Pretty sure the game is on 5am tomorrow AEST

Correct

https://nbl.com.au/news/australian-opals-v-france-how-to-watch-live-scores

Unfortunately without a win, we are in deep doo doo.

We need to keep close to France.
We need Nigeria to win against Canada.
Preferably Japan edge Belgium.

Opals in big trouble!!

Only way to 1/4 finals is a win against France, nothing else will do

Lose but Nigeria win = missing out by finishing 3rd, Belgium are +/- 0, China are -1, we already are -8 (so miss out)
Lose but Canada beats Nigeria = missing out in 3 way tie and we finish 4th

We win, but Nigeria also wins, we will finish 3rd, but the best best 3rd placed team and China misses out (we will have 2 wins and Belgium and China will only have 1 win)

Beat France and Canada wins
We finish 2nd, Canada 3rd (head to head) and Nigeria 4th

All adds up to Opals needing to win or they go home!!

I want them to win but I also think it's time for an overhaul.

Same here, I want them to win, cause with a win it's quite conceivable they finish on top of the group!
If Canada beats Nigeria that is

But yeah, post this Olympics, major regeneration coming

Yep, righto. Go Opals!

Group A was very weak, one of the worst Spain sides we've seen in sometime top the group.

Group C was stacked. All 4 were better than most teams in the tournament.


Coaching change for the boomers....
Who do people want as a potential brondello replacement?

Chambers
Goriss
Seebohm
Petrik
Lucas
Molloy
Veal
Hurst
Harrower
Herbert
Mills
International?

International. Going local sounds too much like 'who you know' and whether BA like you will be the deciding factors. Many seem competent but none stand out.

If that woman who coached Serbia for many years was available, she’d be my first choice.

If Horvasse gets fired as japan men's coach, that would be a good pickup.
Think Seebohm gets the job.

Lemanis would be good imo.

Seebohm will get it.

Can you see Lemanis coaching opals?, not sure that's a good link up.

Seebohm has a good relationship with the youth coming through.
I know he’s a fan of Reid, Aokuso, Heal, Nicholson and he thinks Shiels will be an opal.

Chambers had Reid sitting at the end of the bench and did not develop Puoch at all, probably she has has gone to Canberra.

So we just need to beat France by more than 10 points or have I got my sums wrong?

And yeah, I think we were always going to have an overhaul after this tournament, same as the Matildas. Massive overhaul overdue.

Surely Opals just have to win, regardless of margin

Also, shout out to Nigeria. Talk about a program on the rise.

Yeah a win is all that is needed, get to 2 wins, and even if finish 3rd, would get above Belgium and China who both only won the 1 game, China would miss out

Would make a 3 way tie between France, Nigeria and Opals
Currently between those 3 teams:
France +21
Nigeria -8
Opals -13

Win by 6 or more to get 2nd
Win by 18+ would get us first (Opals +5, France +3)
Win by 17 and we both finish +4 and I'm assuming we’d get 1st on H2H

All that sounds nice, but we lose, finish 3rd and we are toast

Weedy Slug,
I wouldn't let Molloy coach under 12.
He was lucky when he won the ONLY championship with Melbourne cause other teams fell away at the end of the season!!

Australia currently -13
Nigeria - 8
France currently + 21
Australia win < 5 3rd
Australia would need to win by 6 to finish 2nd
Australia would need to win by 17 to finish 1st

Beat me to it Clark

Opals need to win

Winning by 6 would place them 2nd, putting them in the 5th/6th pot (- 7 compared to Nigeria -8 in 3 way tie with France + 15)

Winning by 1- 5 leaves them 3rd in their group and in the 7th/8th pot

Hardtop,

I'm not a fan of Molloy either but we are talkin BAs choice.
Whether we like it or not, players seem to like him.
He did nothing with nz n.t so hopefully he won’t be an option.

Chambers winning the last wnbl chip, beating China in friendlies and recently quitting Southside means she’s probably one of the favourites but like sandy, she loves bigs and loves vets.

Odds are AUS 2.75 FRA 1.57 which translates in percentage terms to 36%/64%.

3am WST tipoff time, probability of me watching live = 0%.

5am over east and I'm still watching the golf and the women’s road cycling, no way I’m watching, good luck to opals but they have been not very good.

Happy to watch, I enjoy basketball and this team is still full of great players eve if its an end to an era. All the more important to watch.

Nice from Madgen. 7 pts early.
Whitcomb carrying us.
Smith can't keep her hands out. Foul trouble again.
Talbot, Melbourne not good..
George a statue on d and forcin shots.

1/4 time
Aus 19- France 17.

Sami runnin the show, few nice passes leadin to buckets.

Nothing wrong with vets here.
Our younger girls aren't ready here, need another 2-3 years of international experience.

Best half of the tournament imo. May still not be enough but good position to get the win.

Did Chambers catch a stray in the eye in training? Wearing a makeshift eyepatch.

French crowd is amazing.

Another wtf performance but we hangin on.
HT 34-34
Whitcomb and Madgen good. The rest need to lift.

Surprising how awful Borlase has been, someone normally so composed has become almost unplayable.

Williams + Johannes been very quiet.

Hardly any d being played by either side.
Smith finishing well apart from free throws.

Finally Ezi & Smith front court goin strong
Madgen steady leadership silencing critics

Will be close, need to win by 6 to avoid USA.

Might come down to Talbot vs Williams 4th showdown. Former teammates bother very quiet so far.

Tess Magden has turned UP.

WTF was Sandy thinking taking Atwell over Kunek.

Madgen solid as a rock today, hit some massive shots.

It's been the Sami, tess and Alanna show today.
9 pts up with a 1/4 to go. Don’t blow it. 59-50.

Why no d being played?

4 layups in a row with a spot in the 1/4s on the line.

Throwin the game away, wtf...

Surprised they were the team losing momentum coming after that Talbot/French player knock. Do not need Williams getting hot now as whole Opals get cold.

Sandy ridin with the same lineup.

Not good for jades confidence.

Nothing wrong with that ATM

Yep. Wallace must be hurt bad?

France sinking these 3s is killing my nerves. Still using George over Smith to close out?

Congratz to the opals.
France did not look fussed, a better matchup next rd?

Did not feel or look like a do or die game.

Really good win, needed that and even though it looked like France kept coming back they held on. How does that look for QFs now?

For the 3rd ranked team in the world, we're celebrating a little too hard for making a QF.

Big congratz to Madgen, was very good. George with some big big shots late.
Congratz to sandy and co too who got it he job done.

China knocked out

What a game, what a performance by Opals under pressure.
I said before Nigeria game, on paper this 'Old' team is better than 22 WC. They were good in Feb OQT.

A few less turnovers and were good for medal rounds.

wow
Australia v Serbia QF

USA v Nigeria
Spain v Belgium
France v Germany
Australia v Serbia

Good result for aus. We would struggle with the other teams.

USA
Belgium
France or Germany
Australia or Serbia

Serbia a very familiar opponent
Sandy & Veterans know how to beat them - no excuses if Opals don't progress to SF

Opals v Serbia cross over with USA/Nigeria

Who defends anderson?

quarter final Opals at 730pm Wednesday v Serbia

after no Euro teams in the top 4 at the 2022 Fiba women's World Cup, at least 2 will make it through this time.

1-8 TBD
9 China - 2nd Sydney WC, 5th Tokyo O
10 Puerto Rico - 8th Sydney WC
11 Canada - 4th Sydney WC, 9th Tokyo O
12 Japan - 9th Sydney WC, 2nd Tokyo O

I'm hoping Maden’s game wasn’t a once off

:D

Re: Anderson
22 WC - Talbot
24 OQT - Allen (Talbot injured)

Must be Talbot as no Allen

Brondello has moved Talbot to SF since Allen's injury, has played SG before this tournament.
I doubt she moves over to guard a pg and they move Melbourne or Whitcomb on to serbias wings.

Talbot with another 5 turnovers. 12 turnovers in 3 games.

Over 3 games(the group stage), I'd rank...

#1 Whitcomb
#2 Smith
#3 Magbegor
#4 Talbot
#5 Madgen
#6 George
#7 Tolo
#8 Melbourne
#9 Jackson
#10 Atwell
#11 Wallace
#12 Borlase

Gotta love that result for the Opals, but turnovers still a problem. Major props to the skipper, a statement game and half! Sami too, bewitching as ever with her ironclad composure a standout feature. It's also encouraging that Cayla's shot has returned!

USA and Germany, tougher matchups for aus.
Canada probably pissed that they failed and thomaidis who they fired got Germany to the 1/4 finals.

Serbia have been heavily reliant on anderson running the point, hope we can slow her down.

She has given us fits in the past (as have many other quick point guards), so yeah that's going to be one of the biggest factors in whether we can get past Serbia.

Awesome win. Extraordinary effort to get through after the first loss - something is going right in the inner sanctum and coaching. Turns out Nigeria are quite good also.

Shout out to the OP who you'll all remember as a massive hater of Aussie hoops (hence the focus on permutations regarding elimination rather than progression). Thankfully the mods delete most of his posts nowadays.

Vs Serbia?

PG Whitcomb - Madgen - Wallace(inj)
SG Melbourne - Borlase
SF Talbot - Atwell
PF Smith - George
C Magbegor - Tolo - Jackson


Switch Jade and Sami.

Whats winning us games is our defence. Should be picking the opponent up at half court.
I don't know why they sag off, if you direct opponent can’t get the ball, they can’t do anything with it.
Annoy the shit out of them I say.

Congratulations to the girls, great results, I missed it but highlights were good.

The replay is 9 now.

Perthworld - flashbacks to Sydney WC,

As for Opals, they'll rely of Magden again having a big game, she's essentially covering 2 guard spots all game. Talbot defensively will probably help out on Anderson, but it will leave mismatches elsewhere.

Testament to the vibes and chemistry around the team that they can turn around the opening performance and now a chance at a medal is in their own hands.

Path to Medal

Serbia. - 1/4s
USA or Nigeria - Semis
Germany or France or Spain or Belgium - Final


Predictions?

I'd say semis

Australia vs USA
Belgium vs Germany

Madgen is deservingly getting a ton of love for her performance in that one. Huge captain's knock.
George was her usual big game clutch-shooting self as she has been plenty of times in the past at this level, Ezi was rock solid with enough attack in her game to keep the D honest, and Smith was important too in finding the balance between staying composed and aggressive.

But man, I thought Sami was immense. From start to finish she was the glue that held the whole thing together and prevented it from stagnating.
Talbot & Melbourne both battled their arses off but were barely keeping their heads above water in terms of positive impact. Sami orchestrated that win. One of the best point guard games of her career IMO.

I liked that Brondello gave Atwell a run and stuck with her for a while. That was 9+ minutes of breather for a backcourt that was under the pump from start to finish.

After the awful first outing vs Nigeria, and the game against Canada that was still riddled with errors & ugliness despite the eventual winning score, it was great to see the way we stepped up in this one. In the most hostile of environments. 2018 WC semi final Tenerife vibes, and again we emerged on top.

Yep, huge character win. The third quarter was immense, but the way they managed the game in the fourth with the crowd against them and France coming back was almost as impressive.

Revenge on Serbia tonight?

Well lets see how they go in the Semi Final and show what they are made of.

Who will Brondello play and who will keep the bench warm.

Will Jackson get some time.