Thanks Luuuc, you are making it easy for me.

Any predictions for the group finishing order?

Group A looks clear-cut
USA
China
Belgium
PR
Bosnia
South Korea

Group B looks too close to call
Canada
Serbia
2 of France or Australia or Japan, probably the first two
.
Mali

Yeah, I couldn't pick group B before and I still can't.
Come to play on any given night you're a real chance.
It's exactly what you want in a world cup group.

Looking forward to seeing China today, but suspect the USA will want to make a statement.

Great crowd in for US v China.

Love gazey behind the mike, USA to good but enjoying game.

China hanging around

Great 1/4 by china, back to within nine.

Australia will have to improve a lot to anywhere near these two teams

Cracking game and atmosphere, USA just to good in the end.

More fans in the building today to support China than there were on night 1 to support the Opals. That's impressive.

Their team was impressive too. They're looking good for the silver.

This BIH team has looked shite compared to WC qualifiers, Jones too tired, no others contributing.

Group A looks set already.
USA, China, belgium, Puerto Rico through to finals. Korea and Bosnia out.

Group B, tight finish you'd think for finals. Mali out.

Luuc - crowd at USA v China would have been higher - USa will draw a good crowd. Lot of China ex pats around Sydney and U14 club championships about to start - so a lot more basketball families around today than Day 1 and 2. Plus it was always going to be a good game.

US Vs China , nice to watch some teams with legit Point Guards , their offense clicks into gear most plays where Australia is still so clunky.
The Jackson Hype is reaching fever pitch with Pick and Roll declaring her MVP vs Mali after playing 8 minutes.

Some perspective is required.

PR hanging with Belgium for 3 quarters.
They definitely forgot to read the script.

For a team that didn't even qualify, they’ve done well.

3 games in 3 days and potentially 8 in 10 testing players fitness big time.
Agree with the PR coach, it should be 2 games max before rest day.

PR vs Korea will be interesting.

USA certainly are favoured by the refs they get away with a lot more than other teams
China are a great team to watch
Australia don't stand a chance against these two teams,
The win they got against what is clearly the weakest team in the comp can’t be applauded as their "firm game" any NBL1 team could have put Mali to bed

Can’t see the Opals with this line up they have coming anywhere near a medal ,

Cosmo Spacely
Last week

US Vs China , nice to watch some teams with legit Point Guards , their offense clicks into gear most plays where Australia is still so clunky.
The Jackson Hype is reaching fever pitch with Pick and Roll declaring her MVP vs Mali after playing 8 minutes.

Some perspective is required.

Couldn't agree more, as much as I love LJ she’s cooked , they have used her for damage control after Cabbage debacle, would have been better putting a decent PG in the team to have a chance at a medal ... that would have silenced the EC band members

Pity Lavey chose aflw but Sandy never plays her, she'll be back I reckon for Olympics given its mid July 2024. Hopefully under a new HC.

Melbourne should have been in this team and Reid or Mangakahia should have gotten more opportunity prior too.
Whitcomb and Wallace are both sgs and Madgen is a sg/sf.

And who is this decent international level starting point guard that everyone is calling for??

^^ exactly, we don't have one right now. Hard to pick what you don’t have.

Lavey, Reid would have done a better job for opals at the point with Whitcomb and Wallace sgs.
The problem is brondello, Lavey playing around 3 mins a game over 5 years for the opals.
Reid only getting 10-15 total mins in 3 games vs Japan.
Under chambers, Rocci got the majority of minutes at pg with heal 2nd most in the lead up games.



Starting pgs this wnbl season

Lavey-Bendigo BU-Wilson
Wallace-Melbourne BU-Scanlon
Melbourne-Canberra BU-Tupaea
Reid-Townsville BU-Yaeger
Mangakahia-Sydney BU-Panousis
Whitcomb-Perth BU-Ryan
Mansfield-Adelaide BU-Cubillo
mRocci-Southside BU-aRocci

3 of the above are 2s imo, Sami, kristy n jade

Reid definitely should've been given more opportunity v Japan. Deeble & Loughridge need to be included early.

Yes, get them in early.
I'd go further and have a dedicated pg Aus camp, get a whole bunch in together.

For those calling for the Opals to have picked an international level point guard we don't have one. Rocci, Reid and Heal were all given plenty of chances to demonstrate their ability in friendlies and qualifying matches and couldn't deliver. They had a high number of turnovers.

I'm not sure what happened with Lavey and her AFLW but Sandy is renowned for not utilising her unfortunately. Sandy waits til the damage is done and then throws Lavey in and expects her to fix it :(

I would love to have seen this team with Lavey but we didn't get a chance.

I think it will be a miracle for us to come higher than 5th in this group. I have been watching the other teams in this group and they are playing so well. Will be super happy to be wrong though!

Thought Reid was good v Japan (better than both Rocci/heal) in very limited minutes apart from the one time she got trapped and gave the ball away.
Been very good all season in nbl1 and probably the most well rounded in terms of defence, offense, passing, ft and 3pt shooting.

So which player are you taking out of the 12 selected, in order to slot Reid into your starting 5?

So which player are you taking out of the 12 selected, in order to slot Reid into your starting 5?

Jackson , no business being there.

Jackson played better than half the team. George has only played well once the game was won against Mali, we are just not that good, lack of money in development hasn't helped.

I wouldnt start Reid, I'd have Lavey.
I wouldn’t have had Garbin, Madgen or Blicavs(these players only played well vs Japan 'b’ and nowhere else along the journey)in my squad and I was skeptical on how much jackson would contribute.

I thought (without Lavey), Reid was next best at the time.
Melbourne over Madgen, Kunek over Blicavs, Smith over Garbin.


Reid 1
Whitcomb 2-1
Melbourne 2-1
Wallace 2-1
Kunek 3
Talbot 3-4
Allen 3-4
Smith 4-5
Magbegor 5-4
George 5-4
Tolo 5
Jackson 5


Whitcomb-Reid
Wallace-Melbourne
Allen-Talbot-Kunek
Magbegor-Smith
Tolo-George-Jackson
-
(Lavey over Reid if available)

For those calling for the Opals to have picked an international level point guard we don't have one. Rocci, Reid and Heal were all given plenty of chances to demonstrate their ability in friendlies and qualifying matches and couldn't deliver. They had a high number of turnovers.

I'm a very casual women's viewer at best. What can we expect from Australia v Serbia tonight? Who would be considered fave?

Yeah I don't see how Lavey and Reid would be better than Whitcomb, Wallace and even Madgen at the point. They’re just not international level players. I would have included an additional ballhandler on the team for depth but the Opals point guard problem is still there. Whitcomb is still easily the best option atm.

For future PG options, Hall is the obvious long long term solution (can’t wait to see her mature) but I think Shelley is an intriguing inbetween solution. Performed well in juniors and doing well in college after getting some playing time at Nebraska. Maybe Mangakahia can show some of her earlier college form. She’s a quality international level playmaker at her best but has struggled a bit since her illness.

As for tonight against Serbia, I just hope the Opals put in a good showing. Serbia are pretty beatable atm (a lot of their stars just retired) but we haven’t showed the level of play yet needed to beat them. I think we will be ok defensively but whether our offence can handle their physical defence is the bigger concern.

Maybe it's time they started looking at other PGs that are currently in NBL1
True PGs are few and far between that’s true but in addition to what they have already tried in
Mangakahia , Reid, Rocci none of which are great defenders , which if you listen to the Opals doc is what Brondello brought Wallace in for , you have players such as Calleia ( got great drive, good court vision) Antoniadou ( aggressive defender , true floor general, great shot when she decides to shoot good decision maker) Nakkasoglu, ( great shooter, and great court vision, and quick up the floor) only Antoniadou has represented Aus as a junior, but why not give players like this the opportunity , certainly got nothing to lose, a true point guard is what Australia desperately need and unless Mitchel, or Harrower are planning an LJ come back, then why not look further than the usual favourites, let’s face it they need to do something

Agree, Shotblocker - they need to look beyond the CoE in order to find the best prospects, and beyond the 'known' familiar faces in the WNBL to find the best players. Politics and bias seem to be getting in the way too much, from what I read.

However, until there’s a clean-out from the top, it won’t happen. And that clean-out won’t happen unless we come in the bottom two in our group, so that there are no possible excuses.

Otherwise, I like the idea of an intensive camp for our best 20 prospects as PGs, for example, but that needs money.

I'm a very casual women's viewer at best. What can we expect from Australia v Serbia tonight? Who would be considered fave?

On my way to the game now. Hopefully the Opals put in a good performance.

Meanwhile, the Superdome is in the sticks

Bookies have this one close to 50/50. Both teams paying < $2, with the Opals slightly shorter, FWIW.

Tolo into the starting 5 at Magbegor's expense

Here we go

George, turnover and missed open jump shot already

Can't fault the intensity level.

Still need to tidy up the offence.

Is the Serbian coach wearing some kind of political statement.

Also, love Wallace

The defence is fantastic tonight. Offence - meh, but good enough so far.

Good start, defensively very good.

Yes the offence is very rough. We're fortunate we got to the line for 8 freebies.

Whitcomb coughing it up a fair bit so far.

Nice run there to force a Serbian timeout

Ouch

I hope they've got a mask for Sami

Great game. To many panic turnovers.

Extra nervous 4th quarter coming up if Serbia are going to keep pressuring the ball

This is not basketball

With the way this game has been reffed its no wonder multiple players have been seriously hurt. Disgraceful for this level.

Allen been magnificent, hopefully not to badly hurt.

O-Boards FTW!

My knowledge of ladies basketball is not great but great game. Defensively excellent. Allen, Talbot, Tolo, Whitcombe great. The rest chipped in though imo the bench is as strong.

Yep, the 4 you named were fantastic.
Going to be some sore women after that one.

would we see an OS PG nationalize to play for Australia ?

When it comes to group rankings does win % take precedent over H2H game result?

For example if Aus & France finish with the same Win-Loss record but Aus have a higher win % they'll be higher in the group standings even though France bet Aus in the first game?

Brilliant performance. The Opals intensity was at medal level. How many times can they repeat that?

Whitcomb was born in the US, California, but yes a new young American could be good. Spain just won the mens euro with an import point guard.

I hope that's the new standard for effort.

Problem is that this was the first of 3 tough games in 3 nights, and some older legs had to play some big & intense minutes.

Hoping this Canada-Japan game goes to quadruple overtime.

Whitcomb is a legit aussie though. She deserves to wear green & gold.
I don't want us pulling that European bollocks of buying an American who has no affiliation with this country.

Sara Blicavs yells out "Go the Cats" in an on court interview after brother Mark won an AFL premiership with Geelong yesterday. Heavy boos follow from the Sydney crowd...she quickly follows up and apologises after saying she forgot she was in Sydney

— Kane Pitman (@KanePitman) September 25, 2022

Whitcomb
Talbot
Allen
Magbegor
Tolo

Wallace
Madgen
Maley
Blicavs
Jackson

Garbin
George

1st or 2nd in the group probably required for us to go deep in tournament.

Timmsy and Screeny are the best commentators - loved their call !
One of the best games I've seen Bac Allen play.
Agreed medal level intensity on display - whoever revved the team up - it worked !

I think the key is hitting the first quarter with intensity like they did last night. They put Serbia on the back foot and we didn't really see their pressure until the third quarter.

Hopefully they can repeat that fire at the start. When the game needed managing, I liked having the ball in Whitcombe's hands at the top. Even when the offence broke down, she generally got us a shot somewhere and it was predicatable for our transition D.

Opals - a little bit of improvement, even the coach.

Serbia should have started the pressure a quarter earlier - kept it up their sleeve too long - ? waiting for our fatigue ?

Game pace in the first half was frantic.

Any news on Bec Allen ? she appeared to get squashed between two opponents and leg to ribs ?

Turns out Bec Allen did break a couple of ribs and is out of play for 2 months (reported from her European club's website)