A lot of it is to do with the lack of preparation, you can just see it by watching them. In saying that, their skill level has been appalling too.

The last Anon is spot on I think, and while I'm still of the thought that we should have sent a slightly older team made of players more around the Cadee/Blanchfield NBL range and those that missed out on Boomers selection (as really in four years time even, how many of these will we see?) I think apart from shots just NOT dropping against China, they've held themselves pretty well, especially defensively... If their shots dropped against China like they did against Russia even, that game wouldn't have blown out as it did and would have wiped some of the arrogant smirks off the Chinese players who seem to have forgotten their last results against our top string team...

What i've learnt out of this tournament is that at the very least we have some solid NBL guards coming through. The bigs we sent there are not very good though.

So what was the score in the final anyway?

Whoops hasn't been played yet, my bad.

A bunch of amateurs and a couple of NBL players? You can't be serious? This is our national team and the Olympics are on in a few weeks.. I don't even.. Can somebody explain what the fuck is going on?

I've just finished watching the first quarter. I know it is a development squad but I can't halp thinking that it hurts our national teams reputation that they wear the same NT uniform and are called Australia (do they also carry the Boomers moniker?). They really look terrible against the Chinese, no inside presence, very little structure, no plays as such. It is just frustrating as it is like watching a kids team vs men (which is kind of what it is). I think if you are going to have an 'Australia A' then we should do it properly and stock it, as much as schedules permit, with actual Boomer fringe players.

Jim bert you obviously know nothing about Australian basketball...

Get carfino over there this announcer doesn't have a clue, shot clock buzzer beaters by caddy don't count apparently

@Alexkrad I'll admit my knowledge outside the top rung of players is limited, which is why I asked someone to explain what this team is about... muppet.

I just saw that Australia was playing China in the final of a basketball tournament and assumed it would be used as preparation for the Olympics. But evidently not.

Would they run some damned pick and roll!

How come we could actually send a proper combined "B" and Development team a couple of years ago when we won it?
PC was a member and Harvey Captained it.
NBL players are waking up to be used up, at times like this. Just to save the BA reputation?

If you tried, I don't know, the basketball australia or NBL website, you would know who is in the boomers squad. If you dont have the common sence to check either of these sites before coming on here and acting like a fool perhaps you are in fact the muppet.

Australia have not sent their full squad here because they were at a camp on the Gold Coast and fly out for pre-olympic tournament shortly. Olympics are priority over this, much like how Greece didnt send their A team to the farewell games.

Maybe I'm dreaming but ... I reckon our 'D' team getting 50 points against (and finishing only 20-odd points behind) the Chinese 'A' team is actually quite a good result, even if a lot of the game was against their bench players.

I didn't see the game but, still, on paper it sounds like quite a good effort.

I agree with you hoopie, I thought losing to them by 20 in the final on their home floor was a pretty fair result. I wasn't unhappy with it at all.

Calling them Australia D is very kind to them. Not many can/could get decent minutes in an NBL team. All of our best college players aren't there.

rjd, that's even more reason the result shouldn't be seen as disappointing.

Man we were crying out for any quality bigs. Mitchell Young would have been an upgrade on this mob.

I really wish we would have had Motum, Broekhoff and Drmic for this tournament.

However we need to put it in perspective. The guys we had gave a good effort.

rohant16, there is definitely reason to be concerned over the status of our junior bigs.

Yep there hasn't been great quality lately coming out of the AIS. I think though countering that argument is that some of these big guys are late bloomers.

We're definately over corrected on the guards. We're producing some rippers in that department.

What about a guy like Ater Majok? Doesn't raw talent like that deserve a shot over some of these rooks? If they can't get minutes in an NBL team, even at a young age, surely there is a problem here.

Vart, I agree that they overachieved. That group did very well considering their lack of talent and lack of preparation. Although it was very, very ugly to watch, so I almost feel like China played down to their level. It was embarrassing to watch... for both teams.

It's just disappointing that finally we get some TV coverage and BA send such a low grade team and label them "Australia". It's even worse when we are subjected to commentary that promotes them as the Olympic team.

I can understand sending a youth or development team if the players are to one day become Boomers prospects, but how many on that team would you consider even to be future Boomers squad member prospects? Any more than Cadee and Greenwood (who looked nothing like a leading scorer in the junior side last year)? I like Blanchfield, but I can't see him being involved in the national program in the future.

It would've been a great experience for those players, but of no real value to the future of the Boomers program, perhaps doing the opposite by making countries have second thoughts about inviting Australia to participate in international tournaments.

I forgot about Steindl, who is fairly useful purely as a 3-point specialist and might one day develop into something more.

I didn't find watching the Stankovic Cup games to be pleasurable to watch. The U17 team was far better to watch.

Yeah, maybe China didn't care so much about quality of the opposition or the quality of the spectacle. They probably wanted a tournament win.

I just like the fact that this team's performance suggests that we have got some good depth from the Boomers down to this level.

We may not win a medal with our top team but we'll probably be competitive with whoever we send to any tournament.