Hoops

Croatia pip Aussies again in Greece

Agreed LC, there will be some foxing going on, as well as the perennial integration problems with our overseas based bigs.

It really is frustrating never having your marquee big man for most of the lead up games. I do wonder how much the Boomers permanent lack of post play is due to the coach's preference and how much is just the lack of time available to integrate our best big man into the offence properly.

My mate lent me 3 Bucks games recently and it was great to see how effective Bogut can be when used correctly. He is a real threat from the high post with his passing and does a great job of running the pick and roll with quick guards. He can also post up and score in the right situations and does an excellent job of crashing the offensive boards.

I'm really hoping that Mills and Bogut can do a lot of damage with the pick and roll and that the team learns to throw the ball into Bogut in the high post to kick off our offence.

That would be soooo much better than watching us pass the ball around the 3pt line for 15 secs before jacking up a contested 3, which is basically what every Boomers team I have ever watched has done!

Cheers twenty four. I will award cool points accordingly.

Hey LC, I don't recall the Boomers EVER playing an inside-out game, even when we had Longley, Bradtke and Vlahov!

I hope that changes with Bogut in there, but its going to be hard, when none of our players are used to playing that way.

Love this quote from the game recap:
"Australia tried at first to take the lead of the game with Brand Newley in the leading role, but the Croatian zone defence corrupted their plans."

GO BRAND NEWLEY!

If we pick a team based soley on the talent level of the players- we will get pumped hard. We just are not as talented over-all as the teams we will be facing at the olympics.
Our selections need to be made with a team concept in mind as well as talent level.
Now i am not a fan of boy goorj but to play devils ad-he is behind the scenes and we are not.
So maybe the selections of players we think are not up to it are made with team designs in mind.
(he writes while shrugging his shoulders..)

Here's a thought- we roost a ton of treys and hit none, get scouted as a poor outside shooting team, opposition teams clog the paint, and then we light em up when it matters!!!!

Now there's a conspiracey theory for ya!!!

Agreed, in both ways it is detrimental to our national team. Obviously not everyone will agree on the final team, but for so many to see how blatant his selection policy is frustrates the hell out of me. Unfortunately (and I hope that I am wrong) I do not see us challenging for a medal until this changes and we have the best team available on the court.

Agreed, I thought Harvey should have been there as well, pity boy goorj hates him, and seems to let personal feelings affect his choices.

Is Bogut a sure thing for the Olympics?

I heard there was some concerns over his contract extension with the Bucks being in jeopardy should he get injured before it takes effect, therefore making the Olympics a worrying time for Andrew and his agents...

If this is true and he still plays for Australia in the games, i will be awarding him an unprecedented amount of cool points and may even start to use the bucks on x-box. Seriously.

That said, if i sense he is not playing committed ball due to fears of sustaining a contract negating injury... all cool points will be removed and i will revert to my "why bother" rule regarding bucks on x-box.
I may even go as far as editing his player profile so every shot, even dunks, clangs hard.
Just like i did to Kobe.