550 - so I've spent a bit of time this morning trying to understand your angst with these girls. I'm assuming you are the same poster who posted on 18's National thread accusing these girls of having 'pea-hearts'? Or is there an epidemic of 16-year-old SA Country girls (and by association, their team-mates) bashing going on?

They won the series 2-1. Its always tough to sweep a series given the opportunities for the losing team to make more adjustments than the winning team. Especially when the squad goes into the last game of the series without their leading scorer (by design).

The Japanese squad contained some players up to 6 years older than the AUS squad.

I'm not sure I understand why it aggrieves you so that this group have 'under-achieved' (by going in 5-1 in the grand total of 6 games they have played together).

I'm reasonably familiar with this age group - I've had the chance to see many of the players for the past few years at Nationals and Country Cup tournaments as well as a couple of training camps and one game against the Kiwi's. Can't say I've ever had the feeling that there are a plethora of more capable, or more determined, or more skilled players out there who should be in this team. For sure there are players who are entitled to feel as if they could do the job as well as somebody who is in the group but that is the nature of subjective selections.

There's no doubt that all the evidence suggests there will be a significant amount of turnover within this group as it moves through the age group and nobody is measuring any of these girls up for a 2012 Olympic Tracksuit just yet - but maybe that's because their basketball journey has really only just begun (hopefully). Give them a break.

I think you are being unfair to the other SA girls, they all have something to offer the team, not just Thompson. Talbot and Wilson are both a year younger and Smith coming back from serious illness, give these girls a break, it was a friendly tournament that gave the coaches a chance to see the dynamics of the team in various formats. If you need to talk Thompson up she should in effect be more experienced having played several games in the WNBL and attending the AIS, something the others girls have not been yet achieved.

Is this the final squad or will they consider others after 18 Nationals next month?

ANON 590 Thompson easily best from SAC. So look forward to her picking up best from opposition i.e. Tippett,Roberts, Payne and co.

Sa Sally, Friends out East, I was informed, do you know anything for a fact, or do you just believe everything your told and then feel obliged to pass others opinions onto all of us.

I believe the squad will be trimmed to 15/16 after Nationals and then the final team selected after a camp at the start of May. Not sure whether there is provision for any outside the group to be brought in at this stage (these players and the balance of the 25 have been together working on team play for a number of camps now) although there were two players (I think) brought into the group this year.

Sa Sally - if you have a look at the history of previous teams selections (Gems at least - U20's) you'll see that the first group picked (following the 16's Nationals) rarely stay intact through to the 20's. Don't know what axe you have to grind but go back and have a look at last year's Gems group and see how many were there when the group was first brought together.

So the National Team Coach - who I'm sure has coaching aspirations beyond this year, is so far off the mark that he has included in the best twenty players in the country (in the selection groups' opinion) a player who is not in the best 10 players in the metro area of her State? I haven't worked with him for a while but I'd be surprised if his judgment has slipped that far!!

553 - this squad consists of selected 16 and I think 3 reserves, the initial group of 25 were only together for 2 camps, June and September 09.

Sorry - my bad - I didn't realise every opinion on here was to go unchallenged.

That's good though because I think the entire Vic U18 team should make up the National team - they've played together before, they always win Nationals and it would certainly cut down on the travel costs of bringing the group together for BA.

Really, Victoria is the home of basketball in Australia, I'm not sure why they even bother having National Championships any more.

775: Your tongue in cheek comment is, unfortunately, almost reality tho isn't it? Pedigree is sometimes considered sufficient to pick players in basketball. Identified talent is never challenged despite poor performances and because there is so litle between the top 50 players, subjective selections can never be challenged.
Basketball selectors, above most sports, become blinkered to looking outside the few and seem to lack the intestinal fortitude to pick players outside the 'basketball family network' as that would mean rocking the boat.
Victoria do lead the way through sheer weight of numbers in having the best talent available in the sport but they also lead the way in being afraid to pick players who may not have the pedigree that selected players do. This trend is an Australian wide phenomenon. Thus many selections keep basketball an all in the extended family affair. Some might call this nepotism but basketball calls it normal.

776 - yet Australia has ridden this nepotistic process to the uppermost branches of the world tree (particularly our girls and junior teams) - its hard to argue that it doesn't work.

I'm a parent with a kid who gets picked sometimes and gets left out sometimes - depending on the team. She works her arse off to improve her game and yes, there are players who have been picked ahead of her previously that I wouldn't have picked. But that is the coach's job, and they have to go with what they see and what they want.

Because I've also been a coach and a player I know that there's not much worse than taking a player you can't or don't want to use - for whatever the reason. Except for being the player forced on a coach who doesn't want you - and doesn't use you.

As heartbreaking as its been at the time for my daughter when she's missed out on teams, we've not yet found an example of it holding her long-term development in the game back at all.

While you might argue that there isn't much between the top 50 in the country, I'd argue that isn't the case. While that might not be obvious if you put #1 and #50 into teams in the local comp, you put #1 and #50 into a team up against the best players in the world and the difference becomes obvious. What we are talking about is the difference between #'s 8 through 16. The first 7 or so always pick themselves - #'s 17 through 25 eliminate themselves (I remember one time when I asked a National Coach why he left a player out of a junior squad he said he needed world-class heads as well as world-class bodies). Now you are picking 5 players (for a national team, 3 for a state team) from 9. All talented, all motivated, all athletic - you simply have to get down to intangibles at that stage - who will fill a role, who will become a stopper, who will give us instant offense, who dominates against a weak team but doesn't make the step up, who does the same job against every level of competition, even who will (relatively) happily sit on the bench throughout the tournament without causing friction. I can't reasonably assume to know what the coach wants, just as when its me making that call, other onlookers (including better coaches than me) can't know.

271784 - what a great post!

Unfortunately, I think it's wasted on it's target, as 776 is notorious on here for his negativity on all things basketball - his bitterness and petty grudges will not be swayed by your intelligent post.

Post of the year for mine though!

???

So does everybody on here. I thought there was a convention on here about naming (or providing initials for a player who is one of 20 on a publicly available list, and the only player with those initials) players under 18? Please refrain. I'd be horrified to think you thought you were entitled to publicly comment about eiter of my daughters.

So please tell, Sa Sally, what is your beef with this team?

No - there's a beef. Started with the second post in this thread, trashing these kids. Was your daughter not picked? Nor was mine but it's hard to argue the system isn't working.