No time to think for Kiwi

THE Southern Huskies will throw New Zealand NBL debutant Tad Dufelmeier straight into the fire as they fight for playoff survival on the road this weekend.

Sitting one win outside the top four ahead of matches against the third-placed Canterbury Rams and Southland Sharks (fourth), the Huskies have been dealt a blow with the unavailability of skipper Craig Moller.

It has seen coach Anthony Stewart turn to the Hobart Huskies for reinforcements, with Dufelmeier plucked from NBL1 duties to be thrown immediately into the cauldron of the NZNBL.

The Canberra-born guard, whose dad was a household NBL name as an American import with the Canberra Cannons in the 1980s and 1990s, will step straight on court to tackle current NBL guards Emmett Naar and Jarrad Weeks, and while not wanting to put any pressure on the 23year-old, Stewart declared Dufelmeier is not flying across the ditch to sit on the bench.

“Obviously Mark has done an awesome job with Tad, bringing him into the group, he will be familiar with the guys that are around. It’s not like he is just jumping off a plane into a game,” Stewart said.

“I think there is big expectations of him but at the same time if you look at who he is coming up against, Emmett Naar that plays in the NBL and Jarrad Weeks in particular, great opportunity for him to showcase his skills and show the NBL he is ready to play at this level.

“We are going to throw him to the wolves, we really want him to have an impact.

“He is not going over there as an eighth or ninth guy, he will play major minutes and we will give him that green light to free him up a bit. He will understand we need two wins.”

The Huskies are coming off consecutive losses to Canterbury, but Stewart is confident an improved showing from Game 1 to Game 2 in the “miniseries” has injected belief into the squad they can overturn the result at Cowles Stadium.

The group flies out of Hobart this morning, and won’t arrive in Christchurch until 11pm.