Gotta admit i haven't been all too impressed with Lemanis in general since he left NZ. His tenure with the Boomers so far has been mediocre and 2 wooden spoons with Brisbane (albiet injury depleted in both seasons) have been underwhelming. His casual demeanor also annoys me a bit too.

Hope he can turn it around.

Dude is a spud. Lucky enough the NBA players will coach themselves during the champs and olympics

I'd love to look at other options but with a year left until the world cup, and everything that has already been put in place, it would be a massive disruption to bring in a new coach now unless they're coaches that have a knack for turning things around quickly.

Bevo got Scotland playing well with minimum prep before the Comm games, I'd like to see how he would go with the Boomers, im tipping better than Lemanis

Never been a Lemanis fan but cannot ever forget the way the Boomers played at the Rio Olympics. Simply our best basketball to this point!

As far as I am concerned he has the job as long as he can put up with the fair weather fans who bay for blood any time games aren't played to their perceived standards and requirements.

Yes, Rio was our best basketball. He's had one very good campaign and the rest have been either bad or underwhelming. The World Cup in 2014 was a travesty in how we lost to Angola - probably tanking - and then losing a game that we basically had in the bag against Turkey. We beat teams we should never have had trouble with anyway in the Boomers series since the Olympics, but the first time we play a team with just a little bit of size and athleticism, we're made to look like absolute fools. I still think Lemanis hasn't yet proved himself as a coach and we need to be open to the fact that his success in Rio might have been more to do with the roster than him. I mean, how do we go from playing some really beautiful offensive basketball and playing with so much fire as we did at the Olympics, to the Kay-led embarrassment that was tonight?

Outside of this game, can anyone in the 'sack Lemanis' camp explain to me what Boomers performances were disappointing? What *Boomers* games make Lemanis appear mediocre? He led the Boomers to the Boomers highest quality basketball ever and best result ever in Rio. He led the B/C team to an absolutely dominant Asia Cup.

The only performance, outside of the Japan game, where the team disappointed was in China, but that was just a friendly with horribly biased Chinese refs (and we still won that series). What Lemanis-led Boomers games am I forgetting here?

By the way, you really need to provide better examples than a strategic loss in 2014, especially when simultaneously ignoring 2016 and the Asia Cup.

I wonder how many people remember the ways our previous highly credentialed previous Boomers coaches disappointed at times. Brown and Goorjian both made the Boomers look disorganised and underwhelming at various stages, and both took some time to get the team to gel. Does anyone remember Brown's iso ball with Jawai? Anyone remember Goorjian's offense when he began with the Boomers? Goorjian dropping a game against NZ in the 2007 Oceania series? Brown's series loss to NZ in the 2009 Oceania series?

Since then, Lemanis coached the Boomers to a 3-3 record in the 2014 World Cup, including throwing away the Angola game for strategic purposes. Had they won the Angola game, they would finished with their best World Cup win-loss record ever, even if they also lost in the round of 16 (also remember that the Boomers lost that round of 16 game against Turkey by just 1 point). Lemanis is undefeated against NZ, was a bad call away from bronze in Rio, undefeated and hugely dominant in the Asia Cup with a B/C team. This Japan game is his first major stumble.

He coached the Breakers when the level of basketball in the NBL was pretty average too. They were winning against the easiest opposition in league history. As soon as the league improved they dropped back into the pack.

Man I love coming to this website for a good laugh. Everyone that is saying "sack" Lemanis is just showing that they have ZERO knowledge on the game of Basketball or Coaching.

Give respect where it's due to Japan, they have been making massive waves around the world for the way that they are developing athletes and the style of play that they use. Anyone who is actually in the know is aware of this.

Boomers won 16 straight (or something like that), including a Gold Medal at the Asia Cup and Commonwealth Games. Not to forget they had an incredible Olympics under Lemanis - and for anyone who says that the coaching had nothing to do with that - you are just proving how idiotic you are.

RANT OVER. You keyboard warriors need to wake up to yourselves and go to a coaching clinic (or something like) and start to slowly learn about the game - might take you all a while as you seem to be starting off at a very low knowledge base

I just wish he'd mix and match the defenses more like Bevo does, the offensive stuff is fine.

I rate the World Cup in 2014 a success. For the first time ever we we good enough to get into a position to tank and we did it well. It got us the best position for crossovers.

You have to remember we were beaten in the round of 16 by a very good team from Turkey who hit some massive 3 pointers down the stretch to get over the top of us.

Some thoughts
1. His subbing patterns were crazy. Making a sub every 1 or 2 minutes line ups to never were to settled.
2. No thought to combinations out on the floor.
3. Maybe, selecting only bigs and combo guards isn't a good idea. Lemanis have you heard of a small forward/wing player.
4. Offense had no purpose and maybe, an idea is to get the ball to the hot player Goulding. Also, pick and pops for Delly/Goulding and Maker/Kickett.
5. Lemanis maybe use a few ways of defending the pick and roll/pop.
6. Getting back to subbing, play less players and play better players more.

Many a team shooting 34% can make a coach look like a spud. Blame him all you like for the attitude and the defensive scheme but professional players should do better. Shoot a reasonable clip fellas and we win easily

Heal said it right when he said basketball isn't an equal opportunity game. You need to have guys who you go-to and then the rest of the team eats off that. While I'd never want us to go the route of the NBA and become Iso-focused, there should be someone who gets the ball in crunch time and is a threat enough to draw defenders, and on this team it should probably be Goulding at this point.

And yes, wing players are needed. I don't see why Drmic couldn't have been thrown in at some point, given that no one else was doing anything. Maybe he might have been hyped up and could have turned the game? I feel like the coach is caught in a weird spot between giving everyone court time and not actually experimenting when things aren't working. When we were down by 10 just before half, I am sure he could have thrown Drmic in for 2-3 minutes and see if he can't provide something.

But for whatever reason he persisted with Kay and Kickert. Kay couldn't hit the side of a barn but found himself getting probably the most minutes of anyone, and Kickert was too busy pivoting and pump faking like an idiot to take the open shots he was often given. I seriously wanted to punch him in the face even watching it. And when you have Lisch passing up open lay ups, it's clear somewhere along the lines these guys haven't been given license or they're still not sure what the hell they're doing.

I wouldn't have even minded Brad Newley on this team. At least he is long, athletic, still quick and can defend. We only have guards and combo forwards, and it looks like just a repeat of all the problems Brisbane had.

Duke Fan,

Shooting percentage is the outcome, the process was horrible.

Getting the right people in the right shots is the role of the coach and play makers.

Kay went 4-17 (4-16 2 point shots) and his makes the assists under the basket.While, Goulding went 8/12 overall and 5/8 3's. Maybe,if we went to Goulding more and Kay less the shooting percentage would have been better.

Lisch only taking one shot in 12 minutes and Kay taking 19 shots in 23 minutes. That's not smart offense.

The out of bounds with Kay taking the shot was a joke. Maker or Kickett should have been the screener and not Kay.

Sure, Delly and Maker went 1-9 in 3's. But again, Delly is best as a pure point and getting the ball to the best players.

Also, the main strength of the Flow offense is that you go into the offense seamlessly from the secondary break. That never nappen, no drag screens, no dribble hand offs, no trailers until Maker in the 4th or no spot up 3's.

The main question will be how the Boomers respond Monday night. If they fix these problems and win, you'd say they learned and you cut them slack. If they keep doing the same thing, you have to really start wondering whether we have the right people leading the team.

All true Todd, but the flow offense has been functioning pretty well in most of the recent games. I'm not sure if last night was the result of bad work by Lemanis or good work by the Japanese in forcing the wrong players in position to take shots.

But yes ultimately the bench is the best way to stop players shooting. I have to admit that I did fall asleep on the couch for a good portion of the middle of the game (haha, I'm old) and only saw the 1st and last quarter. Will have to rewatch it some time. I do know that I'd much prefer thundering dunk Maker to bricking three Maker

Kay has been a surprise in-form player for the Boomers until last night. His shooting last night was an anomaly compared with his other games as a Boomer. As for those complaining about the last play when the Boomers were down 3, Kay had an open 3. I'm not sure whether Japan accommodated this option, but it was an open shot to take. The criticism about this play is only whether Kay should have been out there, and that's only based on his form in this game.

As for our two NBA players, Delly is a role-playing facilitator, not a go-to player. It was his first time playing with this group. Maker was playing his first game ever with the Boomers. His role isn't going to be clear in his first game in international basketball. Besides that, the NBA guys shot the ball terribly, 1/9 from 3.

Others continued this poor shooting. Kickert missed shots he was knocking down in previous internationals. We shot at just 37% from 2s, and 29% from 3s. While the offense didn't look so smooth compared with other games, the looks these guys were getting were not so bad. They have to knock down their shots.

In some other ways at the offensive end, the Boomers were not so bad. We dominated on the O boards. We kept turnovers down. Just make some shots. Defensively, we needed to better deal with Hachimura and Fazekas. Hachimura was shooting the lights out. He started to cool down as the game went on, but then Fazekas lit it up from all over. You wouldn't ever expect these two to play as well as they did last night. For the Japan win, it took these guys to shoot the lights out while the Boomers shot well below their usual level, with Japan home court advantage too.

I should clarify about Hachimura and Fazekas. I mean that they were playing at maximum output. If it were a two game series, I doubt they would play so well again.

The most disappointing thing about Lemanis last night was his response to Japan's zone defense. It's like we had no plan set to deal with it. Although good perimeter shooting is going to make a difference against a zone, but we just shot bricks.

As for the lineup, we seemed to be missing slashing wings. Was Newley available? It is obvious, but add any of our top slashers, Simmons, Ingles, Exum, and the Japanese defense would have needed to handle us very differently.

"What I hate about the Aussies basketball selectors is they are always reluctant to pick young players in colleges. Why did'nt we pick players like Adel, Bolden, Mathiang, Acuil ? "

Almost all of those players have NBA commitments right now. And even then you have to accept that they'll need to adjust to international basketball and that they aren't quite good enough to automatically dominate as Rui did against us last night. If Australia had a Rui Humurchuria equivalent and he were avaialble, I am sure he would have been selected. Lemanis might be a bit daft but he isn't "that" daft. I mean he has just put Thon Maker in the squad, right?

"Kay has been a surprise in-form player for the Boomers until last night. His shooting last night was an anomaly compared with his other games as a Boomer. As for those complaining about the last play when the Boomers were down 3, Kay had an open 3. I'm not sure whether Japan accommodated this option, but it was an open shot to take. The criticism about this play is only whether Kay should have been out there, and that's only based on his form in this game.
"

Yeah, he's generally been good. But why did he continue to get minutes when he clearly wasn't having a good game? Why was he continuing to get shots?

Some college kids might have more potential than some NBL players but you can't pretend that they'll generally be more effective right now than hardened professionals. Age and experience counts for something. And if you're gonna fill a team up with college kids, expect to take surprising losses.

Mathiang, maybe. But you will note that none of those other players are in the NBA, nor were they drafted, nor have they played a second of basketball against grown men. Calling them "NBL level" is really an assumption on your point. There was a time when Jason Cadee was considered an NBA prospect. Would you call him "NBA level?"

As for "useless" NBL players, yeah they certainly looked useless last night. But in basically all other Asia Cup games they've shown they're anything but useless. I see a problem with direction on the team. I don't think the problem is talent and ability of the players.

Gotta be honest.
I have given Lemanis massive cred for his NBL championships with the Breakers.
But nothing he has done since, and nothing he has done internationally, have inspired any confidence.

I did say "Mathiang, maybe". And I can guarantee you if he was available he'd be on the team.

I think basketball is more complex game than "he could potentially play NBA, therefore he is definitely better suited to this position than someone who cannot". There are a lot of things to weigh up when choosing players for a team. William McDowell-White could potentially play NBA at some point but would I have him in the Boomers now over Kevin Lisch? No, I actually wouldn't. There is also how a team works together and what roles need to be filled. For instance you could say X is a better player than Y, but Y has an outside shot and can stretch the D, while X cannot, you might end up choosing Y if that fits the composition of your team. This is how guys like Wagstaff keep getting Boomers gigs. If you judge him on his pedigree he isn't much chop, but if you look at the role he can play on the team and the fact he provides things the other players don't, you end up swallowing your pride and putting him in the squad. This is how people like Brendan Teys and Kevin White and Greg Hire keep making NBL rosters. Basketball is a more complex game than just weighing players up best to worst.

The most disappointing thing about Lemanis last night was his response to Japan's zone defense. It's like we had no plan set to deal with it. Although good perimeter shooting is going to make a difference against a zone, but we just shot bricks.

Hmmm I wonder if there is an Australian Big who could have hit some shots last night .... Daniel Johnson...... But lets give that great potential talent Kickert who is worse at NBL level the spot on the team....

Totally agree selection and coaching are the biggest issue with these teams.

Similar with the Brisbane Bullets imo, who again looking to be bottom 2 in my view

Thankfully the Olympic teams with everyone healthy basically picks itself so not too much room for stuff ups.

Depends what the personal grudges are I suppose. Despite the loss, the Boomers actually do have a good culture of people who play hard, play for eachother, and play as a team. There could be some real locker room type problems with these guys that detract from that culture. I am sure Lemanis can see that Ogilvy and Johnson are good players - I don't think the guy is brain dead. But if there is something about those guy's presence that takes away from team morale it is his job to deal with that reality. And only someone without class is going to publicly say, "yeah, AJ keeps picking his nose and flicking it at everyone", or whatever it is they're doing that is causing tension when they have been given a chance.