Mcrae all set for junior World Cup
Manawatu’s Callum Mcrae will be among New Zealand’s under-19 basketballers heading off into the unknown in Egypt.
The Junior Tall Blacks are heading to the World Cup in Cairo next month, the first time a New Zealand team has gone to the event.
The team head to China tomorrow for some warmup games, then move on to Egypt for the start of the tournament on July 1.
New Zealand beat Australia 57-51 at the under-18 Oceania championships in December to become the first Kiwi side to qualify.
They had been working together for nearly a year before the Oceania championships and they have been preparing for the World Cup since then.
The 18-year-old Mcrae said they were looking forward to getting over there for the first time.
‘‘This is a massive trip for us,’’ the big centre said. ‘‘We’re just going there with no real expectations . . . we think we can compete with the bigger teams.’’
New Zealand have a tough draw, with France, who won the European competition, South Korea and Argentina in their pool, so the Junior Tall Blacks have a tough ask just to get out of the pool.
But Mcrae said they were going over there to win, especially with some players coming back from American universities like Tai Wynyard.
One of the Junior Tall Blacks’ strengths is size.
Out of the 12 in the squad, there are four players 2.08m or taller and Mcrae is one of them, as he is upwards of 2.10m.
Angus Mcwilliam, Sam Waardenburg and Wynyard are the other big rigs.
But Mcrae said they weren’t focusing on using their size any more than they had to and they had a strong all-round team.
Heading to Egypt will be a first for Mcrae,who has been to the United States and Australia for basketball before, and they will have a security team with them while they’re away.
Once he finished school, Mcrae will be heading to a college in the United States next year, but he’s not sure where yet.
When he hasn’t been on national duty, Mcrae has been playing for the Boys’ High premier team, who are on top of the Manawatu secondary schools competition and the senior men’s club competition.