Under 19 Girls. Team no show. When I used to caoch that age group it usually meant that someone has a party on the night and the girls have got their priorities.

at an international tournament it is probably the country couldn't afford to send them

I feel sorry for the people - particularly the girls involved that could not make it. It would be very disappointing.

Quite a few of their players had visa issues so they didnt come. It means the Aussies get today off, but with the cold, wet and windy weather over here I dont think they will get too much site seeing done!

Shame though, each game at a worlds is handy to get the team gelling. They play Chile tomorrow which wont be a challenge and then a big test against France on Saturday.

The Gems had their first game tonight against Chile in front of a bog, loud crowd (2000-2500) and did a pretty good job, winning 77-46 after a pretty hard struggle.

Chile dont have a lot of talent but they are well coach and they scrap very hard on defence. Tayla Roberts was the standout with 20-10, but more importantly everyone blew the cobwebs off and got into WC mode.

They play France tomorrow arvo in what should be a decent test of where they are at.

is roberts from tassie - I seem to recall her putting up very good numbers as well last lot of international games

Yep. She is one of a plethora of tall girls in this Aussie team, probably the tallest in the tournament. Not sure if they have enough ballhandlers but we will see.

roberts - college prospect ?

tippett ? heard uconn are / were interested along with Duke. Absolute top self offers there - uconn with Geno and the crew - woah !

sorry "top shelf"

She looks good, has great size, but I will wait until they have played some better opposition.

The Gems just did a superb, 67-45 demolition of France, who had no answer for the Gems' zone. With their size, length and long arms they must have had over 50 deflections for the game!

Rebecca Cole was outstanding with 18 points and really created a lot of the offence early, an area that is a potential weak spot. All the bigs were good and they easily won the boards, 46-32.

Next up is most likely Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) on Monday in the Eight Finals round, though there is a chance it could be Slovenia (they are playing Spain next and need to pull off an upset).

tippett turned pro with logan.

And Roberts is playing for Bulleen.

If anyone wants to listen to the U19 WC games online try this ustream channel.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fibau19women

Rodrigo Hunriche is the guy doing the commentator, he is a Chilean from the English speaking website 'I Love Chile'. His English isnt super but it's much better than my Spanish and you can definitely follow the game -it is much better than nothing.

The Gems are playing the next three games at 11am EST.

so tippett cant play college ball ever ? or can she red shirt in the future ?

Gems doing really well - that win over France was awesome. Let's hope they keep going.

Australia play Chinese Taipei next up in the second grou phase. Brazil look to be tough in their group and Spain will be no pushover either.

Brazil are excellent, extremely athletic. US, Aus, Brazil and Canada are the favourites at the moment, Japan are the absolute darkhorse and have flogged everyone but the US, while Spain are dangerous even though they havent played that well yet.

Today, the US had a very lucky escape, beating China 80-77 after Mengran Sun's game tying triple missed just seconds before the buzzer. A real scare for the Yanks who had been pretty impressive up until then.

Australia are bulldozing their way past Chinese Taipei right now...

http://chile2011.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/11/fu19w/p/index.html

Australia beat Chinese Taipei 89-46.

We take on Spain tomorrow.

Didnt see this game as I was at the other stadium covering France v Spain (France won on a buzzer beater!), but the folks at the Aussie game said they didnt just beat a minnow, they looked damn good doing it.

Tomorrow and Weds the bigger tests, especially Weds. Dont forget you can listen live at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fibau19women from 11am EST.

looking at the box score - some very well balanced team stats - spanish game will be good.

How funnny is the commentary?? haha

He's hilarious! He's sitting right behind me so I have to listen to every game!! Aussies rolling over Spain at the moment, Bec Cole is dominating.

Aussies missing a lot of makeable shots and letting Spain back into the game.

Girls have missed about 10 lay-ups in the second half, and a number of short jump shots. Own worst enemies.

Make that 11 but Bec Allen has hit two huge threes on step outs from the top of the key.

Maker that 3 huge triples for ALlen!@!! Game tied at 61

Bec COle makes the toughest lay-up of them all and is off to the line after getting hammered.

Some much better composure down the stretch and they hold on for a great victory.

Good to hear...thanks for the blow by blow Paul!

Brazil will be a greater challenge - next up. In any case, Australia will finish top two now in the 1/8 stage and avoid USA and Canada in the quarter final where we will meet either the dangerous Japan (if we lose against Brazil) or Russia.

No worries. We have to lose to Brazil by more than 16 by my calculations to lose top spot. Brazil lost by 12 to France tonight at the other gym and didnt look good apparently. They will enjoy Australia's more open style though, so should be a challenge.

If anyone wants to listen to the second half and particularly the last quarter when Allen hits her big shots (not to mention enjoy the comedy of the commentator) go here:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/16263462

Has Cole been playing PG for the Gems? She has never played true PG for the AIS or for Victorian teams - but if she can develop into a real international point guard then we may finally have a solid replacement for Harrower. Cole's height and athleticism would suit the international game perfectly! And by the look of her stats from this tournament and at WNBL level, she knows how to distribute the ball. Thoughts?

She has been playing pg (along with Harrington and Clydesdale) and so far has been one of the best guards in the tournament in a Damian Martin kind of way.

Her penetration on offence has created a truckload of shots and she is hounding oppo point guards. Her old man is also one of the loudest people in the stadium!!

Aus are playing Brazil now, you can listen online at the above link and follow live scores at www.chile2011.fiba.com.

Canada beat USA today to take first place in the other group. Russia beat Italy so they will be our opponent if we win or lose by less than 17.

recent article from Geno rates us high - aus, us ,canada and brazil

Aussie in some strife here, Brazil are on fire, Gems turning it over regularly and the margin is now 15, giving them only 2 points to spare before they lose top spot.

Brazil by 18 at 3/4 time. We need to rally here, we dont want Japan in the quarters, they are DANGEROUS when hot.

Now 24 with 4mins to go, Aussies not playing with the composure they need to reduce the gap to 16.

not sounding good - but a loss might straighten them up a bit

Yep, we are in the Spain and Canada side of the draw. Missing the US is good, but Canada are outstanding, and Japan are close to the most deadly team in the tourny when hot.

Still good to get this game (29 turnovers) out of the way now and not in the knockout round.

far out on the turn overs !

Hopefully this is the "loss we had to have"

Disappointing to see 3 girls not hit the court.
Would have thought you would play all girls in a game that was well and truly lost in the 4th quarter.

The experience they would have gained may be needed down the track????

I think they were trying to get the margin back down to 16 to get first place. To be honest, last night, the benchies couldnt have done any worse than the main rotation, it was one of those games.

Game vs Japan is on at 6.30am tomorrow morning EST, let's hope the Japanese have an off shooting night.

Preview is here - http://chile2011.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/11/fu19w/news/p/eid/5201/nid/48363/sid/5201/article.html

You can listen live here - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fibau19women. Rodrigo is getting better too so worth a listen if awake!

The Gems prevailed 92-83 after one hell of a fight with an awesome Japan team. The Japanese were shooting close to 50% from range in the first half and things didnt look good.

But the Japanese cooled a bit when the Aussies went to a zone and Tayla Roberts didnt get any smaller, scoring 16 points in the third quarter on her way to 41 and 17 rebounds for the game. Bec Cole was also excellent with 17 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists - her game was vital against the Japanese guards.

The Gems did a great job of getting Roberts the ball when she sealed, just as Japan did a great job of exploiting their speed mismatches. It was a great game and this win should not be underestimated.

They play Spain tomorrow at around 8.45am EST in the semis.

A chance to go for gold! Go Gems!

Massive, MASSIVE game by Roberts!

Big double-double not only got the Aussies through to the medal round, but probably also sealed her a spot in the All-Star 5 would would think. And if she does get selected, she would be the second Tasmanian in a World 5 following Greenwood at the men's tournament! Not bad for the apple isle!

Robert's 41 points was by far the greatest individual haul in the tournament to date (previous best was 33pts). Roberts is now averaging 18.5ppg (4th) and 9.8rpg (2nd).

And talking about stars, Cole has elevated her game big time too. She leads the competition in assists with 6.7apg and could also gain a betrh in the all-star 5 too.

But before we go jumping the gun, let's hope the girls can account for Spain and made the gold medal game.

Got to feel for Canada - one loss and thats the end of that!

However, it's a great result for the Gems, who have already beaten Spain once in the tournament, and should have a better chance of doing it again then facing the Canadians.

when is the spain

Semi final v Spain starts in 15mins, you can listen in at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fibau19women

and follow live stats at www.chile2011.fiba.com. Go Gems!

live http://www.ustream.tv/channel/lshstream19

Half time. 24-20 Spain. Ugly second quarter where neither team could get anything in the half court. Spain hit a couple of shots but Australia hung tough woth their defence which is keeping them alive.

After the Aussies started quick it has been 21-13 though, so some adjusments needed.

wow 27 turnovers gave us no chance. Totally unorganised on offece, anyone would think that they had never played together before.

Timeout last minute - down by 2 crunch time. What special play does Coach have for them to run - lets just go 5 out girls, drive at them cause they are in foul trouble. What a joke!!

One of those games where you the opposition didnt beat you, you beat yourself.

Lets hope they can play better tomorrow.

A fair call, the difference was the turnovers no doubt, though Spain had 20 too, those 5 turnovers at the end of the third quarter when we had the ascendency killed our momentum and probably cost us the game. Just a lack of composure and awareness of where the game was at.

Still, it was an awesome defensive performance and to come that close with Roberts and Allen unable to play any serious part with injury was a decent effort.

what happened to Tayla?

She has a strain of some description, looks like it might be in her lower back or side.

To put it in perspective who the Gems lost to, this Spanish team, or some members of it, won gold in Europe in U16 in 2008, U18 in 2009 and U20 this year. They also won silver in U18 in 2010. Good team who knows how to win.

The USA were awesome yesterday, Spain will have to play very, very smart and put the breaks on them to win. Aussies can definitely beat Brazil, they will have learned a lot from their earlier encounter. They will have to play very well though.

Aussies lost 67-70 to Brazil to settle for 4th place. USA easily defeated Spain.

Allen had 16 points and 12 rebounds, Roberts had 16 & 6, and Cole 12 points, 7 assists and 3 steals.

Unfortunately, none of the Aussies made the all star 5.

Congratulations to the girls. 4th-place in the World is nothing to be sneezed at.....but....

As we are now 2 and 8 in elimination games with our junior teams in the last few world's, are we yet ready to press the 're-invent' button, if not the panic button?

For the past four years I have been listening to BA make excuses about how the addition of the 17's has disrupted their development program (the old model of an AIS 19's 2-year preparation was tried and tested). But I am yet to see any evidence of any re-invention of the process to address our current 'deficiencies'.

Of course we've seen his phenomenon before and maybe I'm being too harsh - we led the world with the AIS (in all sports) and then other countries caught up. We led the world in sports science and technical advances (across a range of sports) and then the rest of the world caught up. Perhaps that is what's happened here - our world ranking, for so long propped up by an exceptional group of women and the ongoing strength of our junior teams, is simply settling to a more realistic level with top 8 for all of our teams being par and anything else an exceptional performance.

But....has anybody else seen anything to contradict the following points:
- the AIS' crowning achievement on the women's side remains an exceptional class which produced two genuine superstars in Taylor and Jackson as well as an incredibly accomplished supporting cast;
- a strong case can be made that our last few WNBA players have been developed largely outside the Tute - Bishop blossomed under Graf before signing, Lacey was never there, O'Hea spent a year under Maher before making a very impressive transition to the WNBA and Cambage also left the AIS early;
- BA have seemingly walked away from a meaningful home-state program (the ITC) and it is now in disarray (other states than mine might be faring better);
- we seem to have lost the ability to compete - instead relying on cliches like 'Aussie teams all play hard' rather than developig a culture which promotes competition - tournament results have been rendered largely meaningless as BA seek to affirm their own competence by continually selecting the 'chosen ones' identifed at 15 and rarely challenged thereafter (case in point - Qld competed their butts off at the Men's 20's this year and while 3 players were ultimately selected, were reduced to minor roles while those players whose 'talent' melted in the glare of the international spotlight contributed major minutes to our 2 and 8 record);

Our recently appointed High Performance Manager has headed back to Knox and so we will again be leader-less in this area while a new 'old mate' is appointed to the role.

I know I sound like a grumpy old man (which I am - and bald and fat as well!) but I genuinely care about the game, give countless hours of my time trying to help young players develop to an elite level and can only shake my head at what goes on a large part of the time. Happy to be shot down (with facts rather than I should be supporting 'our' girls).

.........................