Reckon Aussie will win this my mate went to Iran and he reckons they havent hear of basketball there

An impressive 17 point lead at the half, building momentum towards the end of the 2nd.

There was a very shaky stretch after the strong start which saw Newley deciding to start playing some decent ball in the tournament. Reminders of the Boomers issues handling Sabonis with the way Hadidi dominated at one point, but at the half Hadidi looks way too out of shape to handle the pace of the Boomers style of game. Hadidi has received some favourable calls to stay out of serious foul trouble, but I like the way the team is staying aggressive against him. The whole team looking well drilled and confident, maintaining motion off the ball and moving the ball well. If the team again wins by 20+, Lemanis has to gain a lot of credit for making this Australia C team without any real stars such a dominant force in the tournament.

Australia have powered their way to the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup undefeated, accounting for Iran 79-56 in the championship game.

Newley 18, Kickert 14, Creek 12, Brandt 10.

Brandt 8 boards, Kickert and Hodgson 6 (inc 5 offensive).

Cadee with 8 assists.

Consistent tournament for Creek, unlucky not to get an all-tournament team spot.


South Korea meanwhile got the bronze over NZ.

Its kind of laughable that the Australian team had no one make the all tournament starting 5. Not sure how often a team that wins a tournament doesnt get a single player into the 5.

Was glad to see Newls play a great game in the final. He looked really underdone early (and Im being kind), but he definately improved in the last couple of games. He started great and set the tempo, which is always critical in a final.

A few of the guys played better than I expected which was a bonus. Stating the obvious, the depth of the squad really was a massive difference, as teams just ran out of gas playing starters big minutes against us.

Really looking forward to the next tournament to see how many players are fit and available to improve this squad. Other than Creek, there may be 4 different starters?

I wonder how an Australian SEABL all stars side would have gone at the 2017 Asia cup. Rule for All stars is they can't of played 1-minute of NBL and all local not SEABL imports. I reckon the SEABL All stars would have pushed Iran hard, maybe win. And playing tall blacks c team would have been close to..

And once again many posters here prove they know SFA about basketball

"Australia will lose in the QFs" - blow China off the floor in the second half

"New Zealand's (development squad) will beat us." Not even close

"Brad Newley has nothing left." - scores 18 in the final


Well done to this Boomers squad.

Its kind of laughable that the Australian team had no one make the all tournament starting 5. Not sure how often a team that wins a tournament doesnt get a single player into the 5.

"Matt - was thinking the same thing last night. I would say a SEABL team would be champions as well, but obviously with smaller margins of victory."

I have covered a fair few Asian champs games and a fair few SEABL games. A SEABL team put straight into it would be thrashed by the top teams but beat the lowest teams.

Give them some years in Lemanis' system and maybe they could make the QFs. But to think they could beat teams like the Philippines, NZ and Iran is a bit naïve, these teams play at a completely different level to the SEABL.

This Boomers team was very evenly spread, so I assume the explanation for nobody in the all-tournament 5 was that they stole votes from each other. Although Creek seemed like the obvious selection as the Australian representative in the 5.

Local hero El Khatib was always going to be in the 5. Also Haddidi was the main MVP candidate. I'm not sure if the 5 is selected by position C-2F-2G, but if it is, it leaves two forwards and a guard. Ili deserves selection, so that leaves 2 forwards. Creek was unlucky to be rated below both Oh and Jamshidi here, although the latter put up some very impressive numbers, albeit in 10 minutes more per game than Creek.

Who from this team might be able to play a role in the A team if injury strikes us?

I know he played out of the second unit, often against weaker competition, but McCarron continued to impress me with what he provided each time he was injected into the game. I could see him playing a role much like Lisch in Rio. By the way, he went for a reasonably modest looking 9.8ppg (FG%=64%, 3pt%=58%), 4.3rpg, 1.3apg, in 19.5mpg, although in that time the team averaged +16.

The other player who might be able to play a role is Creek, although I think we'd have to be crippled with injuries/unavailabilities to see a situation where he'd get meaningful minutes in an A team. How does his game translate against elite international competition?

Just thinking through the Aussie Centre stocks and if Bogut never plays for the Boomers again (a realistic possibility despite his stated intention to play on) and Andersen retires, there has to be a prospect Brandt or Hodgson get a chance as injury insurance playing behind Baynes. I can't see Maric or Jawai getting another gig and Motum and Bairstow play different roles. Anyone I am missing?

There is not nearly as much depth in the Boomers at the Centre position anymore. All of the other positions pretty much select themselves from NBA players and past Boomers.

By the way, I have to say that there has been not enough love for this team in this forum. I know the Asia Cup isn't such a high standard and that this is basically our C team, but these guys deserve plenty of praise for the way that they played. They totally dominated. This was a team that some people were claiming was "the worst Boomers team ever" prior to the tournament. We lost borderline A-teamers Andersen, Goulding, and Lisch that were expected to play.

They had one training camp and no practice games, yet they played like a cohesive unit. They showed improvement throughout the tournament, which hopefully serves us well into qualifiers.

They played an entertaining style of game with unselfish play, constant ball movement and intensity that an international tournaments requires. They just got the job done without fuss, as a team. In the past we have seen far superior talented Boomers teams play a far poorer brand of basketball. Lemanis did yet another great job with this crew.

Of course, further to my own question, there is Thon Maker, but he is not the bruiser/foul soak type centre I was thinking of, but would give us some very different looks.

Hard otherwise to see anyone from this team breaking into the WC/Olympic team.

It's great pats on the back and all that but it's still just a mickey mouse tournament featuring a third string Boomers side hidden away on Pay TV.

All that might go some way to explaining the lack on interest.

Yes. They are not the world's best teams.

No. A SEABL All Stars team would not win this.

Possibly a chance to beat the 4 weakest teams at best. Korea, Iran and New Zealand would thrash them.

Honestly how close do you think a SEABL All Star team would get to what was essentially an NBL All Star team?

There's no beef.

Only chicken, right?

Tall poppy syndrome alive and well!!

Easy to recognise those that suffer from this as they set impossibly high standards for others and low standards for themselves.

You can easily argue that the competition was weak, but in the past we've seen Boomers teams with far superior talent play mediocre ball as they play down to the level of their weak opponents, or they play dysfunctional ball, especially at the start of a tournament, as they lack time playing together. The team obviously played better ball later in the tournament, but they didn't ever look lost.

Lemanis made this team function from the get-go, with intensity and unselfishness, as they all appeared to be on the same page. This was basically a team of role players that absolutely dominated the tournament.

I was disappointed that we'd need to send basically a C-team of role players -- without any real star players -- to the Asia Cup, but watching them play was surprisingly entertaining as Lemanis ran an appealing brand of team basketball. I'm looking forward to see this team gel more for the upcoming qualifiers -- and presumably the Commonwealth Games next April -- with hopefully players like Goulding/Lisch/Andersen able to be injected into the group for extra firepower.

At the 1994 WCs, Australia featuring Gaze, Heal, Vlahov, Bradtke and Ronaldson snuck by Korea by two points.

That same Korean team lost to Croatia by 5

Sorry, accidentally hit post!

At the 1994 WCs, Australia featuring Gaze, Heal, Vlahov, Bradtke and Ronaldson snuck by Korea by two points.

That same Korean team lost to Croatia by 51 the next day and lost to Spain by 41.

In 2010, the Boomers with Mills, Nielsen, Ingles, Newley and Baynes beat Jordan by one point. Jordan lost to Serbia by 43 two days later.

The reality is it's very hard to dominate every game in international basketball, even against a weak continent like Asia, but these Boomers did it.

That's particularly impressive when you consider their lack of preparation. Pretty much the same Iran team lost to Greece's number one team by 25 points at the Olympic qualifiers.

This Boomers team played at a high level.

Easy on the eyes there bro