Hoops

U19 Girls Worlds

Congratulations to the girls. 4th-place in the World is nothing to be sneezed at.....but....

As we are now 2 and 8 in elimination games with our junior teams in the last few world's, are we yet ready to press the 're-invent' button, if not the panic button?

For the past four years I have been listening to BA make excuses about how the addition of the 17's has disrupted their development program (the old model of an AIS 19's 2-year preparation was tried and tested). But I am yet to see any evidence of any re-invention of the process to address our current 'deficiencies'.

Of course we've seen his phenomenon before and maybe I'm being too harsh - we led the world with the AIS (in all sports) and then other countries caught up. We led the world in sports science and technical advances (across a range of sports) and then the rest of the world caught up. Perhaps that is what's happened here - our world ranking, for so long propped up by an exceptional group of women and the ongoing strength of our junior teams, is simply settling to a more realistic level with top 8 for all of our teams being par and anything else an exceptional performance.

But....has anybody else seen anything to contradict the following points:
- the AIS' crowning achievement on the women's side remains an exceptional class which produced two genuine superstars in Taylor and Jackson as well as an incredibly accomplished supporting cast;
- a strong case can be made that our last few WNBA players have been developed largely outside the Tute - Bishop blossomed under Graf before signing, Lacey was never there, O'Hea spent a year under Maher before making a very impressive transition to the WNBA and Cambage also left the AIS early;
- BA have seemingly walked away from a meaningful home-state program (the ITC) and it is now in disarray (other states than mine might be faring better);
- we seem to have lost the ability to compete - instead relying on cliches like 'Aussie teams all play hard' rather than developig a culture which promotes competition - tournament results have been rendered largely meaningless as BA seek to affirm their own competence by continually selecting the 'chosen ones' identifed at 15 and rarely challenged thereafter (case in point - Qld competed their butts off at the Men's 20's this year and while 3 players were ultimately selected, were reduced to minor roles while those players whose 'talent' melted in the glare of the international spotlight contributed major minutes to our 2 and 8 record);

Our recently appointed High Performance Manager has headed back to Knox and so we will again be leader-less in this area while a new 'old mate' is appointed to the role.

I know I sound like a grumpy old man (which I am - and bald and fat as well!) but I genuinely care about the game, give countless hours of my time trying to help young players develop to an elite level and can only shake my head at what goes on a large part of the time. Happy to be shot down (with facts rather than I should be supporting 'our' girls).

Aussies lost 67-70 to Brazil to settle for 4th place. USA easily defeated Spain.

Allen had 16 points and 12 rebounds, Roberts had 16 & 6, and Cole 12 points, 7 assists and 3 steals.

Unfortunately, none of the Aussies made the all star 5.

Massive, MASSIVE game by Roberts!

Big double-double not only got the Aussies through to the medal round, but probably also sealed her a spot in the All-Star 5 would would think. And if she does get selected, she would be the second Tasmanian in a World 5 following Greenwood at the men's tournament! Not bad for the apple isle!

Robert's 41 points was by far the greatest individual haul in the tournament to date (previous best was 33pts). Roberts is now averaging 18.5ppg (4th) and 9.8rpg (2nd).

And talking about stars, Cole has elevated her game big time too. She leads the competition in assists with 6.7apg and could also gain a betrh in the all-star 5 too.

But before we go jumping the gun, let's hope the girls can account for Spain and made the gold medal game.

A chance to go for gold! Go Gems!

Hopefully this is the "loss we had to have"

Good to hear...thanks for the blow by blow Paul!

Brazil will be a greater challenge - next up. In any case, Australia will finish top two now in the 1/8 stage and avoid USA and Canada in the quarter final where we will meet either the dangerous Japan (if we lose against Brazil) or Russia.

Australia beat Chinese Taipei 89-46.

We take on Spain tomorrow.

http://chile2011.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/11/fu19w/p/index.html

Australia are bulldozing their way past Chinese Taipei right now...

Australia play Chinese Taipei next up in the second grou phase. Brazil look to be tough in their group and Spain will be no pushover either.

Gems doing really well - that win over France was awesome. Let's hope they keep going.

Under 19 Girls. Team no show. When I used to caoch that age group it usually meant that someone has a party on the night and the girls have got their priorities.