Zach Riley: Auckland Tuatara guard on the win over the Bulls, upcoming clash against the Sharks

The Auckland Tuatara’s season got off to a winning start. 

They dispatched their cross-town rivals, the Franklin Bulls, 115-95 on Saturday night at Eventfinda Stadium.  

Tonight they’re slated to face the Southland Sharks and will be hoping to keep their momentum building. 

Tuatara guard Zach Riley joined D’Arcy to preview the clash. 

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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 (00:11):
Going to Basketball Now or Who's Auckland? To Atata got
their NBL season off to a winning start. They dispatched
the across town rivals Franklin Bulls one fifteen ninety five
last Saturday night. Later tonight they're off to face the
Southern Sharks and they hope to continue on this momentum

(00:32):
that they've started with already. Zach Riley's a guard for
the Toatata and he joins us now more inn.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
To Zach, Good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
You guys have got one from one. After the last week,
you'd be feeling pretty buoyant about the season so far, right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Absolutely. I mean last year we got off to a
little bit of a rocky start, a little bit missing
a few key pieces.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
So yeah, we've got them all to start this year,
and yeah, we want to know and we try to
go one and over or two and every week.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
So yeah, it was a dominant win. The Sharks also
had a dominant when over the balls. Did you get
much out of that? Do they provide much for you
to take forward?

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Do you think? Yeah? Absolutely? I mean they set in
the two three zone the whole game, so.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
I know, having the other team in Auckland and teams
play vice versa usually, so seeing that little scout is
pretty good.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
So, yeah, they sent a two three.

Speaker 4 (01:26):
Zone and we probably weren't expecting that, but good to
see that before we play them.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
For the non basketball heads who get blown away by
the language the vernacular around basketball, they go, what on
earth are you talking about? Can you simply explain that
this two three zone?

Speaker 4 (01:43):
Yeah, so they don't sit in a they don't play
man to man's usually a lot of teams play a
man to man. But I mean, when you've got a big,
big fellow like Sam Timons in the middle, the two
three zone is a pretty pretty good option because you're
just feeding everything towards that guy to almost block everything, so.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
They're not they're not hanging on the back of each other.
The two three zone means that they're covering various zones,
not the.

Speaker 4 (02:05):
Man exactly exactly. So you got two up top and
then you've got three down on the beastline.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Right, that's a good scout. You're going, well the game.
You spent a lot of time on court. Rob Low
was a greedy buggery. Scored a hatfuls of points, which
is good to see, But you spend a lot of
time out there. How important was that you had a
lot of people revolving around because a lot of guys
got court time, didn't they?

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah? Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (02:28):
I mean we've got a very very deep team this
year with a lot of talent, so we've just got
to use that all up. And you know, we'll throw
a whole bunch of different things. I mean, we've got
Rob Low and Christians, We've got two twin towers out there.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, we can just throw it at at whoever.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
And then we got a whole bunch of great guys
coming off the bench with different skill sets.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
So it was great having that deep rotation this year.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Right, let's talk about yourself and how you operated. You'd
be happy enough, but you guys are never happy, your
professional athletes. What is that it you just can't quite
scratch that you need to sort out this evening.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
I think it's just.

Speaker 4 (03:01):
Getting out the cop with you know, a lot of
the stuff is everyone's been around for a while.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
It's just learning how to play.

Speaker 4 (03:08):
Together and all the little stuff that everyone else works
off of, and that kind of thing.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
So it's yeah, just as much as you can play,
the more you play, the better you get, and then
hopefully you can reach a prime by the end of
the season.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
So it can Clinton like to carry on with his
high rotation at the start of the season, just to
get an idea about who he's got and how he's
going to operate it.

Speaker 4 (03:29):
Deeper on, Yeah, absolutely, I mean you play a whole
bunch of dows, and especially in games where you happen
to win by a lot, you can see who's got what.
And then also the rapid league before the games, you
can see who's focused and who's locked in, and then
see if they can get some minutes in the game.
I mean, it's just figuring out what rotations work well together,

(03:49):
who works well together, that kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Early in the season, a number of teams have played
a couple of fixtures already. This is not a problem.
You guys have got the one that doesn't bother you
at all, does it.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
No? No, I mean it's almost a blessing because we've
got some old souls on the team.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
So ah, no, that is so rude. I'm sitting this
to a couple of the old souls you're in trouble, bro.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
They will happily take the two games in two weeks
because next week we've got an absolute heater of two
games and three days against the Jets and the Saints.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
So you know, kind of boarding up those.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
Legs early in the season is a bit of a
blessing disguise.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well, you're not talking about Rob Low and Big Tommy
v A. Yeah, I don't know. I'm and looking across
the court and what you've seen so far. Who's excited
you of some of the new boys that are coming,
and not the old souls but the young bucks, and
you look to anyone and go, hey, actually, well I'm

(04:49):
liking the look at you after just one game.

Speaker 4 (04:52):
Yeah, I mean, Casey and Dylan obviously provided a massive
massive boost to us last game, so obviously looking forward
to seeing what they're going to do. I mean, Yelling's
a little bit older than me, but you know, you
can shoot the hell out.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
That's pretty pretty impressive.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
And then we've got just signed Jackson Kiss, who's a
oh he's on the way to Iowa State, so we're
excited to see what he can do.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Nice have the other two actually got surnames and We're
just going to know who they are.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Yeah, Dylan Wilkie and Casey Yuane very challenged both of them.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
It's good to see. I also believe that the mascot
Tama is going particularly well. Would be pleased with the
may he's putting in.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Yeah, absolutely, he's flying around. I know all my.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
Boys back in America love him, but yeah, he flies
around and he deaths as Irby gets the crowd into it.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
He's an awesome mascot, obviously the best in the league.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
So yeah, seven thirty tips off tonight and then find
a stadium. The Sharks are coming to town. You is
going to carry on your merry old high rotation Way Guard.
Zach Riley, thanks so much for your time. You look
after yourself out there.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
Awesome. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
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