BA still awaiting final squad to be vetted by Liz.

Cant pick Mitchell based on form over2 seasons.

US advising athletes to stay home, might not compete.

With the state of covid in Tokyo why on earth would any athlete risk their careers , it's crazy they are even going ahead

What it should be...
Ebzery / Madgen
Talbot / Whitcomb / Nicholson
Allen / Ohea
Magbegor / Smith / George
Cambage / Tolo


What it will be...
Mitchell / Madgen
Talbot / Ebzery / Nicholson
Allen / Ohea
George / Magbegor / Smith
Cambage / Tolo

I have heard no townsville players selected.

Sandy said it won't be the best players but the players with the most chemistry.
Translation - I’m picking who I always do, they are my friends.

I think this will be like rio, out in the 1/4s, but she’ll keep her job unfortunately for the WC and maybe france

Never come close to winning a tournament with Mitchell at the helm.

Our resident Mitchell hater is hilarious. Like swapping Mitchell with Whitcomb is the difference between a gold medal chance and the USA toying with us. I guess they already forgot 2018 when Whitcomb was there in place of Mitchell.

Difference between a medal and out in the 1/4s,who said gold...

'Winning a tournament' means gold last time I checked how the olympics worked. derp.

2018 we won with Ebzery at point after Mitchell n Mansfield were injured.

Winning I was referring to Asia cupn Olympic qualifiers etc after WC when Mitchell was runnin the show.

2018 we got our asses kicked by USA

No doubt but we lost to China, Japan and France following

Same old sandy. 4-8 finish.

Madgen & Ohea over Nicholson, wtaf???

No Nicholson, she obviously doesn't think much of or watch last seasons wnbl. Be lucky to get anywhere near top 4.

Madgen is the only one you can argue

Sandys obsession with experience is killin the opals and the Mercury.

Luuuc, have you seen Mitchell's stats? She’s the worst wnba performer by numbers currently.

I thought this would be the time where every forum poster would agree with every selection.

Mitchell / Ebzery / Lavey
Talbot / Madgen
Allen / Ohea
George / Magbegor / Smith
Cambage / Tolo

Going to struggle against pace.

Exp over youth, sandy said.

Heal is way too young and inexperienced... your un12/14 girls talk about her as she's closer in age to them

I would of had Heal in based on her wnbl performances this season, although there was a selection camp and its hard to know how that Lavey/Heal matchup went at camp. I'm assuming Lavey beat her out. Possibly the same with Madgen/Nicholson.
There is also the fit part of it. Are Lavey/Madgen better as options down the bench when not main offensive options on a team?

Win over Puerto Rico probable.
China and Belgium could be losses or wins. They are 50/50 games.
Crossover to a or b means we out in 1/4s likely.

Squad too slow, sandy should be gone with poor outcome, they'll keep her and we struggle at WC also.

With sandy? Lol she'll keep the same squad till Sydney WC.

55% win record as a coach ain't that great. After 2014, her record has continued to slide.

Reeve comparison 68% win record.

Yes, it's clear the selection is based on friendship and not form.
Whitcomb playing well.

Imagine when she faces Oneill, wang, motohashi, allemand, epoupa, etc in pool play, etc

The backups of those teams are on par with Mitchell atm.

Will Lavey start at bendigo?

Mitchell, Ohea are the 2 obvious cuts for next year.

Whitcomb, Nicholson in.

Heal overtakes Lavey. Aokuso potentially pushes out Tolo.

I don't know about Heal as the face of the Opals, Ezi more likely to be that. Plus, I would have Rocci in ahead of her, Heal isn’t really a PG, more of a very small 2

Seebohm to takeover hopefully. I can't stand sandys choices. I mean she had Mansfield n Mitchell, only through injury did we see Ebzery start.

Showcase against the leftovers would be good

Heal - rocci - Mangakahia
Whitcomb - Cole
Nicholson - Kunek
Blicavs - Garbin - Froling
Aokuso - Scherf

Yeah hope so.
Pg, sg or cg

2022
Rebecca Allen 30
Elizabeth Cambage 31
Katie Ebzery 32
Cayla George 33 - 50/50, center only though.
Tessa Lavey 29
Tess Madgen 32
Eziyoda Magbegor 23
Leilani Mitchell 37 - gone for sure
Jenna O'Hea 35 - gone for sure
Alanna Smith 26
Stephanie Talbot 28
Marianna Tolo 33 - likely the end

That squad will not cut the mustard^

Paris

Ebzery 90 (c)
+
2 of
Mangakahia 95
Rocci 98
Heal 01

Nicholson 93
Wallace 96

2 of
Allen 92
Talbot 94
Blicavs 93

Smith 96
Magbegor 99

Cambage 91
Aokuso 98

We will struggle to get out of the group stage with this team.

Won't even go close to beating Belgium, Allemand will run rings around our slow guards, Meesseman is a WNBA star and they have shooters everywhere.

It will come down to the game vs China, which won’t be easy!

Agree, Belgium will finish top.

Aus or China 2nd-3rd

Puerto Rico 4th


USA, France, Spain, Serbia, Canada stronger

Japan too.

Looks familiar

2018 Spain
2018 Opals squad
O'Hea, Jenna (captain)
Allen, Rebecca
Bunton, Alex
Cambage, Liz
Ebzery, Katie-Rae
Francis, Cayla
Lavey, Tessa
Madgen, Tess
Magbegor, Ezi
Smith, Alanna
Talbot, Stephanie
Whitcomb, Sami

Team did not have Whitcomb or Madgen going in, last minUte injuries to Mitchell and Mansfield.
Shows you sandy is stubborn about her selections.

What gets me is after winning silver, she went back to the old choices and has continued losing ever since. 5 losses after 2018

If the lineup is ...
I'm ok with it.

Ebzery
Talbot
Allen
Magbegor
Cambage

Mitchell
Madgen
Ohea
Smith
George

Lavey
Tolo


George too slow at the 4.
Mitchell into a backup pg roll.


Still.. Whitcomb is a big out and ohea is lucky she’s captain. Nicholson probably deserved a spot.

Expect Mitchell n Ohea to be cut for Asia cup in September.

World Cup 2018 - silver
S5 - Ebzery, Talbot, Allen, George, Cambage
Nigeria win
Argentina win
Turkey win
China win
Spain win
USA loss

Friendlies 2019
S5 - Mitchell, Ohea, Allen, Magbegor, George
China win
China loss
China loss

Asia cup 2019 - bronze
S5 - Mitchell, Ohea, Allen, Magbegor, George
Phillipines win
New Zealand win
China loss
Chinese Taipei win
Japan loss
South Korea win

Pre Olympic qualifiers 2019
S5 - Mitchell, Talbot, Allen, George, Cambage
Chinese Taipei win
India win
Japan loss

Olympic qualifiers 2020
S5 - Mitchell, Talbot, Allen, George, Cambage
France loss
Puerto Rico win
Brazil win


Record since 2018
14 wins -67%
7 losses -33%

Losses s5 opponents

Bird, taurasi, stewart, Charles, griner

Yuan, tong tong, ting, Chen, li - (not best side)inj to 2 players

Motohashi, Akaho, miyashita, Miyazawa, tokashiki - (not best side)inj to 2 players

Epoupa, Hartley, vukosaljevic, miyem, Gruda

Sticking with Mitchell, Talbot, Allen, George, cambage probably not a great idea.

BS that Whitcomb did not make this team.

Today
19 / 5 / 3 / 4
5/7 3 pt

Over 7-8 games
Sami Averaging almost 12 pts a game and shooting the ball at almost 50% 3, 47% fg.
Mitchell avg 3 pts a game and shooting it at 22% 3, 20% fg

No doubt, sandys got to go and a poor olympics should guarantee that.

I only hope that Mitchell is the backup to Ebzery.

Squad doesn't even make sense with 4 players playing pg currently

Mitchell
Ebzery
Madgen
Lavey


Mitchell was a mistake before the start of the wnba season. Looks even worse now...
1 of Madgen or Lavey would have sufficed. No need for both. Madgen gets the nod.
You can now add both Whitcomb who’s playing very well as both a sg and pg for the Liberty and Nicholson who’s a great defender in the 2 spot, something we need off the bench...

Can we stop with the S.Heal? She is getting her ass kicked in the WNBA. She is averaging more turnovers than points. Give the kid some time before heaping lofty goals on her. She is not ready

Nah, not ready for sure.
But wnba opponents not the same as FIBA opponents.
Only 2 Olympic teams have wnba level pg's. USA has bird n maybe diggins. Belgium has allemand.

Heal would not face the same calibre of opponent at fiba.
She's atleast on par with some of the other backup Olympic pgs.

I was looking forward to a lineup of...

Ebzery
Whitcomb
Talbot
Allen
Cambage

Madgen-Heal
Nicholson
Ohea
Magbegor-Smith
George


Reserves
Lavey
Blicavs
Tolo

With the 3x3 team eliminated from Tokyo any chance Cole comes into the opals? She is better than Madgen and Lavey

No, no chance. Not sure better than Madgen atm.

But let's be real, why take Lavey as a 3rd string pg when you already have Mitchell, Ebzery, Madgen...
Could have added Nicholson.

Lavey has averaged about 2-3 mins a game for australia.

Lavey is a better choice than Ebzery, Ebzery is too slow , and right now a better prospect than Mitchell productivity wise.
But let's face it all the guards she’s picked are suspect , think Opals will get a wake up call, Allen and Talbot , with Magbegor and Smith might just drag them through if Cambage can keep her lid on , George and Tolo are past their use by date , great in NBL1 and can bring it in WNBL most game, but up against the international bigs, they will struggle with mobility

Do forum posters come out when the Boomers team is announced and ask for the likes of;
Mills
Delly
Baynes
to be dropped from the squad and replaced with the likes of
Vasiljevic
Giddey
Humphries

Even though this iteration of the Opals team has had success at the most recent major tournament (unlike the Boomers).

Ebzery too slow? lol now I've heard it all.

Ebzery was the most consistent pg in wnbl and I was shocked at how quick she was live. She was quicker than everyone bar clydesdale, conti n Rocci without the ball.

The last major tourney we finished 3rd to China n Japan at Asia cup. Mitchell was well beaten by motohashi and li, the main reason we lost.

Only suprise is Atkins

We r fked

Mitchell, Ebzery, Madgen, lavey v bird, diggins, Gray, taurasi
Talbot, Allen, Ohea v loyd, Atkins, Collier
George, magbegor, smith v stewart, Charles, Wilson
Cambage, Tolo v griner, fowles

Eurobasket on and Tokyo selection up for grabs with a few teams.

Mondelo the coach of Spain is the same as sandy, loves vets.
Torrens and abalde getting Covid, now forced to bring youth in and they flourish.
Conde and Cazorla may make the Olympic roster now.

Who's coming 2nd, 3rd?

France if healthy, Spain if healthy, Belgium if healthy, Serbia have gone up a level.
Japan will be quick.
Canada maybe, not great at americup but underhanded

Serbia looking good, underated.
Probably good for 2nd with full squad,

Anderson-dabovic
Jovanovic-butulija
Vasic-crvendakic
Brooks-Milic
Krajisnik-dugalic

Spain has 2-3 out with Covid. Youth surprising, few changes probably.
Epoupa injured for France, not sure how serious.
Belgium top 3 team atm.
Canada will improve.

I've got

Tier 1 USA-gold
Tier 2 Australia, Belgium, Serbia, France, Spain, Canada, Japan, China
Tier 3 Nigeria, Korea, Puerto Rico

Any of tier 2 could win silver, bronze.

If Australia doesn’t make top 4, sandywill and should be shafted, joyce got the same treatment after bundling out in 1/4s in 2016. Coincidently he too made poor roster choices. No one could understand why Burton was taken.

Spain didn't qualify for the Sydney WC and the fans are fuming lol.
Mondelo using vets all the time and look what happened. Using palau as the primary pg almost 42y,o.


Sydney WC qualyfying teams

Eurobasket top 6
France
Russia
Belgium
Belarus
Bosnia
Serbia

Americup top 4
Brazil
USA
Canada
Puerto Rico

Aftosbasket (2) + Asia (3) undecided + australia(host)

These 16 teams will be reduced to 12 for the WC.

The only chance Spain have of WC qualification now is to win the Tokyo Olympics

Spain didn't qualify for the Sydney WC and the fans are fuming lol.
Mondelo using vets all the time and look what happened. Using palau as the primary pg almost 42y,o.

Palau was done when Rangers brought her in, can't believe she’s still going

Well, it cost em. 2 of the best players they had were the youngsters they never use in conde(23) and cazorla(23). Quevedo(24) also played well early on.
Also the loss of Torrens with Covid did not help.

Spain easily has the greatest number of young talent outside of the USA, it's a pity they continue to keep mondelo as coach and it’s also a pity the same thing is happening here in aus.

Serbia with vasic back and anderson as the pg will be very good in Tokyo. Favourites for silver I reckon.

Luuuc, looks like those odds will change...