What we forget (- and i only remembered this yesterday) is that the Boomers lost against Greece on the buzzer back in our pool game at the last WCs... So i think we really need to address this conisistency issue beacause clearly we have had decent squads the last few years and just seem to have too many brain farts (just like the CRO/ARG games)...

Definitely Andersen seems to be nowhere near as good as some have had us believe...

My belief is our bigs are just too dumb.

Anderson and Anstey just continualy make stupid, dumb decisions, and as has been mentioned, have no inside power or athleticism.

Need big, solid, passing bigs like the Euro teams.

Missed Nathan Jawai I believe.

Looking to the future and it really is bright for our team. Mills, Newley and Ingles will be in their prime when the next Limpics comes around, as will Bogut (once we find his spine..)
The huge positive will be the addition of Jawai.
He would of been real handy last night against the yanks, taking up space in the paint and BOXING OUT!


Mills strikes me as a bit of a Rondo, with a better shot.

The play of Worthington was good i thought, showed a bit last night and i think a Euro team would be real happy with someone like him.

The forgotten Boomer- Aaron Bruce could play a part in future campaigns too...

. our bigs are dumb , no doubt about it . I don't see much going on behind the eyes of Andersen and whilst Anstey , Bogut and Nielson are not stupid they play stupid much of the time .

I think it is more to do with the fact that while that the quartet of bigs are all tall, they are not actually big. Anstey is a stick figure when you put him up against the big boys in international basketball, let alone a Lebron type American. Bogut has NBA size, but he certainly didn't show himself to be a person who could dominate the boards (makes you pine for a Bradtke).

I agree that if we put Jawai in that team to take up space, along with probably one or two other solid athletic big guys, the team would be entirely different. Unfortunately, our current crop of big guys are, at international level, soft.

Worthington was awful - not an international calibre player at the 3 spot. Silly fouls, has brain freezes when you least need them. Arrogant - will come back here and bully people at the 4 in the NBL.

Anstey - may indeed be MVP of our league, BUT...cannot play Internationally as a big. Doesn't rebound, shoots it too much and turns it over.

Redhage - if he didn't play, why not take Ogilvy and not play Ogilvy much? A wasted opportunity to take along a young big for the experience and chance to develop.

Couldn't agree more about Ogilvy.

He really should of got the chance to play...

2012 Olympic team

Bogut/Ogilvy/Jawai
Anderson/Nielsen/Kickert
Ingles/Maric
Newley/Bruce
Mills/Dellavadova

2012

starters:
5 Nathan Jawai/Ogilvy
4 Andrew Ogilvy/Jawai
3 David Barlow
2 Brad Newley
1 Patrick Mills

bench rotation players:
4-5 Matt Nielsen (will be 34...too old?)
2-3 Joe Ingles
1 Aaron Bruce (only if playing in Europe by this point, but doubt he will if he gets comfortable in Australia. otherwise, Steve Markovic, cos he will be in Europe)

remaining bench players:
Anatoly Bose
Steve Markovic/Aaron Bruce
Julian Khazzouh?
Mark Worthington?

no bogut cos i reckon his heart might give in by this point and he will have retired from international basketball.

forgot maric. he'll be there ahead of khazzouh.

don't think andersen will be good enough to make the team to be honest, as all the bigs ahead of him will be better (ogilvy, jawai, nielsen if still around, maric, loughton, ?kickert?)

Barlow has really got to improve his handle.

Mills isn't half the defender Rondo is. I think Mills is great but Rondo has a huge wingspan and more height. The NBA loves fast guards so I think Patty should be able to make it as a backup PG.

Anderson didn't really provide the muscle or the inside presence required. Hopefully Jawai will be starting at PF at the next major tournament.

Newley looked like he is progressing nicely in Greece. Still needs to bulk up a bit more and continue working on his ball handling if he wants to make it in the NBA.

Really enjoyed Ingles' limited play. Hopefully we'll see more of it next time round.

Can someone tell me why we didn't play zone against the US.

how arrogant are the Ausies and their fans to believe they could actually challenge the might of the USofA

I love how Bogut has become such an easy target for forum posters in Adelaide or Australia who have zero understanding of the way the Boomers squad has prepared and been managed.

Bogut was forced by his club/agent/NBA to sit out Boomers camps and pre-Olympic games until his contract and insurance issues had been resolved. But of course thats Bogut's fault right?

He injured his ankle in one of the few pre-Olympic games he did play and so he's labeled soft. Does anyone on this site know the extent of his initial injury? No. Does anyone on here know if he is even meant to be playing at the Olympics? No.

Bogut has clearly suffered from 1) lack of preperation with the team 2) lack of fitness (through carrying an injury) 3) trying to work within a very structure system which every Boomers player finds hard to deal with; a major reason BG played so many Kings in the past. They trained well at camps because they play all year in his system, others don't and it's not an easy one to pick up even for a professional athlete. 4) Expectations that Bogut would dominate were simply unrealistic. He's just not that type of player. He's a solid, smart big man who thrives in the right environment. He's also playing against the best big men in the world, many of whom have better credentials then he does. Also he's playing in a team with no leadership on the floor. Neither CJ or Pat Mills took control on the court on those failed games. Neilsen is the Captain of the Boomers but clearly isn't a floor leader, in fact no one on that Boomers team is.

Bogut again suffers an ankle injury during the game last night and is forced to the bench. Anyone who saw the close up of him while the medicos were working on his ankle would realise the guy was in some serious pain.

As has been discussed this Boomers squad had a terrible preperation for the Olympics. Both due to the schedule they managed to put together and also due to the coaching philosophy of going 100% for the win in every game. Read Boti's write up, it's pretty clear to everyone that the Boomers gave away their game plan (again) before the Olympics even started.

Then in the first two games the players have no idea of roles or structures and BG throws in a junk defence which fails. Again that's Bogut's fault somehow because he should have put the team on his shoulders and got them the win himself anyway.

Basketball Australia and BG haave failed at another Olympics and the management of the Boomers needs more attention and planning. The emergence of Mills, Newley, Ingles, Bogut etc shows we have some talent but that will only get us so far. To blame one player for the woes that were the Boomers Olympics is at best lazy and unfair and at worst incredibly niave.

We should have finished higher up than we did and the first two games unfortunately killed us.
Looking at the overall stats,
Bruton: ST/TO Ratio 2.5 Assists/40 mins = 5.26 (team best)
Bogut: PPM 0.64 (best)

Rebounding was the problem - off. rebounds show how hungry a team is. We were down in that area.

Jingles played 47 mins for the tournament, yet scored 0.51 PPM and 4.2 Steals per 40 mins (best) Should have had more court time.

Thought Newley and Mills were the standouts. Those who were overplayed were:
Ansty, Anderson and Worthington
Those underplayed: Jingles
Thought Bogieman did a good job, but his ankle was obviously an injury carried into the Olympics which seemed to flair up just when he was put to the litmus test........

Biggest disappointment for me was David Andersen. I believed that between him and Bogut we would of been pretty sweet against every other country. I was proven wrong......

Worthington and Sav, waste of time. Would or preferred to have taken some youngsters in their place, maybe Maric and Kickert.

Redhage I'm undecided about. He didn't get much burn so hard to judge. Given Goorj's game plan maybe it would of been better to take Harvey instead.

David Anderson was a poor man's Jerry Dennard.

How easily was he pushed out the way for a big man?? Often after a US missed free throw last night he was shoved out the way and the US grabbed an offensive board for a put back. It was embarrassing.

Maybe we can all look back at this point in time and say with some authority that Australian Bball died at the 2008 olympic games.

May the girls go on and take gold; that will be a fantastic and well deserved achievment for the team and in fact all women in the sport.

It is an unfortunate fact of life that if the men fail so will the funding.

Can't fail much more than it has though. NBL will carry on, get reinvented a bit and then either improve or keep trundling along.