

Following this, the squad departs to Istanbul, Turkey for more training, before heading to the FIBA SuperCup in Germany on August 12 for games against Canada and either China or Germany.

The team then heads to China to take part in the FIBA Solidarity Cup on August 18, facing China and Italy in this inaugural competition.

Once this tournament is finished, a final Tall Blacks squad of 12 will be selected for the FIBA World Cup in the Philippines, prior to the team’s first game on 27 August in the Philippines – shown live and free on TVNZ.