Tai Webster was great, his shooting was fantastic and he had several strong takes to the hoop. Made several great kickouts to teammates that just didnt get finished. Good to see him cut down on the turnovers too.

Rob Loe was also impresive knocking in his shots. I can see him being a large factor for the Tall Blacks for many years to come.

Leon Henry also played well and also thought Jarod Kenney was solid. Alex Pledger had some good moments but had a couple easy shots he needed to finish around the hoop.

Mika Vukona and Lindsey Tait both really needed to step up more than they did. Vukona found it tough today, giving away the ball too much and missing most of all of his jump shots.

We gave up a few baskets to start the 3rd which didnt help the points differential.

I think Vucinic should have put either Braswell or Marcel Jones in at the natraulised spot. Frank didnt do anything and both the other 2 guys are scorers which was needed.

Overall it was a great effort by an undermaned squad. I think perhaps a coaching change may be in order.

After that Vucinic should get a medal, not the sack. What he does with this team is amazing. This tourny again shows they are a legit top 20 team, which is incredible for a country with only 10 full time players, and only 4-5 of them here.

Agree Vukona needed to hit more shots, but he was very good around the court and with his leadership, which was missing yesterday. He will just never be a reliable scorer, that's not his game.

Tait is already stepping up to play as well as he does, he was rock solid today - 5a and 1to is excellent. Getting a couple more shots to drop would have been nice, but his 5p were all down the stretch when Angola looked like they would run over the top.

The good thing is with Webster and Bartlett emerging a lot of pressure will be taken off him, because he isnt good enough to carry the point on his own.

Great win shame it wasn't enough to get them a spot at the Olympics. Tai Webster at 17 was pretty impressive shooting 83% from behind the arc.
NZ may have a strong team in the next couple of years if they can merge the old guard of Penney and Vukona with the likes of Steve Adams and Tai Webster.
Make for a much more competitive oceania series at least

Surely the whole scoring points qualification system is outdated and even below an under 16s tournament given what we know about the game in 2012.

http://london2012.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/12/olym/news/p/nid/52531/article.html

Short interview with Tai

Russia playing the best basketball at this tournament, behind Kirilenko. They should smash Angola in the quarter finals, and should take one of the spots to London. The other two spots still up for grabs. Lithuania looking shaky after their loss to Nigeria today. Greece are playing Puerto Rico now to determine first and second place in group A.

The tall blacks game against Macedonia was after the Angola win over Macedonia. Surely the coaching staff should have known points differential would come into it if they lost the first game.

Vucinic started the 1st game with Josh Bloxham who didnt even get on the court today. He also played Trueman for 19 minutes (also saw no action today). He only played Vukona 13 minutes! You can not tell me the coaching staff did everything possible to win or keep the score close.

Picking Casey Frank for his experience then only playing him 13mpg is just a bad call I think.

Agree that Tait cant carry the point on his own. He is really not a starting international pg so his numbers were okay. Just with him being one of the most experienced guys Id have liked more.

Anyway Im looking foward to a few years in the future when Adams, Loe, Pledger, Fotu, Webster, Abercrombie etc are there with Penney and Vukona. I reckon it should make for a good side.