if we win, this wone (oh god i hope so) and then we will have another winnable game after that,Imagine the boomers back in the medalrounds! first time in 10 years...

Unfortunately we can't win this game. Slovenia's guards (Dragic, Lakovic, Udrih, Becirevic) are too good for Mills, Gibson, Martin.

My heart tells me Australia by 7, my head tells me Slovenia by 12.

It will be tough but Slovenia are definitely gettable in big games. They are not a great fourth quarter team (a bit like us!). Their fans could play a big part, but this is a good match-up for us.

If I had to tip - and to be honest I think it is a 50/50 contest - I think the emotion of the game will slow our guys down and we will fall short in a half court contest.

Our offence is too predictable for Euro teams, they see almost that exact offence week-in week-out in Euro club comps, and one coach I spoke to laughs at how easy it is to prepare for.

If we win we will have Turkey most likely which would be a VERY tough ask with the support they are getting.

Slovenia by 15.

fyi... it can be seen ....

http://myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=86605&part=sports

Mills will have to have a monster game for us to get over the line.
I'm with LC though, Boomers by 3!

Terrible start!

Newls can't shoot to save his life but he has been indispensable in other areas... Great key block...

Feels like the SRB game... Giving them plentiful 2nd chancers (which they are converting).

We SUCK!!!!

Kind of nauseous isn't it?

Mills has some work to do before he is a decent rounded pg. I hope his chucking will get him the contract his heart desires...

wow - each game gets worse and worse

bye bye boomers

Brett Brown, sub me in and I promise I'll contest a shot. Nothing I hate more than shit defense.

fucken boomers, i had hopes this year... now wewe will probably finnish s0okethin like 10th overall...and we are being THRASHED by this tea,

I have high hopes for the Boomers in every tournament but they always seem to disapoint.

Does anyone on our team know how to defend, this is so frustrating to watch slovenia have wide open 3 pointers!!!!

nielsen is the only player who wants this one. who wants to watch poor three point shooters jacking heavily contested threes? whats this fuckin coach doing? useless. how many times are we going to drive it into three guy defenders and hope for a call? i may only be a u14 coach, but this shit is frustrating.

I'm pretty sure Patty won't be getting an NBA contract after this...

Our offense if embarrassing to watch, wtf is wrong with our coaches and players don't they know any set plays?

omfg!!! did everyone see that!!! blocked shot!! how exciting.

Basketball Australia need to re think the Australian coaching position. Disgraceful!!!

we got owned

Embarrassing - i reckon the Japanese team could have beaten us today...

this is seriously pitiful to watch, im thankful i actually fell asleep thru the first half. every year, the boomers underachieve... perhaps we just think too much of our players? maybe theyre just not up to it? maybe we eed to get rid of the coach, either way, i dont wanna spewak optmiosticly about the future after seeing ythis. seems klike we will continue being inconsistant and average for the future of aussie basketball... and sadly, every 2 years ikl find myself glued to the TV hoping.

Brown - he has tried to get them playing like a European team, the only problem with that is the players are Australian. They grew up here and learned to play the game here, and yet the program seriously thinks it can beat the Europeans at their own game?

Brown's offense has been embarrassing. We aren't getting nearly as much out of our players as they are capable of. 5 assists in this game? We've relied on individual play way too much. How about generating points through a functioning offense? I think New Zealand have shown that the Oceania style of game can work at the international level. Brown somehow seems to disagree. Instead he's made a team of relatively potent offensive players into a defensively orientated, offensively impotent team.

Brown's only achievement at NBL level was with a veteran team led by an amazingly creative pass-first point guard. He underachieved woefully in his Sydney Kings days. So outside the NBL, what are his coaching achievements? Led a ratbag team to win the Stankovic Cup in 2009 against other 2nd-string teams?

To get so close to Argentina and Serbia, IMO, is an indication of the potential of this team, in spite of a pathetic offense.

By the way, the Boomers were notoriously slow starters throughout the tournament, not just in this game. I wonder if Brown even thought of changing the starting 5.

Not a good game at all for the Boomers - a very disappointing game in losing 58-87.

Compounding the defeat, it was Australia's largest at a FIBA World Championship against an opponent not named the USA or the USSR.

Ingles and Mills top-scored for the Boomers with 13 each and Nielsen had 12.

Boomers were just 2/19 from long range and shot 41% from the field and only had a total of 5 assists for the game. Slovenia made 16/33 from long range and shot 51.9% from the field.

BA Recap: http://linky.com.au/4dzgt

It's the kind of loss that leaves you feeling hollow. FIBA doesn’t play classification games for teams eliminated from competition prior to the top eight so that's it for us.

Turkey easily accounted for France last night in the other game.

Pretty dismal showing.
On the ropes from the outset. Outgunned inside. Stagnant offense and turnovers. Recipe for disaster.
Mills disappointing, tried too hard (rushed as a result) and went solo too often. Joe Ingles hardly looked like he's been playing in Europe.
When they went into catch up mode, Slovenia picked them apart.
Back to the drawing board.

It is so immensely disappointing to be thrashed like that. I hate it when, and this happens almost every time with the Boomers, they talk them up in the media. We heard it all before the tournament, "Boomers a chance for a medal", I just wish their was a more realistic assessment of our chances.

We should have known last year when the nucleus of this team lost to NZ, the writing was on the wall then. Also I don't want to be a Patty Mills basher but really his form since the Beijing Olympics has been rather average. I say this because so many think he is the answer...I think in many ways he is the problem due to his style of play and the vital position he occupies (PG). He is really, at this level, a back up PG or a sixth man off the bench to energise a flagging team...he currently hasn't got it in him to run a team.

Let's face it the writing was on the wall when we performed a miracle to beat Jordan. How quickly was that forgotten when we were destroying Germany.

It is a disappointing loss, but really only for the lack of competitiveness rather than the result. We came into the tournament ranked outside the top ten. We finish outside the top ten. No real surprises there.

The World Champs are so ultra-competitive, any team can beat any other on their day. A 3-3 record is not so bad when two of those three games were winnable games against powerhouses in Argentina and Serbia. Unfortunately we couldn't get over the line in the ones that mattered, and didn't show up for the quarter finals match up.

But that would be why we are outside the top ten. Honestly, for all of our local bias, on paper the Aussie team was overmatched by any of the teams that have made their way into to top 8.

Two years to London 2010. We have a nucleus of young guys who will improve, and hopefully we can find a few more diamonds in the rough. But we will still probably be remarkably lucky to reach the top 8.

we really need to settle that shooting guard spot, we need a talented guard in the mould of ginobli, or something... all the guards we have, are league below that... only JUST competing.

Watching that game was like waking up in a strange bed after a night out, rolling over and realising there is a horror next to you and you know you went there, but the protection you should of been wearing can't be located..

Stuff nightmares are made off...

Am I the only one who thinks Newley could command that starting SG position? I know he had a disastrous tournament shooting-wise, but his impact pre-Brown era (and in Europe) was quite respectable, moreso than, say, a less credentialed Boomer playing, arguably, even more out of position, Gibson.

Ingles is far from automatic from range, but I don't see an issue with him starting at SG also. I like Gibson and his defensive attributes, but I'm not sure he warrants the minutes that he was receiving.

As for the SG issue, who was our SG in Beijing? Why wasn't it such an issue back then?

Does any else like Shane Heal a lot more today than they did yesterday?

Those saying our players aren't world class, I have to disagree. Maric was named all-Euroleague last season. Nielsen is well respected in Europe. Euro-Andersen is a championship magnet and a terrific complementary inside-outside 4-man. Newley has earned a new contract with a top-tier European team. Recall that he was our equal-second leading scorer in Beijing.

I wouldn't call these guys second class. Sure, Bogut is well and truly a level above them, but we have a decent team on paper with some quality players.

Many of them had played with each other in prior Australian teams. They should've had a degree of chemistry.

What did Brown get out of them? Maric averaged 6ppg after his first game. Newley went 2/17 from 3pt range for his 6.5ppg (half what he averaged in Beijing). The offense was regularly visibly stunted. Outside feeding the post, there were few plays run to use the particular strengths of players. As a team, we shot at 30% from 3pt range throughout the tournament. How often did we see a play run to generate an open three?

This is not a second class team, but it is a group of individuals who generally underperformed. I know who I find mostly responsible.

excuse my ignorance but why wasn't there no Andrew Ogilvy or Nathan Jawai in the team?

Ogilvy was in the training squads but didn't make the final cut.

Nathan Jawai withdrew as he was about to become a dad and is/was also assessing his playing options for next season.

Brown wasn't the reason Australia shot the ball so poorly. As for rubbishing all your players and calling them second class, NZ has a quarter of the depth of Australia and would love to have half the guys that you are all hating on. Slovenia aren't shit and Australia played below average and got burnt, end of story.
Now lets hope the Tall Blacks can pull off a win against Russia and get through.

I'm with you rjd. I'm astonished that Newley hasn't been starting in the SG position all tournament.

I'm in agreeance with Mystro. We have a lot more depth in our ranks that many posters give us credit for. It is so easy to hate after a bad game.

Make no mistake, the Boomers under-performed against Slovenia. But please remember we had chances to beat Argentina, and despite playing below par, we had our chances to get past Serbia as well. Yes we didn't, but we got close against 2 of the world best teams.

Coach Brown could have done some things better, but so could have the individuals in our team. In reality, our best chance to win a medal at this level was always going to be in London 2012 (should we be able to get past New Zealand in the qualifiers), when the core group of players will be in their prime - including Bogut and Jawai to come into the team.

Things could be worse in that we were not that far away from missing out on progressing from the group stage - much like Germany (who are still the only team to beat Serbia) and Puerto Rico (who IMO were the biggest underperforming team in the entire WC's).

Agreed re the hate.

We flogged Germany, should have beaten Argentina (Gibson should not have had the shot, Barlow would have been better from the corner), beat Jordan and Angola like we were meant to.

Unfortunately we played our worst game at the most important time.

I am most disapointed in the subs. Did Brown ever change the starting 5?

Lets be honest, Maric didn't want to compete for this team. He want's to play for Serbia HELLO???? Two years time will be the make or break of Brett Brown. If we can get a core group that can get stronger and grow together we could be a chance with the BigBogie in London. Bogut will be in the prime of his carreer and everyone will be better because of it. Patty needs to learn how to play with a dominating center. smarter shot selection must also be addressed, became a bit of a problem. Everyone had there moments but it's hard to pick a consistent performer. Matt Neilson deserves a pat on the back, showed spirit and leadership throughout the campaign.

Neilson was the rock for that team and I really hope that hes in the olympics.

Its a completely different team with Bogut in the paint. Euro players can't compete against that. Primoz Brezec was the bucks 4th center and he dominated against our bigs. Its a no brainer. Why wouldn't he represent the country he has represented his whole career. Everyone wants to play in the olympics, unless of course his body lets him down. Tuch wood.

what i dont like to see is the presence of heal in the bench. mostly when mills mentioned the mentoring he's getting from him

hopefully we can have more go to guys next time who can effectively drive and burn the hoops when needed most

I get so mad when everyone says, oh we are building for 2012, or this team is making 'baby steps', what a load of tosh. This IS the senior MENS basketball team, not the juniors, not the U17 Mens. And these are the World Championships, not a preparatory friendly against Tonga where younguns are blooded. All the preparation happens in camps and in the prelim contact with players whilst at their clubs telling them what they need to do so that when they move through the notification, to the camp, to the friendlies, to the qualifiers, and through the Warm up games and onto the main event there are no excuses. The team was terrible against Jordan, terrible against Slovenia, pretty ordianary for much of the game against Serbia, Awesome against Germany, ho-hum against Angola. But what was so annoying was the horrid, horrid offence for pretty much the last two months, and for that some blood letting has to follow...it just can't be 'business as usual'.

Basketball is a generational thing, and knowing this most teams attempt a healthy mix of veterans and youth, the Boomers attempted this, but for whatever reason it hasn't bore any fruit. The other thing that disturbs me is the continual allusion to the 'supreme' talent the Boomers are coming up against. Sure they're solid teams but come on Australia just FLAT OUT aren't playing well, have terrible offensive sets, no perimeter defence and so many other gaping holes in their game....let's call a spade a spade. The Australian MENS basketball team has some serious problems going forward.

Okay...I'm done now...maybe....

Oh...and one more thing...like a lot of others on this site I just can't fathom why Shane Heal was selected as an assistant coach. It is as if those running BA are so scared of failre that they are covering themselves by hiring 'names' so that 'if' something goes pear shaped they can hide behind the fact that they hired 'Shane Heal', and 'Brett Brown'. I think by the by that they got enamoured with Browns NBA connections rather than whether he had the best contemporary understanding of the Australian Basketball scene.

Lets hope we will have full commitments from our players...Bogut a Fit jawai better experience mills we will be ok....