Hoops

Boomers vs Tall Blacks Game 3

Snapped.a few photos during game 3

http://mrfooji.zenfolio.com/p26856561

Teams who have qualified for London 2012 so far:

1. Great Britain (Host Country)
2. United States ( 2010 World Champion)
3. Tunisia (2011 FIBA Africa Champion)
4. Australia (2011 FIBA Oceania Champion)
5. Brazil (Finalist, FIBA Americas)
6. Argentina (Finalist, FIBA Americas)

That leaves 6 spots left that are broken down as follows:

2 - FIBA Europe
1 - FIBA Asia
3 - FIBA Olympic Qualification Tournament (2 - 8 Jul 2012)

Tallblacks are swimming against the tide to get to London

XY - will be a tough qualification series that in all reality will probably boast Turkey - but more importantly - all the teams that don't qualify for London from the QF stages of Eurobasket as only 2 can make it.

Tall Blacks now get to look forward to and prepare for a knockout competition which will include, at least, the runners-up at last year's WCs, Turkey.

I think Abercrombie's lack of scoring was attributed to a combination of the Boomers good defence and his own reluctance to create shots/take over and be aggressive.

Boomers play great defence on him all series.

But, he can be passive at times and looks unwilling to make a play or demand the ball and go to work.

He took just 16 shots all series; compare that with Mills who took that 21 in Game 1 alone.

I think the passiveness by Abo is because of:
-The presence of Penney: I think he wasn't taking more shots and been more aggressive because he was worried that he would take shots away from Penney and take him out of offensive sync.
-The Youth factor: As he gets older, he is going to become more comfortable becoming a legit scoring option and he will be more of a 'ball-hog', which is only good for the TB's

Abercrombie is designed to be a wing player (aka 3-spot), but Penney is usually assigned to the 3 with Abercrombie playing the SG role.

Odd part is, Penney starts baseline on one of the wings, then cuts through and takes his shots from the top of the key. I understand that it gives him better position to get screens and pick-n-pop but essentially that puts Abercrombie out of good position on most offensive plays.

Those two games in Adelaide v Breakers where Abercrombie gets 20pts or so, all involved him playing the baseline. That was when Penney was off the floor.

I find it funny that a guy like Penney who plays like a pure SG, fills the SF spot.

Re: Abercrombie overated

Check out his stats from the last WC's against teams better than the Boomers. Sure in that series he didn't make an impact, a lot of the Tallblacks didn't and that was more to do with the Boomers defense than anything else. Game 2 the Boomers put the best defense I have ever seen on Penney for the whole game (Spain and Italy etc haven't kept him that quiet).

Instead of saying the opposition was crap, how about patting the Boomers on the back for a job well done?

Agreed Adam, I was very happy with the way the Boomers took care of business against a very capable Kiwi team in this series. So different to when we split our two game series with them for the World Champs qualifiers a couple of years back.

I feel like this team is starting to show us the way it needs to play to be successful:
- Strong defence, based on good interior size and pressure on the passing lanes from a lot of long perimeter players
- Quick hitting transition offence that doesn't give the defence a chance to set up.
- If forced into half court offence, post ups for Maric and Nielsen (Bogut when playing) and getting Newley and Ingles open for hard drives to the basket.

A couple of other things I think would really help this team is to encourage guys like Mills, Barlow and Ingles to put the ball on the floor and look to pull up for mid-range shots rather than shooting threes or trying to get all the way to the rack. I think those guys have all shown they are much better shooters from mid-range. Ingles and Barlow have the height to shoot over most people they play against and if you watched Mills with the Trailblazers last season, he was at his best creating open mid-range looks for himself using screens at the top of the key.

Other than that, Maric has found his intl legs and is showing us why he has been such a force in the Euroleague; and Dellavedova has emerged as a great combo guard for this team. The kid has shown poise beyond his years and relentless intensity in every game.

BA: Boomers sweep NZ to claim FIBA Oceania Champs

The Age: Boomers sweep Oceania basketball series

Maric was a beast and Mills found his range. NZ were average at best apart from Penney.

Boomers win 92-68...

AUS: Maric 27 & 8, Barlow 17, Mills 14, Baynes 12, Ingles 10

NZ: Penney 25, Vukona 10

http://www.fibalivestats.com/matches/151/03/89/63/46EGRInGa60cA/

Boomers up 88-64 with 3min to go in the game...Maric has 27 points! Penney with 25.

Boomers up 45-41 at the main break.

AUS: Maric 15, Barlow 14, Mills 8, Ogilvy 6
NZ: Penney 15, Frank & Tait 7, Vukona 5 (Abercrombie 2)

Maric has been a mountain in the paint, and 6/6 from the field and 3/5 from the line, with 3 rebounds and drawing 5 fouls.

Maric is a monster...

Barlow also playing well today, as is Penney.

Boomers lead 39-37 with 3min to go in 2nd.

Thanks for the update

Does anyone know the whereabouts or what's happened post-NBL with these 2 ex-36er cult figures of the mid-90s?

Regards,
Ron Moore.