Judd Flavel: Tall Blacks Head Coach previews international match against Guam

The Tall Blacks are back in action over in the Philippines as they play a series of World Cup qualifying matches. They won their first matchup against the Philippines early yesterday morning and will look to make it two from two when they take on Guam tomorrow night. 

Judd Flavel is the head coach of the Tall Blacks and he joined D'Arcy to discuss. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldgrave from News Talk SEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
World Cup qualifying for the Tall Blacks. Now, they won
their first matchup against the Philippines early Friday morning. Next
up they've got Guam. That's Sunday afternoon, Tomorrow afternoon. Judd Flavel,
that head coached the Tall Blacks. He joins us now
more in a Judd It was It was a close
match on Friday morning, wasn't it.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah. I mean Philippines are very good team, you know,
and they are a very physical team.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
They're big.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
It was a grind out when for us, you know,
it wasn't the prettiest of games, but you know, we're
happy that we came away with an important worm at
the end of the day and one that takes us
at one step closer to the World Cup.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Fell away in the last because you've got a decent
break in the third, but in the fourth it just
kind of unraveled a bit. But you hell on to it.
I think that's three points and it was a low
scoring game too. Is that a fair reflection of what
was happening on the court.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Yeah, both teams struggled to really convert, you know, I
think you know, we we had some true size there
around the basket and so today so you know, conversion
rate at the close to the rim was tough. And
in the paint that was It wasn't a great you know,

(01:33):
not a high scoring you know, fluid it fluid offensive game,
but it was just a hard fought, physical game. And
I think this is what you get an international basketball.
I mean, you know the score lines in the sixties,
you you know, this is this is what happens. You know,
the official gating. You know, it is a little different

(01:54):
than what you might expect in sort of NBL. And
we spoke about this is a as a team and
how physical the physicality part of international basketball is real.
They allow a lot more contact to go and we
struggled with that, you know, to capitalize on that on
the inside. But at the same time we leant into

(02:15):
that and defensively was we're The game was one.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Sam and Inger proving again to be so available. Double
double for himself picked up at ten points. I think
fording boards as well huge for your team. And I
believe that one of your chargers from back in the
day is also Max Darling head quite an effect, isn't he.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, look that those two, you know, Max had ended
up with eleven points, I think, and yeah, I just
had timely shots from the outside is what Mexican do.
And there was probably the bigger assignment that Max had
along with Jordan Artai, Rubn Todangey and Carlin Davidson, was

(03:03):
just their matchup on just A Brownly, who is the
American that plays for Philippines, naturalized player and you know
he's a true international scorer. You know, he's he's we've
played him a few times and he's he's he's got
away on us and really carried them and you'll be

(03:25):
able to and those four names who I just mentioned
were able to keep him, you know, quiet four points
and so that there was a huge part of the
game plan and and the guys really did a great
job on that, and not just them individually. I mean,
of course, you know basketball, you're all connected on the
defensive end, talking to each other and being as connected

(03:48):
as you can, and they just did a great job
with that. Sam as we know, like you know, Sam's
can be a handful for opposition, and for the opposition,
he was great on the boards. I think he had
five offens and rebounds. Yeah, just the most that he
has is fantastic.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
What did Guam bring to the party? That's your next
team in oppossessions World Cup qualifying, sitting at the bottom
of your group before so far? Do they bring anything special?
And is anything you need to convert from the Philippines
game to sit down on the court against them.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Well, this is a team that we don't know a
lot about. They are new and you know, this is
their first time into this round and we're coaching staff
agetting across them. But look, they really pushed Australia last night.
They've had I guess new to the scene, but got
some players that play I guess Guam with the affiliation

(04:47):
with the United States, so there's a lot of players
that have American basketball under their bout, guys that have
come from college. BJ Freeman, I think is probably a
name that we will learn more about quickly because he
think he might have top scored for them against Australia.
But looking at this oatline, this is the team that
can score points and they shot the ball well from

(05:09):
the three point line. So yeah, going to be interesting
battle and certainly one that we're not going to take
lightly at or look they pushed Australia. I think you know,
for all you know for three quarters there was only
really one quarter that Australa got away from them. But
other than that, they're right there.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Absolutely not a given. Get in there and do the
markey and you will get what you're after up against
Guam and on that Judd Flavl, thanks so much for
joining us on the program. Travel Safe, Go well.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
There's always always a pleasure.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
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