December 20, 2024 • 10 mins
The Tokomanawa Queens bid for their second Tauihi National Basketball League title on Sunday, when travelling to Tauranga to meet the Whai.
Queens assistant coach Mel Bennett spent two seasons as Whai coach - she joined Adam Cooper to preview the game and look back on the season thus far.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fourteen to eight here on the ill Sport Breakfast. Well,
it's the grand final for the Toehi National Women's Basketball
League tomorrow and good news the Wellington based team that
he took them out of a queen's a bidding for
their second title and what's only the league's three year existence.
Now they do have to travel up to Totala though,
to meet the Fire tomorrow afternoon. Assistant coach for the
Queens this year, Mel Bennett actually spent the first two
(00:23):
years with the Fire in the league as head coach
before switching down to the Queens this year, so I
thought mail was perfect to get some insight into tomorrow's final.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Morning to your mail and everyone pretty excited for this one.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Yeah, obviously after the thrilling kind of comeback when on Saturday,
we went straight into logistics and preparation mode for the
final this weekend. But we had to see who we
were playing first. I actually attended the other semi in
Auckland on Sunday and you know, it was a really
(00:56):
good game. The Fire came out fast and furious. So
it's obviously we're now know who we're playing and that
we're traveling to Totonga. So the background team, you know,
the team behind the team has been making everything work
and we as a coaching staff have been coming up
with a game plan to execute on Sunday. And we've
(01:17):
just kind of finished another training session this morning and
the girls are pretty locked in as to what it
is we need to do. And we've been doing a
little bit of scout as well, obviously against my old club,
So it's it's just a massive achievement for us to
get there, you know, after finishing where we did and
the regular season and coming back with two ones at
(01:39):
the end there. But I think the performance on Saturday night,
how were we managed to crawl back and those final
moments to get over the line was pretty incredible.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, what triggered that fight back? Do you think?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
You know, we kind of went into a bit of
a rat in the third quarter beginning of the fourth
and I'm just going to go bit by bit here,
but you know, Tanya called a time out eight minutes
thirty to go, and pretty much that was our last
opportunity to get a message to the girls that we
needed to really pull ourselcks up on the defensive end
(02:16):
and take some pride in our defense and how you know,
We've done a lot of preparation in that we changed
the offense slightly a little bit, and then things just
seemed to come our way with stops. You know, Hailey
Reinald got cramped on her leg and had to be
subbed out, which meant they were without a big for
a short period of time leading into it. We got
(02:37):
stop us to stop. We went on a twenty one
and three run which helped a lot, and it was
multiple people chipping in on the offensive end, but you know,
props to Lou Brown who did an incredible job with
the offensive boards. And then it just seemed to swing
our way with the momentum and a crucial foul down
the stretch when it was seventy to seventy one, you know,
(03:01):
second left, it kind of went our way. Unfortunately Stella
got hurt in the last few moments, but I thought
just since it came in and helped cunch the deal
in the end.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
There, Yeah, wonderful stuff. So the team looks like it's jelling,
and I know it must be hard. We've talked to
you know, a lot of your players and support stuff
through the course of the year, just about mixing everyone together,
getting the likes of Jordan Horston mixed with the younger
KIWI players, But it appears the squad is jelling pretty
well at the right time.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, they're pretty tight, and you know, although we're getting
ready for a final, we're also getting ready for separation
because the girls will kind of go their own ways
the day after the final. So there's a lot of
emotions swinging through, but the focus is kind of on
that end goal. They've come together incredibly well. Jordan came
(03:53):
in down the stretch and the piece because she had
commitments with the WNBA and with Seattle Storm, and but
she's she's a character, you know, like she's fun to
be around. There's no kind of sense of entitlement with
her being in one of the most prestigious or the
most prestigious woman's competitional league in the world. She's so grounded,
(04:17):
she's down to earth. She's easy to talk to and
she gets along with everybody. That's the beauty about Jordan.
And you know Stella's leadership, she's the glue piece and
the backbone of the team. You know, her word is gold,
but everyone has it. It's like a massive family, massive sisterhood,
(04:39):
and it's just nice to sit back and watch them
in jail. But they're also really cool people to talk
to from a coaching perspective off the court.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, wonderful.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
And as you mentioned, Sat, the start Male, your former club,
are your opponents in the final, back to the old
home ground as well as the away team.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Tell us what this means for you.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Oh, look, it's it's really special to be going home
for the championship. But it's it's just really cool to
because we haven't played there all season. You know, we
played in Topol for our away game against the Fire,
and I fuck up after there, So that's that's the
hope kind of that that's where I'm from. So it's
(05:22):
it's nice to be taking the team back to meet
my family. So my family are hosting us on Saturday,
which is really cool. But you know that the club,
the FI, I was with them from the end of
twenty twenty one and you know there's some special special
memories there, so it's it's kind of emotional at the
(05:45):
same time. And also because my nephew was as part
of the coaching staff there and we've got a really
really close bond. You know, I've known Alex for years
of none, the ownership group, the Miller's for years. I
used to coach Sun, So it's just very special moments,
very emotional time. But basketball is the vehicle that has
(06:08):
brought us there, as I just want to you know,
game recognize as game. But yeah, really nice to be
coming home to Totinger.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, great, now it'll be a great occasion. In terms
of approaching playoff basketball from a coaching perspective, You've obviously
been a very experienced basketball coach. Do you change much
once you get to sort of knock out hoops?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Well, you know, we've been tweaking things as the season
goes on. Started off very simple and just layered things up,
and you know, as you go throughout the season, opposition
makes tweets and stuff too. But we really have to
focus on what we do well and we have to
stick to those things and also to the strengths of
(06:50):
our own individual players and how they work collectively as
a group. But you know, we have to focus on
the scout and what the opposition brings and how they
like to play tempo wise. You know, they're fast and
furious and we have to figure out ways to shine
through that and not kind of not let them control
(07:11):
the tempo that they want to maintain. So we've been
working on that, and we've been working on some like
little wrinkles and tweaks as to how we can execute better.
So it's been a it's been really fun time going
through that. The girls have embraced that and yet like
the training that we had, very cool. It's and we've
got one more opportunity to go through things and then
(07:33):
you know, to just have that last hit out. But
playoffs basketball is a clean slate, you know, It's it's
not like we came through and they you know, they
finished it and we finished forth. It's a clean slate.
We're going head to head. Results in the past don't matter.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And just overall, you've you've been in this to where
he league as a coach since it started a few
seasons ago, obviously previously with the Fine, now with the Queens.
Tell us just what you've observed of how this league
has grown and it's short time and what it is
doing to basketball is a sport, especially for the young
females in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Oh, it's absolutely, it's massive. If you would have asked
me in twenty twenty one, did I envisage where you
know where it would be now. It's the growth has
been amazing. The viewership, you know, it's gone from spectators
to fans. That's one of the main things. And I
guess the backing of Sky Sport and the professionalism of
(08:31):
each organization and franchise has just grown from strength to strength.
The type of player you can have on your roster
now with the inclusion of more imports, has just kind
of listed the skill set, the you know, the professionalism
of the game and some of our kiwis that are
(08:54):
coming back to play, you know, is incredible. Most of
the kiwis and the tall Funds are here with an
exception to a few, but to be able as a
youngster or or a DP or amateur to come through
and train with and against the likes of you know,
like the Jordan Horstans that have come through, and I'm
(09:17):
going to say, you know, like Mikayla Cowling. The level
and professionalism and also you know, the legends of Sella
Beck and Panina Davidson and an opportunity for the likes
of McKenna Dale to come back and play for her
home country. You know, it's just created a platform and
(09:38):
it's competing against other leagues around the world, like this
league competes with the WNBL, so you have to pick
and choose actually what you're going to play, but it
allows you to play off season in other competitions such
as the NBL one. So with the shift and the
dates and the addition of talent to the roster, it's
(10:00):
just the space has just growing and growing, and young
girls around the country that you go and do activations with.
It's kind of a sea it to be it model
or you know, they can see other youngsters coming through
like the Kiddie and the Hippolyte, the Palace, Ok, youngers,
Emma Rodgers. You know, all of those young ones can
come back after college. They can see it that this
(10:23):
is the league that they want to play in.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
So cool and I think even just for a queen's
perspective as well, seeing the crowds continually grow and get
some good attendances at both polydor and and tesB has
been great as well. Mal it's been awesome to chat.
I really appreciate your time and clearly it's been a
positive year and I know there'll be a lot of
people listening that you know, we're going to be tuning
in or maybe some making the road trip up to
support the Queen's in the big Finals.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So thanks for chatting and all the very best on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
For more from News Talks, there'd be listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on IR Radio.
Fourteen to eight here on the ill Sport Breakfast. Well,
it's the grand final for the Toehi National Women's Basketball
League tomorrow and good news the Wellington based team that
he took them out of a queen's a bidding for
their second title and what's only the league's three year existence.
Now they do have to travel up to Totala though,
to meet the Fire tomorrow afternoon. Assistant coach for the
Queens this year, Mel Bennett actually spent the first two
(00:23):
years with the Fire in the league as head coach
before switching down to the Queens this year, so I
thought mail was perfect to get some insight into tomorrow's final.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Morning to your mail and everyone pretty excited for this one.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Yeah, obviously after the thrilling kind of comeback when on Saturday,
we went straight into logistics and preparation mode for the
final this weekend. But we had to see who we
were playing first. I actually attended the other semi in
Auckland on Sunday and you know, it was a really
(00:56):
good game. The Fire came out fast and furious. So
it's obviously we're now know who we're playing and that
we're traveling to Totonga. So the background team, you know,
the team behind the team has been making everything work
and we as a coaching staff have been coming up
with a game plan to execute on Sunday. And we've
(01:17):
just kind of finished another training session this morning and
the girls are pretty locked in as to what it
is we need to do. And we've been doing a
little bit of scout as well, obviously against my old club,
So it's it's just a massive achievement for us to
get there, you know, after finishing where we did and
the regular season and coming back with two ones at
(01:39):
the end there. But I think the performance on Saturday night,
how were we managed to crawl back and those final
moments to get over the line was pretty incredible.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, what triggered that fight back? Do you think?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
You know, we kind of went into a bit of
a rat in the third quarter beginning of the fourth
and I'm just going to go bit by bit here,
but you know, Tanya called a time out eight minutes
thirty to go, and pretty much that was our last
opportunity to get a message to the girls that we
needed to really pull ourselcks up on the defensive end
(02:16):
and take some pride in our defense and how you know,
We've done a lot of preparation in that we changed
the offense slightly a little bit, and then things just
seemed to come our way with stops. You know, Hailey
Reinald got cramped on her leg and had to be
subbed out, which meant they were without a big for
a short period of time leading into it. We got
(02:37):
stop us to stop. We went on a twenty one
and three run which helped a lot, and it was
multiple people chipping in on the offensive end, but you know,
props to Lou Brown who did an incredible job with
the offensive boards. And then it just seemed to swing
our way with the momentum and a crucial foul down
the stretch when it was seventy to seventy one, you know,
(03:01):
second left, it kind of went our way. Unfortunately Stella
got hurt in the last few moments, but I thought
just since it came in and helped cunch the deal
in the end.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
There, Yeah, wonderful stuff. So the team looks like it's jelling,
and I know it must be hard. We've talked to
you know, a lot of your players and support stuff
through the course of the year, just about mixing everyone together,
getting the likes of Jordan Horston mixed with the younger
KIWI players, But it appears the squad is jelling pretty
well at the right time.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, they're pretty tight, and you know, although we're getting
ready for a final, we're also getting ready for separation
because the girls will kind of go their own ways
the day after the final. So there's a lot of
emotions swinging through, but the focus is kind of on
that end goal. They've come together incredibly well. Jordan came
(03:53):
in down the stretch and the piece because she had
commitments with the WNBA and with Seattle Storm, and but
she's she's a character, you know, like she's fun to
be around. There's no kind of sense of entitlement with
her being in one of the most prestigious or the
most prestigious woman's competitional league in the world. She's so grounded,
(04:17):
she's down to earth. She's easy to talk to and
she gets along with everybody. That's the beauty about Jordan.
And you know Stella's leadership, she's the glue piece and
the backbone of the team. You know, her word is gold,
but everyone has it. It's like a massive family, massive sisterhood,
(04:39):
and it's just nice to sit back and watch them
in jail. But they're also really cool people to talk
to from a coaching perspective off the court.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, wonderful.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
And as you mentioned, Sat, the start Male, your former club,
are your opponents in the final, back to the old
home ground as well as the away team.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Tell us what this means for you.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Oh, look, it's it's really special to be going home
for the championship. But it's it's just really cool to
because we haven't played there all season. You know, we
played in Topol for our away game against the Fire,
and I fuck up after there, So that's that's the
hope kind of that that's where I'm from. So it's
(05:22):
it's nice to be taking the team back to meet
my family. So my family are hosting us on Saturday,
which is really cool. But you know that the club,
the FI, I was with them from the end of
twenty twenty one and you know there's some special special
memories there, so it's it's kind of emotional at the
(05:45):
same time. And also because my nephew was as part
of the coaching staff there and we've got a really
really close bond. You know, I've known Alex for years
of none, the ownership group, the Miller's for years. I
used to coach Sun, So it's just very special moments,
very emotional time. But basketball is the vehicle that has
(06:08):
brought us there, as I just want to you know,
game recognize as game. But yeah, really nice to be
coming home to Totinger.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, great, now it'll be a great occasion. In terms
of approaching playoff basketball from a coaching perspective, You've obviously
been a very experienced basketball coach. Do you change much
once you get to sort of knock out hoops?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Well, you know, we've been tweaking things as the season
goes on. Started off very simple and just layered things up,
and you know, as you go throughout the season, opposition
makes tweets and stuff too. But we really have to
focus on what we do well and we have to
stick to those things and also to the strengths of
(06:50):
our own individual players and how they work collectively as
a group. But you know, we have to focus on
the scout and what the opposition brings and how they
like to play tempo wise. You know, they're fast and
furious and we have to figure out ways to shine
through that and not kind of not let them control
(07:11):
the tempo that they want to maintain. So we've been
working on that, and we've been working on some like
little wrinkles and tweaks as to how we can execute better.
So it's been a it's been really fun time going
through that. The girls have embraced that and yet like
the training that we had, very cool. It's and we've
got one more opportunity to go through things and then
(07:33):
you know, to just have that last hit out. But
playoffs basketball is a clean slate, you know, It's it's
not like we came through and they you know, they
finished it and we finished forth. It's a clean slate.
We're going head to head. Results in the past don't matter.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And just overall, you've you've been in this to where
he league as a coach since it started a few
seasons ago, obviously previously with the Fine, now with the Queens.
Tell us just what you've observed of how this league
has grown and it's short time and what it is
doing to basketball is a sport, especially for the young
females in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Oh, it's absolutely, it's massive. If you would have asked
me in twenty twenty one, did I envisage where you
know where it would be now. It's the growth has
been amazing. The viewership, you know, it's gone from spectators
to fans. That's one of the main things. And I
guess the backing of Sky Sport and the professionalism of
(08:31):
each organization and franchise has just grown from strength to strength.
The type of player you can have on your roster
now with the inclusion of more imports, has just kind
of listed the skill set, the you know, the professionalism
of the game and some of our kiwis that are
(08:54):
coming back to play, you know, is incredible. Most of
the kiwis and the tall Funds are here with an
exception to a few, but to be able as a
youngster or or a DP or amateur to come through
and train with and against the likes of you know,
like the Jordan Horstans that have come through, and I'm
(09:17):
going to say, you know, like Mikayla Cowling. The level
and professionalism and also you know, the legends of Sella
Beck and Panina Davidson and an opportunity for the likes
of McKenna Dale to come back and play for her
home country. You know, it's just created a platform and
(09:38):
it's competing against other leagues around the world, like this
league competes with the WNBL, so you have to pick
and choose actually what you're going to play, but it
allows you to play off season in other competitions such
as the NBL one. So with the shift and the
dates and the addition of talent to the roster, it's
(10:00):
just the space has just growing and growing, and young
girls around the country that you go and do activations with.
It's kind of a sea it to be it model
or you know, they can see other youngsters coming through
like the Kiddie and the Hippolyte, the Palace, Ok, youngers,
Emma Rodgers. You know, all of those young ones can
come back after college. They can see it that this
(10:23):
is the league that they want to play in.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
So cool and I think even just for a queen's
perspective as well, seeing the crowds continually grow and get
some good attendances at both polydor and and tesB has
been great as well. Mal it's been awesome to chat.
I really appreciate your time and clearly it's been a
positive year and I know there'll be a lot of
people listening that you know, we're going to be tuning
in or maybe some making the road trip up to
support the Queen's in the big Finals.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So thanks for chatting and all the very best on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
For more from News Talks, there'd be listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on IR Radio.
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