I don't think we're too small at all, but the line-ups we're playing might be. Andersen, Neilsen, Maric and Baynes is plenty of size inside - with Wortho provide an excellent option as 'stretch four'.

For mine, the Boomers biggest problems have been defending the three pointer after committing numbers inside and giving up second chance points. Both of these could possibly be helped by avoiding the two point-guard line-ups.

Maybe more Barlow or Ingles at the 2 - as we need ballhandling and playmaking next to Mills.

Missing a lights-out shooter is a problem, if you swapped Gibson with a prime Heal or Maher we would have a sick, sick, sick team.

Mills
Ingles/Barlow/Newley (depending on who is hitting shots)
Wortho
Andersen
Maric


Would have definately been a better line up in the second half last night.

That and putting a hand in a shooter's face.

i made a comment on Twitter last night that i dont think ive seen the aussies best 5 out on the court yet this tournament... then ppl asked me who that 5 is.

Before last nights game I would have said:

Maric, Andersen, Neilsen, Ingles, Mills but it was pointed out that Neilsen could never guard a 3.

So during last night's game I kinda changed my mind to Maric, Andersen, Newley, Ingles, Mills.

BUT i did like the small team we had out there a few times with full court pressure with Neilsen, Wortho, Barlow, Newley, Ingles and everyone switching on screens.

BTW - i dont think i've seen either of my 2 choices above on the court at the same time yet.

Gibbo has been a revelation in this Boomers squad with his hustle and never say die attitude. Okay we lost but we have had good games against both Argentina and Germany. Other teams now come into games against the Boomers ready for a tight tustle and respect the way players like Gibson and Worthington etc play.

I agree, I don't think as a team we are too small, although we would all rather Patty was 6'6" rather than a smidgeon under 6".

I think DJ Rod may be onto something though, I'm not sure whether we have had our best performing players on at any given time in this tourney.

A few times I have noticed that just when someone appears to be heating up with scoring, made a few consecutive hustle or defensive plays, then they get rewarded by being subbed off!

One thing Brett Brown should do more of is not worrying so much about giving everyone some court time, but rather playing the players that are performing and if they are doing a good job, letting them see more minutes out there injstead of rotating for the sake of rotating players.

Also, I picked up from an article on tonight's game against Angola on the BA website that a few of the boys are carrying stomach complaints...

"A number of the Australians are suffering from stomach problems, but they had no interest in using that as an excuse as the opportunity to give themselves the best possible second-round seeding slipped away."

I just want to focus on the Boomers offense from behind the 3-point line.

For an undersized 4 who can shoot from range, I think we've been underutilising Worthington. The offense hasn't created many open looks for Newley, but we've run potential game-winning plays for Gibson to shoot the 3. Goorj (and the Tigers) used Barlow well by providing open three-point or deep two-point looks for him, but seldomly done by Brown.

Our leading 3 point shooters by attempts are:
Mills 9/23 @39%
Ingles 6/19 @32%
Gibson 4/14 @29%
Newley 1/14 @7%
Andersen 5/12 @42%
Wortho 4/7 @57%
Nielsen 2/4 @50%
Barlow 2/3 @67%
Martin 0/2 @0%

Before the tournament, who would you rate as our best 3-point shooters? For mine, the top 4 in conversion rate would be Newley, Barlow, Andersen, Wortho. While Newley has been ice cold (7%), look how the others are fairing (67%, 42%, 57% respectively). And how many shots are they putting up? Instead, we've got Ingles and Gibson putting up plenty more 3s.

If you were thinking, that's only because Ingles and Gibson are playing more minutes, this is the leaders in 3PAs per minute.

Mills 0.21
Gibson 0.18
Ingles 0.17
Newley 0.16
Wortho 0.16
Andersen 0.11
Barlow 0.07
Martin 0.06
Nielsen 0.04

Mills, I understand. But Gibson and Ingles our most trigger-happy 3-point threats? Meanwhile, Barlow, who should be a microwave on this team, is a relative bystander.

great stats there...

"combinations for situations"

the serb coach had brett 'chasing his tail' all night,bretts combinations......over reacting.....not reacting....under reacting.

mills
barlow
ingles
neilson
anderson

is a combo that may have been worth a try late in the game.

I should have added to my post before that the reason the rapid fire substitutions COULD be because of the high number of games in a short period of time.

I did notice Neilsen not looking very well in a time out early on and I know Markovich is ill.

My Starting 5

5 Maric
4 Aderson
3 Neilson
2 Ingles
1 Mills...


6 Wortho/Newly
7 Barlow/Gibson

The Starting 5 should all be playing 30 mins + in the big games...

We defiantly struggle when we dont hit 3's and Freethrows??

We miss CJ so much. He would have had the answers to them last night. I'm ok with 1 6 ft guard anon, i think playing 2 exposes us against big sides & they are all big sides!

I think our guards are short and it is big difference between 6ft and 6,6ft(17 - 20 cm). Mills is to short and couldn't do almost anything against fast and tall Serbian guards.

Melbourne's Herald-Sun article online:

http://linky.com.au/s1nyf

CJ only shoots the open shots at this level, what he does well is make great entry passes to the post and make sure the ball is running through hands and that the offence starts early in the shot clock.

Not sure he would have been 'the answer' though but a cool veteran head always helps. We put up 79 against Serbia so it wasnt a disastrous offensive effort.

We are still in contention for 3rd place in the group which I think I'd be correct in suggesting many of us expected at the start of the Champs (vs being in 2nd place which we were more hopeful).

Hopefully we will finish in 3rd spot because we have a real chance at knocking off Slovenia.

We are ranked 12th in the world so progressing to the final 8 will be a great result (if we get there). I've come to appreciate just how good our team was in the late 80's and 90's since the last Olympics.

After the 0-8 3PTS start to the Angola game, it had me wondering why it was Gibson, Ingles and Nielsen putting all those 3s up. Then I realised that it was the lineup absent of perimeter threats that Brown was persisting with: Maric, Nielsen, Ingles, Gibson, Mills. Without getting inside opportunities, that's all there is -- second class perimeter shooters.

Any coincidence that things picked up once Wortho, Newley, and Barlow were injected into the game, creating lineups that provide more inside-outside balance.

I don't rate wortho.

Without getting into the combinations and rotations the things that haven't been done consistently are .

Putting solid pressure when closing out to shooters , especially a deterring hand in the face . One bit of daylight and the Euros will nail it .

Boxing out opposition , Again Ingles is the main culprit but others have failed miserably . Too quick to get on the break , secure the rock first hey .

Penetration and kick to utilise our good 3 point shooters , we are taking too many contested triples and too early in the offence . Also , penetration and hitting cutters . Try and drag out their bigs and then have your SF slashing to hoop . make the opposing C react , we either draw some fouls or we can kick out to our bigs who all have steady range .

Inside / outside game and patience in offence . Gotta make teams play D in these long tournament scenarios .

The one thing we have consistently done is jack up early and ill advised jump shots .