{"id":18069,"date":"2020-11-14T10:25:57","date_gmt":"2020-11-14T00:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.draftcentral.com.au\/?p=18069"},"modified":"2020-11-14T10:25:57","modified_gmt":"2020-11-14T00:25:57","slug":"nznbl-18in18-team-preview-waikato-wizards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/nznbl-18in18-team-preview-waikato-wizards\/","title":{"rendered":"NZNBL 18IN18 team preview: Waikato Wizards"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE next team in focus is Waikato Wizards who are preparing for the upcoming New Zealand National Basketball League (NZNBL) Sal’s NBL 18IN18 competition which will see a fast paced, action packed 18 days of basketball action. Community Basketball Manager for the Wizards, Anthony Corban<\/strong><\/em> shed some light on what preparation has been like and what it means for the side to actually take the court in 2020.<\/p>\n

With a relatively new format seeing teams fly in and fly out of venues on a tight turn around, Corban has commended Basketball New Zealand\u2019s overall efforts to get the season up and running and ability to overcome the logistics to ensure a women\u2019s season became a reality rather than a dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NZ NBL and Basketball New Zealand has to be commended for making a women\u2019s NBL happen in 2020,\u201d he said. \u201cMany thought it was in the too hard basket. “But a committed staff and board at BBNZ, along with great team representatives have made this happen. “Any opportunity to promote women\u2019s basketball is fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boasting a young core group of players, Corban is simply excited to see what they can produce throughout the competition. He also made mention of a couple of key players expected to light up the court for the Wizards. One name that stood out in particular was that of Tall Fern Matangiroa (Pep) Flavell who impressed throughout 2019 albeit in different colours but will be a valuable addition to the Wizards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a young group this year, so just looking forward to getting them on the court and competing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have some really exciting guards in our team. Kayla Manuirirangi<\/strong>, Pep Flavell<\/strong>, Alyssa Hirawani<\/strong> are three guards that will excite.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the best age group women\u2019s programme here in New Zealand so look out for the young contenders Jay Waihi<\/strong>, Breeje Schuler<\/strong> and Alana Paewai<\/strong>,\u201d Corban stated. \u201cWe\u2019ve also managed to strengthen our forward line-up with Maka Daysh<\/strong> in our group. As traditionally we have played small ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the number of guards in the team it is no surprise that the Wizards overall game style will focus on them and using every inch of space out on court to create continuous forward forays and open up avenues to the basket. In saying that however, Corban also mentioned that they will not be a one trick-pony and have a couple of tricks up their sleeves to keep their opponents guessing.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraditionally we have played a guard orientated style of basketball. “Using the width of the court and creating space for others. “We will be doing that and also utilising the strength of our forward line up. “Game scouts will see our style vary each game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It has been an unconventional and unprecedented year to say the least which has filtered into the sports world, with Corban labelling the year as \u201ctough\u201d however through adversity comes opportunity something that Community Basketball Manager noted in regards to building the squad for the upcoming season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have lost six of our squad to USA Colleges. (It) has meant a change in coaching and training techniques. However it presents our 17 & Under players with an opportunity to step up and play alongside our veterans,\u201d Corban said.<\/p>\n

When asked about their main intention for the season the obvious answer was to make it to the semi-finals however, Corban also had a few other factors in mind \u2013 most importantly the notion to support women\u2019s basketball and continue the sports growth in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupport this league and provide a good spectacle for women\u2019s basketball. We are like most of the other teams a little under prepared due to the 2020 COVID \u00a0issues however we will make the most of this,\u201d he said. \u201cA semi-final appearance is the intention of every team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waikato Wizards kick off the season on Thursday 19 against Auckland Dream at 7:30pm (local time).<\/p>\n

Roster<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matangiroa Flavell
\nAri Parai
\nKelcy Ballantyne
\nCourtney Wilson
\nNatasha Lenden
\nReese Anderson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE next team in focus is Waikato Wizards who are preparing for the upcoming New Zealand National Basketball League (NZNBL) Sal’s NBL 18IN18 competition which will see a fast paced, action packed 18 days of basketball action. Community Basketball Manager for the Wizards, Anthony Corban shed some light on what preparation has been like and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":18072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2894,2871],"tags":[3608,2492,3779,3781,3780,3782,3778,3784,3777,3727,3783,3785,3776,3786,3787],"class_list":["post-18069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nbl-nz","category-news","tag-18in18-nznbl","tag-alana-goodchild","tag-alana-paewai","tag-alyssa-hirawani","tag-anthony-corban","tag-ari-parai","tag-breeje-schuler","tag-courtney-wilson","tag-jay-waihi","tag-kayla-manuirirangi","tag-kelcy-ballantyne","tag-natasha-lenden","tag-pep-flavell","tag-reese-anderson","tag-waikato-wizards"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}