AUCKLAND (2016 Rio Olympics) - New Zealand's basketball summer of 2015 finished too soon for the players and coaches. It ended on a down note, one that contrasted sharply with the positive vibes that had emanated from a strong build-up.

Australia beat the Tall Blacks in the FIBA Oceania Championship to take the direct ticket from the zone for the Rio de Janeiro Games. The Boomers pulled away for a 71-59 victory in the clash played in Melbourne. They also won the Wellington leg, 89-79. New Zealand did have plenty of stretches of good play in both games.

Having had plenty of time to reflect on those games, the Kiwis can now start making plans for 2016 because the draw has been held for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (OQTs). New Zealand discovered they will compete in the Manila OQT, which is to be held 5-10 July. Their opponents in Group B will be France and the Philippines.

If they were to claim a top-two finish after facing the French and the Filipinos, Paul Henare's side would then go up against one of the top two from a Group A which includes Turkey, Senegal and Canada in a Semi-Final. The winners of the Semi-Finals will then square off with an Olympic berth at stake.

I'm excited. It's great to finally know we're heading to Manila. Basketball truly is a global sport and to play against the likes of France will be an amazing challenge. Of course the competition will be fierce with the Olympics on the line, but that's fuel for the fire for our guys. - Henare

New Zealand will have good memories of their last important clash with France. They ran into each other in the Group Phase of the 2010 FIBA Basketball World Cup and the side from Down Under prevailed.

Kirk Penney (NZL) had 25 points in 2010 win over France

It was an important result because the Tall Blacks, who were coached by Nenad Vucinic at the time, moved into second place and France dropped to fourth and into a Last 16 game against hosts Turkey, an opponent that no one had wanted to face at the time.

As it turned out, the Turks blew out France en route to a spot in the Final, and New Zealand crashed to a heavy defeat to Russia. The game against the Philippines will also have some extra spice as former Tall Blacks boss Tab Baldwin is in charge of the Asian team. Henare and assistant coach Pero Cameron were players in the Kiwi squad that Baldwin coached to a surprise fourth place at the 2002 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Indianapolis.

While the French were the third-place team at EuroBasket 2015, the Philippines were runners-up at last year's FIBA Asia Championship. The New Zealand coach has a good idea of what the make-up of his squad will be at the OQT, although there are two big question marks.

One concerns a teammate in the 2002 World Cup squad, Kirk Penney. The Illawarra Hawks sharpshooter has left no doubt this season that when healthy, his basketball skills and experience make him a huge asset. A bad hamstring of late has taken the shine off of an otherwise spectacular Australian NBL campaign for Penney.

Speaking to the New Zealand press, Henare said of Penney: "He has been amazing this year. He is as good as he has ever been. Possibly showing his age a bit with his hamstring injury and how long that keeps him out is yet to be seen. He is a quality player and as I did last year, I left the door open for him to play if he is available and I will do the same this year."

The other uncertainty relates to the availability of a giant NBA center that has yet to feature for the Tall Blacks, the Oklahoma City Thunder's Steve Adams.

We'll try and put our best team together for the tournament. That is what we are going to need to win the thing and obviously Steve is a big part of that. We are going to have those discussions as we always do. It becomes a little bit tighter this year playing in July with the NBA finals in June. It makes it tough on those NBA guys coming off a full season. Obviously we would love to have him available but we will be having those discussions with him from now until then. - Henare

As for the near certainties, Henare will expect to have many of the players that performed so well at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup, including Isaac Fotu, Corey Webster, Mika Vukona, Thomas Abercrombie and Lindsay Tait. That Tall Blacks side reached the Round of 16, despite having started the event with three straight defeats, one of them a 76-73 setback to potential OQT opponents Turkey.

New Zealand played at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. They took part in the 2008 and 2012 OQTs but failed to reach the Summer Games on those occasions.

There was so much self-belief in 2015 that you could almost taste it and the team parted ways with a strong sense of unfinished business. It won't take long for us to settle back into that mind set, especially in an Olympic year. - Henare

"While the goal is getting to Rio, we'll need to look at every team in our OQT, and then look to take it out one game at a time," Henare said. "But before that, we've a lot of work and preparation to do. This is a time to plan."

FIBA