Typical Boti hate session on Goorjian. He paints the picture that we should win unconditionally. If we do you won't here a word out of him, but if we don't the forthcoming article will be with extreme venom. Watch for the Phil Smyth comment thrown in as well. Pathetic.

Isaac,
I realise that Boty's article has an SA slant, but then it is directed at an SA audience. The absence of Luke and Joe has to raise a lot of questions about the coaches abilities/thought processes. What about the other two SA boys, namely Jacob and the Big O - are they injured or unavailable (which I doubt). Surely they have more to give the team than some of the Sydney Queen's (oops Kings) players.
I look forward to watching the game tonight on Fox. What will be the excuse if the Boomers lose this game and - heaven forbid - the series against the Tall Blacks. The task to reach Beijing would then be really tough against some of the European powerhouses. Would Basketball Australia then act against the Coach or would they support him and offer even more excuses?

Izzy, I agree. That said, the other article was a little too far in the other direction.

The reality is that the Boomers are missing four of their best players, but should win. The other piece fluffs around about being a weakened side, but neglects to mention the Tall Blacks very poor tour, and the fact that NZ will be playing so soon after returning from the other side of the planet.

ANON12, I think both of those other guys trained well but didn't quite make it - both have very tough competition at their position. Hinder is in decent form so I don't know who else you might leave out to give Holmes a spot.

No Carfino or Casey for the call of the game, but they have got Shane Heal. Almost makes you want to avoid watching it.

Not if he rips into Goorjian's selection of Kendall (who he called "erratic") over his fellow Dragon Ingles...

Would rather have Heal commentating than Gushing Gaze I think.

At least with Heal he's going to call it as he see's it.

Dont read Botis crap anymore. I wouldn't under estimate the Kiwis. It will be a lot closer than what people think.

Phil Lynch is on the commentary team. Very experienced, great basketball knowledge and will be a calming influence. Knows how to deal with people like Shane.

Phil Lynch is on the commentary team. Very experienced, great basketball knowledge and will be a calming influence. Knows how to deal with people like Shane.

Boring Boti,
Agree with your assessment that it looks like being a close game and maybe a close series.
Can't agree with your assessment of Boti. Have you ever met him or spoken to him?
Sure he makes some wild statements but he wears his heart on his sleeve and believes in what he says. If not for Boti SA basketball fans would be lucky to have any coverage in The Advertiser. The new Sports Editor is not a great basketball fan, but Boti pushes the game and ensures we, the fans, get news.

Yes I have spoken to him many times, and find him to be an arrogant person who has no competition in this state with regards to coverage of basketball. The only thing he wears on his sleave is the club that he is currently coaching at. When at Forestville it was them, nows its Southern. His articles are sarcastic at best, and the continue bagging of Goor is just boring.

Seriously, how can anyone justify the selection of Helliwell, Kendall or Hinder over Schenscher- An NBA player and NCAA grand finalist?

Good on Boti for ripping into Goorj- it balances out his blame-dodging and the sympathisers who always have an excuse for him.

So who is calling the game tonight? Shane Heal, Phil Lynch and anybody else?

I hope that Wadey boy has finally grasped the finer points of finishing without travelling...

Yes - i am shocked at his prescence on the team... Useless, useless, useless is an understatement... Has been one squad for sometime now and has shown NO improvement (and that is from a low starting point!)...

Boring Boti,
I hate to keep this thread going but I don't think you have a clue about what you are saying.
If you had indeed met Boti as you claim then it must have been a different Boti that everyone else talks to. You say that you have spoken to him many times and he is arrogant - if that is the case then why do you continue to talk to him. Boti is extremely passionate about basketball in SA. He may, as you say, have no competition on reporting in SA but that is because no one else is interested. Boti is also highly respected interstate for his reporting and has indeed received awards for his stories.

Spanish Inq - what if an inside word said that Schenscher simply wasn't good enough to beat someone like Hinder for that spot? NBA/NCAA means nothing now if you can't outplay someone unfortunately.

My question is: who were Great Britain and Finland packing that NZ couldn't deal with in that warm-up tournament in Croatia?

I did a quick trawl on the Interweb but couldn't find any boxscores: I'm secretly hoping that Finland were suiting guys like Kimi Raikkonen and Mika Hakkinen, and GB, jeez, anyone that's never played before, maybe guys like Paul Gascoigne, the Gallagher brothers from Oasis or Prince Harry.

Bo you want to see Kimi in action? check this out. He just flops on defence all the time...it is ridiculous, it is like he is drunk or something

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-VW2oAkjcJ4

Try again

I just had a look at Hinder's stats vs the 36ers Massive Two Headed Monster of Cooper & Horvath in the three games they played last year, 6.3pts & 5.6rebs. No wonder he is in the national team.

Not that I'm aware of.

Well chances are Great Britain will have Luol Deng, and Ben Gordon come the olympics

I'm feeling more than confident about this series, especially after NZ's pefromances in Europe. Looking forward to seeing Newley and Andersen. I just hope that those two guys are the main men on offense and Goorj doesn't just sit and watch us shoot from 3 all game long.

That hasn't worked in international ball for us and probably isn't going to work any time soon.

I think the Aussies will pinch game one, however not sure over the three game series..

I knew Deng was going to play for Great Britain, but are you sure about Ben Gordon M Dizzle?
Had not heard that, wow.

Go Aussies.

I think the Boomers 100 - 92 tonight.

Newley 20 pts.
Anderson 18 and 11.

Penney 22 for NZ
Dickel 12


Anyone else tipping?

Heal had a sly dig at Kendal within seconds of him hitting the court!

As for your tip DB5 I think your rather optimistic to predict 192 points to be scored in a 40min international!

Boomers up 18-16 @ end of first.

Boomers couldn't guard a cookie jar at the moment.

and with pero around thats a major problem ;)

Pero has single handedly dismantled us!!

My Half-time thoughts:

Boomers:

- Need to pick up the defense. Rotation is pathetic and with Mee and Smith on we can't stop penetration.
- Need to work the ball through Anderson on offence. He touches it and we seem to get better looks.
- Need to get up and guard Cameron - he is playing a part in most of the all-blacks plays.
- Need to box out.

Tall-Blacks

- Need to keep trying to penetrate and dish. They do this and they score.
- Try and keep the ball out of Andersons hands.
- Tighten up the zone.
- Running transition well when they have the oppurtunity.
- Running the pick & roll well with Cameron.

Crowd I'd say 4,500ish. Bottom section looks full but can see a fair amount of empty seats up top.

Boomers up 43-37 at the half.

Not sure of crowd, Boomers up at the half 43 - 37.
Anderson 11 and 1.
Boomers with 7 points off turnovers at the end of the half, should be down in my opinion.

The starting lineup just flat out lacks imagination .
No balance , No penetration , No creativity , No excitement .
Jason Smith starting , c'mon goorj. get off the monkey weed .

WOW , what a surprise .. put newley and mills on and we create some easy points , only 6 minutes too late.

This could be a decent team with the correct rotations .

NO smith or kendall .

Mee , Mills , Gibson
Newley , Ingles ,
Saville , Worthington
Mckinnon , Cattalini
Anderson , Schenscher , Hinder

Agreed DB5 - Boomers are very lucky to be in front at half. Id like to see more aggresive drives and use of Anderson inside from Boomers

Agree with everything there Bizzy, maybe run Newley off some screens? He seems to be getting manhandled a bit.

Mee seems a touch slow on defence, however makes up for it with smarts and long arms.. seems okay running the offence.
Pero is killing us, may even eat Mills with no one noticing by the end of the game!

Agreed, 192 is a long shot, just didn't think either team could play D!

can u listen into this game on the internet anywhere?

Don't believe so Roy.

Live scoreboard on BA though.

59-46 at 3/4 time.

One ugly game to watch.

Newley really forcing it, average game. Hopefully comes good in the last.
Anderson, making it look easy when they eventually pump it into him.
Mackinnon, doing his thing. A bit of everything.
Saville, very quiet 16point by 3 quarter time, if that makes sense....

Mee, solid.
Mills






The quickest person I have seen!!!!


Very poised, looks the real deal. Gifted..



Ugly game overall...no chance of 100 - 92 lol...

Boomers 79 - 67.
Shot 37 percent to NZ 50 percent!

Anderson 20pts
Penney 20 pts.

Yes, was at Vodaphone Arena.
Game 2 at Sydney.

On a positive ,

Excellent team D tonight
Mills , first time viewing of a 10+ year boomer PG
Anderson , Mackinnon , Saville were all very good .
Mee was solid after early fouls

Worthington so so .

not so positive ,

Newley ,frustrated ,forcing it .
Smith , past it .
Kendall , not up to it .

Kiwis flat out played bad, it was like it was their first game together.

Bradshaw will be a beast at Brisbane this year.

Goorj should be worried. If NZ have a good game we need more than a 12 point buffer.

Take away just the amount of nz turnovers and the game is even, the throw in some better shooting and actual offence structure and who knows.

Third quarter from NZ was horrible - you can see how they lost those games overseas. Boomers should've put them away by 30 and it could be worrying that they didn't?

Newley was pretty average, while Mills was very, very impressive - took 3-4 charges.

I thought Shane Heal was a good commentator last night.

Doesn't Lyn Parnell have the best job ever.
Somehow the guy has the commenting job on all Boomers games over the last 25 years.
How the hell did he get that job?? What does he do in between Olympics & world championships??

Isaac,
Earlier in this thread you intimated that Luke S wasn't selected because he couldn't beat Hinder. WELL, Hinder played 7 minutes for 2 points, 0 rebounds, 1 assist and Helliwell played 2 minutes for absolutely nothing.
Ryan - 7 minutes for 0 points. Kendall - 5 minutes for o points.
SURELY Luke, Joe and Jacob would have been better selections? Even Jason Smith played 18 minutes for 3 points, 2 rebounds and 3 fouls - not very productive from a veteran on court for those number of minutes.
Sure the Tall Blacks were fairly average, but were the Boomers that much better. Without Andersen, Saville and McKinnon this game may have had a different result.
I still think that Goorjian has selected an average team and that those on the outside should be asking questions.

I can never remember Isaac saying Hinder beat Luke S, and I'd be very surprised if he did say that....

Luke S turned his ankle and apparently didn't get the court time to justify his selection, if you believe Goorj.

Schenscher wasn't good enough at the camps/games to win a spot over Hinder.

You can't judge those guys playing a handful of minutes. Either they hit a couple of baskets or they don't get into the game.

Newley had all of four points. Not everyone had their ideal game.

Ingles in over Kendall, wouldn't be upset if Holmes got in over Hinder (means we're giving up height), but my info tells me Luke just wasn't good enough.

Wow....Hinder beating out Luke, but was that a healthy Luke or a Luke running around on bung ankles???

Apologies ANON12

I'd guess before he rolled his ankle on the tour? Might've been fairly new to the camp, but has worked out with Goorjian before for the Boomers?

Isaac,
I know that you have an inside track to info from the training camps, but I still cannot believe that Hinder is better than Luke or that Joe or Jacob would not be a better fit in the lineup.
Does your info indicate if Luke was sick/injured etc. Is it the fact that Goorjian has pre-conceived ideas about people and won't be swayed to select them. History indicates that this may be the case - just look at Brett, the Cat and JR as examples.

Don't get me wrong - I hoped he'd get in and I always wish him the best, but I just heard that he simply wasn't that good.

Maybe he doesn't suit the Goorjian style, maybe just just had a bad patch - who knows.

I think Hinder is a better fit than Holmes. Were one of Saville, Mackinnon or Worthington unavailable, I reckon Holmes might've got a run - he played his role very well last time he made the Boomers from the little I saw (CW Games?).

Plus he does a great job of sitting in the front row with a go boomers sign in hand.

ANON12, I was/still am a Holmes fan, but I really don't think he should have been selected. We're stocked up at the 3/4 spot with Mackinnon, Wortho and Sav, who are all are better players and can offer more at this level than Jacob.

I have to say, why is Jason SMith strarting? He did absolutely nothing last night. He's a step slow on D, he wasn't a threat on offence and he didn't help out at the point. Outside of being a King, I have no idea why he is even in the squad, and yet he logs big minutes as well...

ya know im a kiwi supporter and i live over here..and to b honest once i heard that u guys were missing bruton,bogut anstey and nielson it didnt take anything off the aussie team ..because right now aussie bball just has so much depth. even without 4 frontline players they are still one heck of a good team. Anderson was dominating over in Europe, Newley of course just got back from been in the NBA Summer League and Sam Mac is an awesome player. I mean on paper i always thought Australia were favourites 2 win regardless if they were missing 4 great players. Right now in the team they have 4 potential nba players: Mills,Anderson(who has played NBA),Sam Mac who has been trying for a few years and of course Brad Newley!