Those sneaky Cantabrians - first they whisked away Richie McCaw and now they are exporting our best younger basketballers to the United States under their own banner.
To be fair, the Christchurch-based Mainland Eagles Academy has picked up only some of the slack left by the demise of the Otago Nuggets and Basketball Otago's financial struggles.
And the academy is also run by one of Otago's favourite sons - former Tall Black Mark Dickel, so no complaints really.
The academy has helped secure scholarship offers for nine players and three of them honed their skills in Dunedin.
They follow former Otago Boys' High School centre Sam Timmins, who earlier this year signed with the University of Washington and will be heading to Seattle next August to take up his scholarship.
Timmins drained 26 points and grabbed 23 rebounds in a powerhouse performance which helped OBHS win the New Zealand secondary schools title last year.
But when the Nuggets were sidelined from the National Basketball League, he shifted north to link up with the Canterbury Rams.
About the same time Timmins was carving up for OBHS, Kavanagh College guard Richard Rodger helped his side claim the smaller schools' title with a haul of 29 points and 19 rebounds in an all-Otago final against St Kevin's College.
He has achieved his dream of securing a scholarship to play college basketball in the United States, signing with Southeast Community College in Nebraska.
Former Magic guard Darcy Knox has signed with Northwest Kansas Technical College, while former OBHS guard Josh Petermann was offered a scholarship by Waldorf College in Iowa but has decided to remain in New Zealand.
Dickel, who played college basketball at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, before going on to have a stellar professional and international career, could not be reached for comment.
