Under 17 World Cup An Eye Opener

What happened at the FIBA Under 17’s World Cup?? As I am sure many of you did, I really had high hopes for this squad going into the tournament. In my eyes, much of this squad has NCAA Division 1 potential but yet the team fell well short of ever pushing the powerhouses of world basketball, now why was this?

What we quickly learned was that these teams were easily able to identify and exploit our weaknesses. We often lacked elite athleticism and size, with many of our wings being 6 ft 5 and shorter compared to the powerhouses who at seventeen already had genuine size with several 6 ft 6 and taller players.

This lack of athleticism and length became most apparent on the defensive side as the larger opposition where able to either easily blow by our players or rise above them. To go along with this our turnover rate was far too high! You could again put this down to the athleticism of the opposition defenders, who could easily guard our much shorter players, their length made it very difficult to get a shot off especially in the paint.

Although I wasn’t over the moon with much of our play there were still plenty of exciting moments and players who on occasions shone brightly on the big stage.

Mitchell Dance showed that his offensive game can transition to the next level, with his ability to absorb contact, knock down open shots and a surprising ability score effectively down low against much larger opponents. When Dance’s game all comes together as it did in NZ’s match against Serbia he can look as good as anyone out there. The one area of Mitchell’s game I think he could still really improve is his shot selection, too often he was happy to drive into the crowded paint which either forced a difficult pass or to lose the handle trying to navigate to the rim. Overall thou it was an excellent tournament for the young man.

Anzac Rissetto was pleasantly surprising, he proved he can rebound with the best of them finishing in the top 10 rebounders of the tournament. This really excited me as this is one key piece of the puzzle needed to be an effective modern-day center. Not just in the NBA but in college as well the center position continues to evolve, the days of needing to be seven foot have long gone and now it’s more about the center’s ability to rim run, guard on the perimeter, lock down the interior and rebound. These are traits that have seen many players under seven foot such as Jordan Bell, Montrezl Harrell, and Al Horford, excel due to their athleticism and ability to play an up-tempo offense. Fingers crossed that if Anzac continues to evolve and develop his shot blocking abilities he could begin to emulate these players.

Shalom Broughton once again put me at ease seeing that the future of NZ basketball is bright with talent like him coming through. Shalom is still only 16 but proved throughout the tournament that he is already competing with the best of them and should be looked at as a key building block. Shalom was our third most efficient performer throughout the tournament and although he was 8th in minutes played he finished the tournament as a top 5 performer for New Zealand in points per game, rebounds per game, steals per game and with the highest field goal percentage and did I mention he is still only 16! Now there is still plenty to work on, I would love to see him stretch the floor a bit more and as with many young players, limit his turnovers but for where he is at 16 I am definitely impressed.

Now I am not saying at all that the others don’t have a chance, I still believe several of them are D1 quality players but what it did make clear is that there is still plenty of room for improvement, which is actually exciting. I overall think this was a very valuable experience, giving these players the chance to compete against world-class class talent and compare their abilities would have been a big eye-opener for many. I now look forward to watching these players return to their school sides to continue their development.