Mcrae growing up on the court
Quicker feet and a better shot is the recipe Callum Mcrae hopes will take him from dominant schoolboy basketballer to NBA star.
The Palmerston North Boys’ High School centre, who has been in hot form at the Basketball New Zealand Secondary Schools Nationals at CET Arena this week, has continued to focus on honing his skills as he targets a potential American college basketball scholarship.
He has good mentors to help him achieve it with Boys’ High coaches Miles Pearce and Nick Horvath having both been through the American system.
‘‘They have both been to college and experienced it and they have been around that game for so long. They are both big guys as well,’’ he said.
Horvath gave Mcrae, who at 2.12m towers over most Kiwi opposition, three players to watch and model his play off.
‘‘Nikola Jokic plays for Denver Nuggets, he is a real crafty big; Bill Lambert, he is an old school bad boy type who is real tough; and Marc Gasol who plays for the Memphis Grizzlies. They are all basically tall white guys who aren’t really athletic. I try and model my game around them and take bits of each.’’
What that trio also have in common is strong NBA careers built around persistent effort on both sides of the ball, a requirement in the NBA where being big is no longer is a path to a contract.
As a centre, Mcrae is well aware of the skills he will need to posses to follow in Steven Adams’ footsteps.
‘‘In the NBA you are expected to be able to shoot and guard the guards. NBA is a dream of mine so I need to get quicker feet so I can stay in front of the guards and get my shot better.’’
But before he heads off on his American adventure, he is eyeing a second stint with the reincarnated Manawatu¯ Jets in the NBL.
‘‘Just training against men every day [will be good]. In high school I am not training against people my height usually. So just having people my height will make difference.’’
Mcrae already has NBL experience, but that was just a couple of minutes each game back in 2015.
Since then he has become much more dominant.
Earlier this year he was named in the Junior Tall Blacks to play in the Junior World Cup in Cairo, an experience he said taught him a lot.
‘‘It has opened my eyes. In Cairo I did not go as well as I wanted to, but just being in that elite environment, I learned so much from it. It opened my eyes to being a professional.’’
He was then invited to trial for the Tall Blacks in what he called an ‘‘amazing’’ experience.
■ Meanwhile, it was heartbreak for Mcrae and the Palmerston North Boys’ High School team as they were dealt a shock 65-54 loss at the hands of Rangitoto College in the quarter finals of the Basketball New Zealand secondary schools nationals yesterday.
Defending champions Rangitoto were surprising opponents having been upset by Auckland Grammar in pool play.
Tournament favourites Boys’ High led 15-12 at the end of the first quarter and were up 28-27 at the half, before Rangitoto took a slender 46-42 lead after the third spell.
Then Rangitoto went on a big run to be up by 12 midway through the final quarter. Boys’ High chased well, but Rangitoto hit some big threes to secure the game.
Defence in the second half was a major issue for Boys’ High with Rangitoto often getting open lanes.
They were also caught out rebounding and struggled to find their shooting range. Isaac Fa’amausili was their best performer, while Oscar Oswald played well and Haize Walker started to come into the game in the second half.