Basketball nomination

Press, 18 April 1979, Page 34

Basketball nomination

Gareth Hare, a 20-year-old science student at Canterbury University, was yesterday included as a late nomination for the national men’s basketball trials squad. The trials to select a New Zealand squad will be held in Panmure, Auckland, at the end of this month. Hare was a key member of the University side that won the Easter South Island tournament A grade final from Jaks-H.5.0.8. on Monday, and was recommended to the national coach, Steve McKean, on the strength of his performance over the week-end. No other player from the Christchurch tournament, or from the two other Easter fixtures in Tauranga and Napier, was* picked as a late nomination. Hare will now join the

five other Christchurch players who were picked for the trials before Easter, when nominations officially closed. Hare was chosen on the recommendation of Joe McLeod, the executive officer of the New Zealand Basketball Federation, who conferred with McKean late yesterday. A relatively small guardforward at only 1.85 m, Hare played for the strong Otago University team last year, and for Jaks-H.5.0.8. in 1977. That year, Hare was picked for the New Zealand junior basketball team. Hare said last evening that he thought his games over the Easter tournament had not been “all that good,” but he did admit to a “few flashes” in the final, when he was one of the outstanding players on the court.