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The Tall Blacks perform the Haha - Source: Photosport
The Tall Blacks have been handed the steepest of roads to London's Olympic Games in May.
Nenad Vucinic's New Zealand men's team have been draw in Pool D of the final Olympic qualifying tournament in Caracas, Venezuela, from July 2-8, alongside rising European powerhouse Macedonia and traditional African heavyweights Angola.
The Tall Blacks will have to win at least one of those two matches to make it through to the quarterfinals.
Just three teams will qualify for the Olympic tournament - the two finalists and the winner of the third-place playoffs.
That means the Tall Blacks would have to make it as far as the semifinals to keep their hopes of a third Olympic appearance alive.
To do that they may have to upset Macedonia and also handle the athleticism of the Angolans to top their group.
That would earn them a likely quarterfinal against either the Dominican Republic or Korea, which would be a very winnable proposition.
But if the Tall Blacks were forced into the runner up position in their pool, they would then face a likely quarterfinal against the might of Russia which would be a daunting prospect indeed.
The New Zealanders have proven more than competitive against the Russians in recent years, but with an Olympic spot on the line they'll be hoping to avoid the super-sized Russians who eliminated them at the 2010 world championships in Turkey.
The New Zealand women's team, the Tall Ferns, will also get a shot at the Olympics when they play in their final qualifying tournament in Turkey from June 25-July 1, with five places for the Games up for grabs.
Draw for the men's Olympic qualifying tournament in Caracas July 2-8:
Group A: Greece, Jordan, Puerto Rico
Group B: Lithuania, Nigeria, Venezuela
Group C: Dominican Republic, Korea, Russia
Group D: Angola, F.Y.R. of Macedonia, New
Zealand
Top two teams in each group progress to quarterfinals as follows:
A1 v B2; B1 v A2; C1 v D2; D1 v C2
Semifinals: Winner [A1 v B2] v Winner [C1 v D2]; Winner [B1 v A2] v Winner [D1 v C2].
Winning semifinalists and third-place playoff winner will qualify for London 2012.
