C. Morris: Canterbury Basketball's Last Hope

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31092, 22 June 1966, Page 11

C. Morris: Canterbury Basketball's Last Hope

MORE years have passed than most supporters of men’s basketball in Canterbury would care to remember since the province last had one of its players in a New Zealand team. There have been those who have been on the fringe of greatness—W. E. Smith and R. Zachariassen to name two of the most recent—but not since B. Bradley wore the silver fem on the 1962 South-east Asian tour has a Canterbury player won tha sport’s highest honour. This season all Canterbury’s hopes rest with a young University student, C. Morris, who is the only Canterbury player invited to take part in the final trials. The outstanding form he showed in the New Zealand championships at Dunedin last season caught the eye of the national selectorcoach (Mr C. Agnew, of Hamilton) and he was added to the squad originally announced earlier in the season.

Morris is not a prolific scorer, although he has helped Canterbury out of more than one tight situation with his excellent shooting on the move. The most outstanding characteristic of his play is the amount of energy he puts into everything he does. Not a tall player, he is at a physical disadvantage in a sport which favours tall men. However, the effectiveness of his defensive play is startling. His reflexes are extremely good. He can whip the ball out from underneath a dribbling player almost faster than the eye can see. In the recent Canterbury-Otago match he twice snatched the ball off a driving player with such speed that he carried on for several steps bouncing a ball that was not there.

Sound defence is his main attribute. Any player who gets past him has good reason to feel that he has ac-

complished something. He is unlikely to do it twice.

Morris is an excellent team man and would fit into the New Zealand team well. He must, nevertheless, first convince Mr Agnew that his boundless energy and defensive qualities are not too greatly offset by his lack of height. One of the key members of the University A team which is at present leading the inter-club competition in Christchurch, he has scored the useful total of 50 points so far. He was a New Zealand Universities representative last season. The New Zealand team for the three test matches against the American San Jose Spartans will probably be announced on Friday during the final trials and coaching clinic at Tokoroa. Unfortunately, if Morris is chosen not all the credit for getting him there will go to Canterbury. He learned his basic fundamentals in Nelson, his home town.