Establish trust and win says Coronel
Do coaches and players reach for a cluster of cliches to garnish a season or do basketball playoffs really hit a crescendo for some vintage offerings?
Taylor Corporation Hawks coach Zico Coronel is of the belief what fans will see in the Sal’s Pizza National Basketball League (NBL) Final Four this weekend has enough subtleties to elevate its status than regular-season matches.
For starters, premier champions Cigna Wellington Saints, Mike Pero Nelson Giants, SIT Zerofees Southland Sharks and the Hawks deserve to be in the playoffs this season.
“The team that does the best of all that preparation put themselves in the best position to apply all of that and trust their habits,” says Coronel before the fourth-placed Hawks meet the Saints in a 5pm tip-off in the first semifinal at the ASB Trust Arena in the capital city.
It’s a privilege for the Jarrod Kenny-captained Hawks to be in the playoffs because it isn’t a given every year, so when the opportunity arises Coronel expects all four franchises to leave nothing to what-ifs.
The rules of engagement, of course, do not change but a week’s hiatus to rest those weary limbs, attend whiteboard and video sessions as well as find stability among the ranks will become crucial factors in deciding who will clip those nylon nets around the rims after the dust settles in the 5pm final tomorrow.
Second-placed Giants face the Sharks in a 7pm tip-off to see who will progress to the final.
Not having played the defending champions since June 10 at home, Coronel says it is quite frustrating for both parties because they have mutated, as the season wore on, to become marginally different beasts.
“If you had played them like a week ago you would have felt like you know them well so that is the factor.”
The video footage will become pivotal in conducting analyses to iron out any wrinkles in finding ascendancy in rotations that have become ingrained in the collective like the sixth sense.
But to those looking from outside, three face-offs against the Wellingtonians and the Hawks came away without a point in the regular season so, it seems, the result is inevitable. Or is it?
“In all those games we were in the lead in the third quarter at some point at least but, to the Saints, [coach] Kevin Braswell and Shea Ili’s immense credit, they have been doing exceptionally well all year in winning close games.”
Coronel says a paper measure of teams in the league reveals the potency through imports and Australian National Basketball League (ANBL) — Sharks seven, Giants six and Saints five.
Conversely, the Hawks have two — Australian import centre Angus Brandt and point guard Kenny — although they have former Tall Black Everard Bartlett who appears to have found his mojo and American import power forward Jamie Skeen who believes he’s on the cusp of breaking out of his cocoon.
Swingmen Ethan Rusbatch, Hyrum Harris and Mitchell Newton have earned stripes with Tall Blacks coach Paul Henare on the international platform at some level.
Conspicuously the Hawks franchise didn’t fill its three-player import quota and did a lion’s share of the job in the regular season with one or other overseas player.
To suggest perennial favourites Wellington should win easily is simply a hark back to history rather than what has transpired this winter, Coronel says.
“The Saints team, for instance, is very different from the last year’s one,” he says, adding Corey Webster, Tai Wesley and Josh Duinker were starters last season but now the likes of Leon Henry and Jordan Ngatai have shuffled up the playing order. Coronel says