Terrible coach.
Defence is horrible.

My goodness....
Something s wrong with ba.

Why not play with heart the entire match?

Wow allow a layup to finish. Disappointing.

Missing a leader on and off the floor.

What offence On ball screen and make something happen At least when we ran structured offence we could finish in the top 8 Instead BA like to imitate the US style of play Guess thats wots got us where we r today!!!! Time to go back to what we do well

Geremy Mckay is a joke lol. However we cant expect Australia to win games with this talent

Losing to Italy? Weak.

Why does ba choose such terrible coaches and staff...
Caporn is awful along with goris for the women's.

The only good choice is Seebohm being appointed for the u17 women's side.

well that is a massive fail to basketball Australia.
It is very clear that adam caporn just does not have the experience to coach at in game situations. Please don't take this as direct criticism of him, he has very very limited on court coaching experience and has had development experience as an assistant at world Championships).
the selection panel for the national coaches must take the blame here.

they were so over coached during the game it was crazy the roles of each player were also very poorly defined, considering most go to the AIS and caporn has had them ever day this would suggest he may not have sufficient expereince for that role as well (another poor BA decision)

this would have to rank as one of our poorest results in quiet some time (say the first under 17 champs were we didn't have the players)

I feel so bad for the players as they had the skill and talent (albeit with the inclusion of at least Froling) to beat Canada and Italy well enough .

I do hope the new CEO does hold a fair and open review of this as (so far) this is a major fail for BA planning and development of the game.

correction
has had no development experience as an assistant at world Championships)

Gonna get smoked by Greece...

Just guard someone? Sounds like a U12 domestic game on a Saturday down at the local stadium.

Anyone calling Caporn or Seebohm terrible coaches aren't very clued up on the sport that this forum is based on.

They arent that bad, its just people in this forum dont want to accept there isnt much talent there

Caporn isn't terrible, he just isn't good enough to coach at this level. Simple.

I thought in this game we had handy leads during that last quarter then just when we could have put the game away we did something to turn it over or put up a bad shot and we gave Italy the chances they needed which they took.

We don't seem to have a go to player or a go to play of sorts and our offense isn't fluid and it doesn't seem to work well with this group, which is amazing sine they are all AIS and should know how each one plays.

AIS = public servants trying to save the day

if you re good go to a good college and get court time

I didn't watch the entire game although that out of bounds play to get a dunk attempt was a good play call out of a time out.

Is game 3 tonight? Are we out now that we have lost first two or do we still have a chance?

poor free throws, players who play soft or give up.

Wondered how Mckay was selected cant guard anyone laterally, must have been selected for his enthusiasm which is missed by other.

WMW was woeful.

2nd chance rebounds and points.

Only 1 guy who is a reliable outside shot.

And it is Lamanis that is throwing out years of good offence and structure for this new style of one on one style play It is no secret he hates the structure of old and yet what is the new structure doing for any of our teams We look lost and both Canada and Italy has great structure which saw open scoring.
This team could do so much better with structure Sure we are missing some players, but these boys with defined plays could have stepped up a lot better.
Don't think we should single out any kid or the coaches but look a bit wider at the overall program.

You should say structure more.

The only structure zealots are the shuffle-numpties, who usually win not because of the shuffle but because they have tons more talent than the competition.

We all see what we want to see. However, I think a few people need to brush up on their facts and Stats before posting.

Andre Lemanis is head of the Mens program at the CoE. A Threepeat coach of the NZ Breakers in the NBL. Hardly someone you might call a hack as a coach. If that were the case what does that say about any other coach in the NBL?

I think Andre might know a little about how to build a program and what is required to be successful. Unless any of you think you would be a more capable CoE Head Coach?

Adam Caporn was appointed by Andre to coach the CoE Mens team.

In case some of you don't know, and someone above alluded to it, BA's CoE is all about finding and developing future players for the Boomers & Opals, so I guess that means individual games. It is not so short sighted to have Junior World Championships at the forefront of their thinking. Having said that the Men's U17 teams have won silver medals at the last two World Champs. The last one being last year where they lost by 7pts to USA.

Do some research - Find out where BA get their funding from and what bonuses or incentives are there. It is linked to the performance of the Senior Men's & Women's Programs. Not the Juniors.

Having said that, we have some wonderful players in this team that appear to be stifled and I'm not entirely sure why that is? Clarke, Krebs & Wilson are all capable of much more. Wilson in particualr has been solid - a good first game (pts, assts, rebds) and 2nd game (rbds, assts) however all 3 need to hit the scoreboard more heavily. All three have dominated Australian Junior Champs for many years and had far superior stats to many. However, all three appear like they either don't want to shoot it or are not allowed to shoot it. All 3 have stats in Nationals going back years where they have 3 point shooting %ges in the high 30's.

Why aren't they shooting it more is the question I would like answered.

Agree with above post about DJ, that, at times his shot selection is awful, but at least he puts up shots. Shooters need to shoot and Clarke, Krebs & Wilson need to.

We are a small team, so you'd expect we'd rely on our outside game. However we have outscored Canada 44/28 & Italy 46/16 for points in the paint. Not sure how long that trend will continue. But our 3 point shots taken was equal with Canada and Italy led us 28/13.

I think we need to mix it up a little more, drive and dish more and have at least three shooters on the floor at all times and encourage them all to shoot it. If you don't shoot you don't score, period.

Sure we can criticise the way they have played, or even team selections.

Another perspective is that they are a relatively young team that narrowly lost to a team (Canada) with several physically developed 19 year olds, including a few college players. Their leading scorer Brooks averaged 11.5 points at Oregon in a reasonably competitive Pac-12.

And the Italian team made 12 threes, contributing to over half their entire score, and we still only lost on a last second basket.

Don't forget Canada and Italy are missing players to just like Australia.

This tournament is worth the expense involved. Especially for Australia where juniors have otherwise no chance playing internationally against good opposition.
Reason there are only 30 people attending games is because FIBA are idiots to hold this event in the middle of nowhere. Greece is bankrupt and people are more concerned about withdrawing their cash from banks than watching basketball.

That's the whole idea, send an undersized team so we have an excuse when we lose.

Only one, maybe two in this team will ever play in the Boomers. Not a lot different to most years.

Need to drive and dish more and have at least three 3pt shooters on the court at all times. Especially against the bigger teams.

There's really only 4 or 5 reliable 3 pt shooters in the team: DJ, Clarke, Krebs, Wilson & McVeigh. Can't leave it all to DJ. Teams will scout him. As it stands it looks like we only have one 3pt shooter. Wilson's not getting the ball back as he's running the offence and doesn't look like he's allowed to shoot 3's. If it gets into DJ's hands he's shooting it no matter what. Nothing wrong with that as someone needs to shoot it, but at times his shot selection is atrocious, for the team he'd be better off passing some times, but he hardly ever does that.

Don't know why the coaches aren't insisting and encouraging some of the others to shoot 3's, DJ's not the best %age wise over the course of several National Under age Championships, he never has been. So why aren't the others putting up similar quantities of shots to DJ? Krebs shot 9/20 3's in the U20 National Final in February? Clarke & Wilson are both high 30%/low 40% 3pt shooters and have been for some time over several Australian Under age Championships.

If we have more shooting the 3, that way we can spread the floor and it opens up the inside game as well.

Froling would have been good in this respect as well as he can shoot 3's at a decent clip also.

If any of you are or were a shooter then you'd understand that shooters need court time and need to put up shots consistently in order to find their range, rhythm, stroke whatever you like to call it. Problem is none of the shooters are getting the consistency of minutes on the court that will allow them to hit their groove, DJ included. I think this is the single biggest mistake by the coaching staff so far. Most of Canada's & Italy's minutes went to 5 or 6 players. We've shared it around a lot more. Problem with that is it doesn't help the shooters. Krebs was on for about 1.5 minutes in the 2nd or 3rd qtr. As a shooter, how is he expected to perform with that court time?

Anon^ George is a knock down 3 point shooter and at 6'7" harder to block that DJ, but seems to be seldome used in this team!

To the OP. Not really sure what you've been watching as I don't see how you can come up with some of your observations:

1. We've outscored Canada & Italy in the Paint.
2. We shot the same amount of 3PA's as Canada.
3. We shot less than half Italy's 3PA's.

IMO the coach/s have everything to do with how the team is playing including the Head Coach, Andre Lemanis. The style of play is playing the percentages. Analogous to the Oakland A's Baseball story made famous by Brad Pitt's 'Moneyball' movie. Andre has looked at what works and drive for layups (defence collapses),then dish for open 3's is the best %age way to win. He did it with NZ Breakers.

If a team could shoot 3's at the same %age as two's then no team would shoot 2's. The closer to the hoop you are the better the scoring efficiency, hence drive first, maybe even draw a foul. If all is lost dish to a big for a power layup or to an open 3pt shooter. Open 3pt shots have a far higher efficiency than contested 3's. Of course this won't work all the time, but more often than not it will against similarly skilled teams.

If you'd watched the recent NBA Finals you would've seen this in action.

As for the team not being suited to the offence. I disagree, the team is suited to it. I agree with the above post about not allowing or encouraging the other capable 3 pt shooters to shoot the 3.

^^ No disrespect, George is a good 3pt shooter, but he doesn't knock down the 3 with the same consistency as the others I've named.

Prove me wrong if you like, the stats are there from Aust Junior Championships. I think you'll find the others are more consistent at a) 3PA & b) 3PM.

Agree George is harder to block than DJ, but I stick to my observations about consistent 3pt shooters.

It's a tournament - you haven't got a big enough sample size to go nuts with statistics.

Anon #875 I think the point is that another good 3 point shooter seems not to be encouraged to put up some shots, it is being left to only two or three others who always seem to throw up plenty, but not shared around enough. You can put up all the meaningless stats from Nationals etc... that you like, they are not going to prove anything.

^ There's only one player really putting up 3's - DJ, and that's my point. We need more. DJ's put up 14 of our 28 3pt attempts. Clarke, Krebs, Wilson, McVeigh, throw in George if you want need to shoot more. The coaches need to get the others at least attempting a lot more shots than they currently are.That way they all become a threat. Right now the scouts would only have DJ as the outside threat and it is very easy to shut down one 3 pt shooter. Unless we have more hitting 3's then life becomes a lot harder for DJ.

As for the sample size being small, I am referring to the Stats over several Australian Junior Championships - this is not a small sample. It is 4 or 5 Championships worth for these kids, some 25 - 30 games worth. The Stats show some are consistently good 3 point shooters, but they're not shooting it enough, IMO. Not really sure why that is. That is a question only the coaches or players can answer. But for me they need more outside shooters.

^ There's only one player really putting up 3's - DJ, and that's my point. We need more. DJ's put up 14 of our 28 3pt attempts. Clarke, Krebs, Wilson, McVeigh, throw in George if you want need to shoot more. The coaches need to get the others at least attempting a lot more shots than they currently are.That way they all become a threat. Right now the scouts would only have DJ as the outside threat and it is very easy to shut down one 3 pt shooter. Unless we have more hitting 3's then life becomes a lot harder for DJ.

As for the sample size being small, I am referring to the Stats over several Australian Junior Championships - this is not a small sample. It is 4 or 5 Championships worth for these kids, some 25 - 30 games worth. The Stats show some are consistently good 3 point shooters, but they're not shooting it enough, IMO. Not really sure why that is. That is a question only the coaches or players can answer. But for me they need more outside shooters.

^ There's only one player really putting up 3's - DJ, and that's my point. We need more. DJ's put up 14 of our 28 3pt attempts. Clarke, Krebs, Wilson, McVeigh, throw in George if you want need to shoot more. The coaches need to get the others at least attempting a lot more shots than they currently are.That way they all become a threat. Right now the scouts would only have DJ as the outside threat and it is very easy to shut down one 3 pt shooter. Unless we have more hitting 3's then life becomes a lot harder for DJ.

As for the sample size being small, I am referring to the Stats over several Australian Junior Championships - this is not a small sample. It is 4 or 5 Championships worth for these kids, some 25 - 30 games worth. The Stats show some are consistently good 3 point shooters, but they're not shooting it enough, IMO. Not really sure why that is. That is a question only the coaches or players can answer. But for me they need more outside shooters.

Sorry anon^ didn't catch that, can you repeat it please? :)

Actually, you can jack up all the off balance, poorly taken 3's you want and still lose a game. Just get the ball into the hoop, yeah?

Still can medal

If we beat Tunisia tonight we will face either Serbia or Greece next round.

tough task to medal rounds

Ease up!

This team we have taken away is missing potentially 5 of our top 7 guys. Lets rattle them off:
SImmons
Maker
Humphries
Bolden
Adel

If you take that amount of SIZE & TALENT out of any team at this tournament they are a bottom feeder.

--------------------------------------------

I hate to burst your bubble, but USA is playing without a few of their better players, Croatia is playing without their top 2 players, Italy is missing two of their top 3 players, and Greece has been playing without 3 of its top 5 players, of which include both their starting guards and their 2nd best player.

This tournament is worth the expense involved. Especially for Australia where juniors have otherwise no chance playing internationally against good opposition.
Reason there are only 30 people attending games is because FIBA are idiots to hold this event in the middle of nowhere. Greece is bankrupt and people are more concerned about withdrawing their cash from banks than watching basketball.

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Tournaments are held by which country agrees to pay for them in their entirety. Profits are made by sponsors, advertisers, and TV deals.

Greece paid for the whole tournament, and lined up the marketing deals, sponsors and a TV deal. No other country in the world did that. That is why the tournament is in Greece.

Don't be a moron.

Anon #719 -

You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Both Adam Caporn and Paul Gorris are fantastic coaches. The only troube Adam is having at World's right now is adjusting from the American College style of play to an international basketball style of play. Please don't vilify coaches or players that you have no knowledge about.

The program has recently had their funding cut.

Less camps to prepare. Didn't get to go to Albert Schweitzer tournament in Mannheim in 2014. The Italy team they just played won that tournament.

There are spectators at games. But since the tourny is in Greece, most of the spectators will be Greek. And have a guess which team they want to see play? Aside from the fact that the Greeks have to work as well, which makes it a little difficult to get to games. There is the spectre of the Greek financial crisis that may prevent some from attending and paying for a ticket.

Other than that all the other countries spectators will be small - only friends and family of players, I'd guess. This is normal for any Under Age World Tournament, especially in Europe where the crowds are more parochial and only want to see their country's team play.

Looked like the Greek V Serbia game last night was a packed house.