Probably have to beat Koreato qualify.
China semi final. Japan final it looks like.

Best starting 5 looks to be..

Wigness
Rantall
Capetola
Jackson
Williamson

Ajc u18s in 2-3 weeks. Top performers could push out some of the current squad.

Herbert, madden, Buluk and Meakes look to be a step behind the others atm.

Interested to see what Luke Jackson decides to do in a year or two. One of the top AFL prospects for the 2019 AFL draft and i think he's in the AFL academy.

At 6'6-6'7, Jackson does not have a future in basketball at pf. That's small for a sf these days at the pro level.

I defintaley see him going the afl route after the WC. He won't make the u19 team as a bottom ager and there's no other opportunity to rep aus at junior level.


They need more than one point guard... that's why Herbert and madden are there.
A few boys that could take those backup spots from AJCs.

Bayles and Foster are both at the global acdemy atm. Not sure how good they really are though.

Nbl sure, a 6'8 pf.
He won't grow 4 inches at 17y.o.

Might be one of those players that gets selected by an afl club and comes back to basketball after a couple of years.

Australia sucking big time against Korea down 8 at halftime
Can't score against the Korean zone and if it wasn't for second chance points and broken plays they would be in a serious world if hurt.

Schueller currently on the chopping block. Down 28-20 to Korea at the half.
A loss means we don't qualify for WC.

Why is he running the same shhh over and over.
And he's subbing players out even before they get a touch on the ball.

When we go for 18% from the field and 13% from the three you are in trouble. We are dominating on the offensive boards and if it wasn't for that it would be a 20+ blowout.
I don't know what sucks more the players or the coach!

This is ugly

Very...

Got to be 4-5 layups Jackson has missed.

When the team can't shoot against a zone like this they are done. It is just pitiful

butler got the job again after a poor campaign.

Lol, I'm not sure we deserved this. The effort only came late on.

Got to be some of theworst coaching I've seen with under 1 min remaining.

Without Jackson we were done. Criticize him all you want, but he is the only one on this team with any semblance of heart, grit and hustle.

Don't doubt his hustle, just missed a bunch easy layups.

Did you watch Mitch Creek in the NBL Finals?

What do you think the rest of the competition will say now in Asia and Worlds "play zone because they flat out can't shoot"
Wigness for all the hype has been very disappointing, but remember this is his first step on the world stage.

Too many turnovers by the guards

Replacements for?

1 of
Herbert, Madden

1 of
Meakes, Tsapatolis

All of the above should be replaced. I like the VC kid but was only selected due to the coaches being from VC.

What's Korea ranked? Did they play extremely well and we played extremely bad?

WA boys showed up today, Jackson Travers and Swaka. Loss without them

Travers playing a wing!!! Mate he can't shoot unless it's a lay up!

travers can't shoot? that's a load of crap, the many times i've watched him he has been a great shooter

How tall is Simons now? The leading rebounder from last years u16s.
Waters is tall but super lean.
Gak has grown too.

Travers didn't even look at launching anything that wasn't inside the three point area. I think the poster is trying to make the point that he is not the traditional 3 that he was picked for.
The kid can play but he is a 4 not a traditional wing 3 and certainly not a 2.

U/16??? There were 2001 kids that performed exceptionally well at the 18 nationals that weren't picked.

The were mainly 00 kids, few 01 kids performed well at u18s.

Check the stats from the 18's. 01's in Top 5 scoring, rebounding, 3's etc.

http://websites.sportstg.com/comp_info.cgi?c=1-4101-0-439123-0&pool=2&round=0&a=STATS

Swaka was MIA most of the game but showed up in the fourth with some big threes. Kobe did well also. Love the way that Jackson plays. I hope we don't lose him to football.

Wow this junior sport is serious business!

the only player that is born 01 that is not currently on the team but performed well at last ajc u18s is bald who wasn't one of the emergencys for this current team.

The emergencys were

Armstrong 02 CG
Woodford 02 SG
Griffin 02 SG
Adebayo 02 SF/PF
Richards 01 PF
Crowe 01 C

Some of these guys above did not even make this years u18,state team.

The emergencys going by the fiba website at the start of the tournament were:
Armstrong
Bald
Griffin
Richards

Don't know where the names listed above were pulled from? Two or maybe three of these will definitely push for a spot given some of the deficiencies.

http://basketball.net.au/athletes-named-for-selection-camp-ahead-of-2017-fiba-under-16-asia-cup/

That's the initial camp squad not the 16 that were named on FIBA prior to the championship. The poster that named the 4 was correct.

Steiner was a slightly smaller version of Williamson and was one of the best pfs at u16s in 2016.
Noticed hes not even on the u18 state team this year. Where is he now?
Taulapiu was also unlucky not to make camp imo.
Griffin may bring something to the backcourt. A very good defender.

Lots of good players around.
Do people expect changes to the squad before the WC?

Steiner made the 18s team last year, didn't he? So would expect that if he's missing from it this year, it has more to do with his choices than selections.

I would hope to see changes to the squad before worlds. There's nothing wrong with a couple of selections that make you scratch your head, because some kids just outperform in camp or fit in in a way that means you take them ahead of players who might look better on paper. But this team has more than a couple who are hard to figure based on AJC performances.

AJC should be the benchmark in terms of selecting a squad IMO. Not that anyone has the time but if each player in the 12 along with the 4 Reserves discussed several posts ago had their AJC statistics posted against their name then their would be some questions asked of why?
Head coach and assistant coach are Victorian and the other assistant coach from SA may explain some of it?

They go with what they know, not what other coaches from other states tell them.
Camps aren't big enough. 16 down to 12...
Should be taking 20-30 into camp.

Looks like Schuller finally stopped with the crazy subbing and realised that they have zero depth! Also good to see Wigness finally decided to show up.

Good win in a less than impressive tournament.

Best lineup was the 4 'guards' (Wigness, travers, Buluk, capetola) with Jackson at center.

Herbert, madden and Meakes are not the near the same level as the others.
Tsapatolis got virtually no playing time. He would come on for 1 min and get subbed for Meakes who is not a great rebounder.

Crocs had 4 turnovers in last min against Korea and coaches didnt even call a timeout or call a play.

Got a lot of time for Schuller, he is a great coach at Kilsyth but don't understand the team he picked as it just doesn't suit the way he coaches. He is always uptempo and loves to run, shoot and press but this group gives him none of that! Good to 6 but beyond that forget it.

Just have to look at the ecc.
Certainly some better options available.

ECC???? AJC yes

East coast challenge.

Is that a joke

No one cares what happens in some rubbish tournament the likes of the ECC. If teams were picked from there, the two best players on the team, Wigness and Jackson, wouldn't make it.

Simply not true... few current croc players were at ecc.

Nice win fellas.

Wigness shot out of a cannon.
Jackson wearing kangaroo boots.
Buluk came alive in the final 2 games, Travers too. Capetola was also excellent.

Locked in
Wigness
Travers
Clarke
Buluk
Capetola
Jackson
Williamson

Limited minutes, Not locks.
Herbert
Madden
Rantall
Meakes
Tsapatolis

Agreed above poster. The WA boys really got better as the tournament progressed and WA Metro should be a strong favorite for the gold medal at the 18's in just under a fortnight.
We lack any scoring punch unless its in the paint or lay-ups. 90% of our scoring was just this from offence rebounds or transition lay-ups. Wigness probably had 1.5 games in the whole tournament that lived up to the hype but this experience will certainly make him better for the world cup. Some spots are wide open for those players in the squad or for anyone that jumps out of the box in Geelong.
All in all it was a good result for Schuller and co. Not pretty at times but he got the job done.

It's big for the first year - 2002 born. That year of maturity is huge and apart from Wigness I think it's a lot to ask for 15 year olds to perform on the international stage.

I think the point is that unless its Wigness perhaps stick to the 2001 born players. These at least competed previously against those that are in camp for the U/19's

1st place in Asia has given us the best group at the WC.

WC opponents

Puerto Rico (3rd Americas)
http://www.fiba.basketball/americas/u16/2017/Puerto-Rico#|tab=roster

Dominican Republic (5th Americas)
http://www.fiba.basketball/americas/u16/2017/Dominican-Republic#|tab=roster

Turkey (5th Euros)
http://www.fiba.basketball/europe/u16/2017/Turkey#|tab=roster


I think we can beat Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. Turkeys size might cause some issues.

Couple of changes I'd make

6'0 Wigness
6'6 Buluk
6'5 Travers
6'5 Capetola
6'6 Jackson

PG? (Herbert/Madden/AJC PG)
6'3 Griffin
6'5 Clarke
6'6 Bofinger
6'7 Williamson

1 CG/SG (Rantall/Taulapiu/AJC CG/SG)
1 PF/C (Tsapatolis/Meakes/AJC PF/C)

Not sure about Capetola at the 4 but I like the team you have picked.

I would take Rantall as the backup PG & then consider either Maddern or Meldrum as the 3rd string combo guard.

3rd string 4/5 I'd have either Meakes or Zak Simmons from NSWC.

Rantall will not be able to run the pg spot.
It has to be someone else.

Whoever shows out at ajc.

I think if they take Griffin he can play minutes at PG & against most good opposition Wigness will play 30 mins+. Rantall is fine in that spot IMO.

Shooting was a glaring weakness & I think they'd be wise to look at a few of the elite shooters from last years 16s.

Would be nice if Talapeua (sure I butchered that) was an aussie citizen. Apparently a kiwi.

Rantall although a great spot shooter doesn't really fit with the defensive pressure and hustle we need.

Griffin is a menace defender and 2 inches taller. A good 3 pt shooter but not great.

I worry Rantall will not get the same easy looks with much bigger defenders on him.

Said he was a good shooter, not a great shooter like Rantall, but a better defender.
And he's bigger than Rantall..

Would be sad but extremely comforting to me if Taulapiu is a kiwi because at least it would explain how he's not already there.

Bald is a name that deserves mention when talking about PG options. Not as big as some but we have enough wing size that it wouldn't be the end of the world. Don't know how you leave Rantall out of that team. He's not a PG and undersized at the 2 and sure, stylistically he's not our best fit. But given the patches they had struggling to put the ball in the basket and his history of success doing exactly that, I'd have him.

Could easily justify a number of changes depending on performances at AJC. Lots of room in both front court and back court. And as good as the bigs were on the glass in Asia, you have to think they're going to be battling some bigger, better opponents at Worlds.

If taulapiu is a kiwi, why would he not be in the nz side?

This is what was mentioned a few posters back. Below are the names of the 16 players on the FIBA website and their statistics from the last championships.
U/18 NATIONALS 2017
1. HERBERT - 7.14 PPG – 3 REB – 3.29 ASST
2. MADDEN – 5.12 PPG – 2.62 REB – 2.25 ASST
3. CLARKE – 17.89 PPG – 5.11 REB – 1 ASST
4. RANTALL– 13.44 PPG – 3.78 REB – 2 ASST
5. BULUK – 8.12 PPG – 3.62 REB – 1.12 ASST
6. TRAVERS– 4.0 PPG – 3 REB – 3.43 ASST
7. CAPETOLA – 7.5 PPG – 3.62 REB – 3.12 ASST
8. MEAKES – 4.0 PPG – 4.33 REB – 1 ASST
9. JACKSON - 6.75 PPG – 9.88 REB – 1 ASST
10. WILLIAMSON – NOT SELECTED
11. BALD – 19.0 PPG – 3.29 REB – 2 AST
12. RICHARDS – 7.33 PPG – 4.33 REB – 2.33 AST

U/16 NATIONALS 2017
13. WIGNESS – 26.67 PPG – 7.78 REB – 4.33 AST
14. TSAPATOLIS – 12.56 PPG – 9.33 REB – 0.89 AST
15. GRIFFIN – 14.0 PPG – 7.78 REB – 3.67 AST
16. ARMSTRONG - 19.5 PPG – 4.75 REB – 4.88 AST

This upcoming ajc u18, both 01 and 02 together will sort out the good from the bad.

U16
SIMONS - 15.22ppg - 12.44rpg - 1.33apg

If Simons gets these type of numbers again has improved his ft percentage, I'd take him over Meakes.

With steiner not involved in ajc, ant see him making squad even though he was a killer in the post and a great defender.

Steiner was great in 16's, but is a typical vic metro early developer/man child. Hasn't grown since then. National junior championships to international level is a huge step up athletically. While he still would be a strong player on a Friday night in vjbl, that doesn't mean his skill set would translate to international level.

Wow some of those stat lines are hard to comprehend how some were even selected in the first place!

Coaches mates with other coaches thats why.

McKinlay could sell a clapped out Datsun to a millionaire!

Schuller is only new at this so maybe some of the state head coaches influenced his selections? I'm sure he will make his mark going through to the worlds. At days end he got the job done and I'm sure his focus towards the next hurdle is already in his head.