Those are 11 very strong teams ahead of us, but no.. I think we should have done much better than that./

Could have been 8th if we beat Turkey the gap from 8-12 is small. With Mills and Bogut in Rio top 6 is within reach.
Lowlight of tournament was Angola loss and the tanking debate.
Highlight was beating 4th place Lithuania.

With Bogut/Mills a medal is within reach. But will we ever realise our international potential?

if they didn't tank would have made the top 10 easy

I don't see any glowing examples of teams above us that we should definitely have finished higher. But then again, we had a big opportunity to finish in the top 8 or beyond in this comp and we blew it.
So, it's a bit of column A, bit of column B.
Pretty even comp outside of USA really. Could have fallen any which way, the 2-12 positions and teams there wouldn't look out of place (Serbia finishing top is a fair surprise though).

NZ beat Serbia in a warm up match.

From a NZ perspective dissappointing to see Mexico above us. And even though DR beat us..i felt we were better overall than them

So we missed out on somewhere round 6th place by one pressured long shot that went in THIS TIME.

2nd to 15th is so even it's not funny, ignoring the occasional blowouts.

I hope this gets recognised by those holding the government funding purse-strings (but I'm not holding my breath on that one).

"So we missed out on somewhere round 6th place by one pressured long shot that went in THIS TIME."
Nice to see I'm not the only one that noticed. People act like the Boomers were thoroughly outplayed by a better team and thus shouldn't have tanked to draw that matchup, when in fact they outplayed Turkey most of the way and lost due to an absolutely terrible shot that just happened to go in.

But the game should never have got to that one last shot determining the outcome. Australia choked.

i once wrote AIS years ago, to emphasis more on motion offense, or developing more Go-to-guy players. As we know how Team USA can do it with all their might and always finish on top.

Im not an expert nor reputable. but thats how i see it. They need more aggressiveness

Certainly Mills will be a great asset come 2016.
Bogut is another matter. By Rio in 2016 Bogut will be almost 32 years of age and has had an injury riddled career. IMO it would be doubtful if he did play, and if he did:
1. Would he start?
2. Would he have an impact?
3. Would his selection omit a younger player?

I am sure a 32 year old Bogut would be of more use than Anderson has beem/

Recap of the World Cup tourney now up on PnR:

2014 FIBA World Cup: USA reign supreme in Spain

As most had predicted and expected, the USA romped to a gold medal at the 2014 FIBA World Cup in outgunning Serbia 129-92. The question has to now be asked as to whether the rest of the world can still consider itself close to the Americans or have they lost some ground in this regard. When looking back at the stats, the evidence would suggest the world could be on the downside of a plateau that has been two decades in the making.

12th seems about right given the way Lemanis runs such a terrible offence
And considering Andersen got so many mins

Because basketball funding through the Australia Sports Commission is solely based on where the Boomers and Opals finish in the Worlds and Olympics, seeking the highest place finish is paramount. I shrill at the thought of tanking as any Aussie would. Someday, maybe, the ASC will look at the total body of work that includes the Under 19, 17 and even the World University Games which succeeded the U22 World Championships.

Terrible offence? Despite having only one genuine international shotmaker they were 9th in scoring, 8th in FG percentage and first in 3p percentage.

I would agree there were times when it needed a little more direction when it's flow broke down, but it was hardly terrible.

And free throws?

I must admit I haven't crunched the numbers but one of my recollections of Australia's World Cup was our poor returns at the foul line? a fair recollection or easily debunked by stats?

Overall our FT shooting was pretty bad, 18th spot at 69%, but it was made to look worse by the Turkey game. After the group stage we were 12th at 72%.

Re the 12th finish, not too far off the mark for the talent we had on the team this tournament.

Overall, I feel USA and then Spain have shown over a period to be the top two, then France and Lithuania have had some good results lately.

I'd have them just ahead of a big group of similar teams including Serbia, Brazil, Australia, Russia, Argentina, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, Turkey, New Zealand and Italy.

There's a few more not far behind that now too, and on any given night there are plenty of countries where the result could go either way.