Hoops

Sapphires WC chances?

Still laughing about this - I know who they mean! Must be something about Vic country guards and their parents.

re: Sapphires WC chances?
On a rest day for the team, I was very disappointed that there were no stories or reports about one of the starters sneezing. There is some conjecture as to whether its was a sneeze, or maybe just a loud sniffle, but surely her relative who works at FIBA or her other relative who authors content for the hoops press could have created a story from it!

After all, even when she has a stinker, their reports include her photo and mention her minutes. Now don't get me wrong, the kid is ok but hopefully someone tells the family to pull their collective heads in and acknowledge basketball is a team sport, there are 12 very talented players on the roster, and it is not a platform to constantly trumpet their own kid's performance - good or indifferent.

Please support the Australian u17 team, not just your own kid!

Kudos to the ABC TV for making mention of this awesome result in the media, what a shame all the other commercial channels including the famously sports oriented SEN radio had no interest in it whatsoever.

In fact I recall a caller making mention of it during an SEN call back the other day only to get a reaction of 'where did they play that?'

No follow up, no media and if this was a soccer team or a rugby team, cricket or even dare I say a hockey team I bet my boots that it would have been highlighted...

#Australiansportsmediaisadisgrace

Let's just celebrate their achievements and hope BA gets the funding to invest in the COE and other elite development - it needs it urgently to support our young talent as its is on a shoestring at the moment.

Of course he will, lol

Hopefully Brendan Joyce finds a way to make this win all about him.

What a great result for Aussie hoops!

awesome ! convincing win

Fantastic win by the Sapphires great to see we have a group coming through whose talent is genuinely the best in the world. This is our golden generation emerging. Every player there has contributed over the tournament. They look unbeatable with both Magbegor and Cochrane on the floor - should be running them together for 30 plus minutes - a lot to learn from VIC Metro's set up at Nationals.

The boys team have made the final the last 2 times...

Great work by the Aussies. our defence is far superior to any other team.
We move from athleticism (USA) to bulk strength (Italy) Madera, Cubaj, trucco.
A better 3 point shooting team which spaces the floor so there bigs can operate.

Any time an Australian rep team beats the USA in any world competition it is a momentous day for Aussie basketball.

The Sapphires were patient and poised on offense and disruptive on defense. I have no doubt that Conti and Shelley are future Opals, among others.

Undefeated for 28 games, favored to take it all, and then some Aussies had to come along and F--- it all up! Ha!

Awesome work. If only our boys and men's teams could replicate our women's success.

Great show by the girls, commentary was so pro USA, saying USA didn't have the best of games.... They were out played all the way through.

Think the gold is a good possibility

one of our finest hours.....

Nah mate if there born 98, there ok to play in 2017.

Rocci, Horvat and Bibby are all already 18 which means they will be too old for 2017 un19team........ As you can't turn 19 the year of competition I think you will find

But agree un19s is not what this is about.

Don't think you will find they will change the starting line up for semi......

Just wish them luck, would be great to see an Aussie team win gold

And it will be interesting to see this team play a team of some caliber

Nice team for defence. But then there's hardly any outside shooting with no Shelley and then Simons.

Who are some other quality 98 players I didn't mention?

Wragg, hoycard, Lindsay, loader, elsworthy, Klaman off the top of my head.

Sapphires starters should be:

Conti
Simmons
Rowe
Cochrane
Magbegor

Small ball won't get it done.

U19s is a year away, a lot will change between now and then. I don't think a lot of the u19 squad listed above, but that is just my opinion.

Are there others from u17 squad you would add to u19s? (Apart from Simmons, magbegor)

We don't have many bigs in that 98 class I noticed.

USA are beatable.
It will be tough though..

I like the Conti, Shelley, Simmons, Rowe, magbegor lineup the most.

USA being a large team though, probably means more time for pizzey, Cochrane and mcspadden than previous games.

No idea what 19s has to do with this thread but at least 4 of those named are no chance despite their family PR efforts.

Re Sapphires, which is what the topic is about - should be the gold medal game v the US but it holds no fear for the Aussie girls. They are favourites.

They have to get past USA now, if not they will be playing off for bronze which is probably a done deal, shame they have to face off USA in the semi.... But you never know stranger things have happened

What might the U19s qualifiers team look like?

Rocci/Molloy
Yaegar/Simmons
Horvat/Ogier/Atwell
Bibby/Maley
Magbegor/Aokuso/Tofeano

Who else is in the mix?

just watched china v spain - china has the belief. last few minutes of that game + after very emotional for both teams - spain had the shots, wasn't to be.

Australia's best chance in along time to win gold.
I'm thinking Italy will get passed China.
Spain could not deal with China's 6'7 Han. Italy do have some bigs who can compete.

and china beats spain on the other side

Simmons has been the standout so far..
Magbegor a close second.

I would like to see more of goodchild also. Boosts our defence in the backcourt.

now for the showdown - 1 game too early

Great result - go you good thing !

Tip off 2:15am v Czech Republic in the quarter final - come on girls, get it done!!!

On a rest day for the team, I was very disappointed that there were no stories or reports about one of the starters sneezing. There is some conjecture as to whether its was a sneeze, or maybe just a loud sniffle, but surely her relative who works at FIBA or her other relative who authors content for the hoops press could have created a story from it!

After all, even when she has a stinker, their reports include her photo and mention her minutes. Now don't get me wrong, the kid is ok but hopefully someone tells the family to pull their collective heads in and acknowledge basketball is a team sport, there are 12 very talented players on the roster, and it is not a platform to constantly trumpet their own kid's performance - good or indifferent.

Please support the Australian u17 team, not just your own kid!

A.Cubillo 5'3 pg starter
M.Conti 5'5 pg/sg
J.Shelley 5'9 pg/sg starter
M.Goodchild 5'9 pg/sg
C.McLean 5'10 sg/sf
J.Simmons 5'11 sg/sf starter
S.Simons 6'0 sg/sf
K.Rowe 6'0 sf/pf
R.Pizzey 6'3 pf/c starter
E.Magbegor 6'4 pf/c starter
L.Mcspadden 6'4 pf/c
L.Cochrane 6'5 pf/c

Different standard here - it is not rep ball.

Any chance BA could put this year's team on their website instead of the one from a few years back?

Conti, goodchild, Simmons, Simons, Rowe are all capable of driving to the cup.
Not happening much though...

I hope the coaches recognise hiw badly the offense is functioning and get those guards to facilitate instead of looking to create shots for themselves or we are doomed as soon as we hit a good team. Should be wiping the floor with France.

Watched most of that game last night live as friends had a daughter in the French team , it had a couple of moments where you could say wow that was a good play but the vast majority was scrappy and very much age appropriate standard from
Both teams not what you would class as outstanding. They were lucky France did not have bigs that were quick.
Agree with the above comment re needing a pass first guard , that would have helped and some clearly bad choices when under pressure.

Be good to see them challenged by a stronger opponent I think they will probably play better they look like a team that falls to the standard they are playing against once they get a lead.

Let's hope they can rise all the way to the end and stay injury free be nice to see them medal well

While the idea of not going so small makes sense, particularly when we would have a clear height advantage, only playing 10 and leaving Cubillo and McLean out doesn't.

Facing 1 of Czech Republic or Portugal next. Both tough teams.

I'd like to see starting lineup of
Shelley, Simmons, Rowe, pizzey, magbegor.
Followed by
Conti, goodchild, Simons, Cochrane, mcspadden

Another fine effort from the Sapphs against France. Again they set a pattern of defensive pressure that was too much for their opponents in the end although the French mounted some surges back into the game based on their own defensive pressure. I felt the Aussies were always in control of this one from really early on.

Jas Simmons highlighting with 13 points; 9r; 5a; 4s; Eff 21.

Finishing top of the group is the best that can be done. Can't have any quibbles with that, surely? I'm really impressed with the way they've stamped their identity on the tournament. Not bad for a group of youngsters. Also loving FIBAs live-streams and also the coverage on Pick & Roll, outstanding.

Looked very scrappy against France but got the W. No chance any of the guards will dominate the assist count. Defence looks good but offensively very poor last night. Perhaps a pass first guard may help?

FIBA u17 w Orleans championships websites has live stats links to videos of all games etc

Watch the replay of Spain v Portugal. The WNBL could learn a thing or two

where are you finding the results ? Do you have a link

Mali beating Brazil lol

Sapphires crushed Mexico as would be expected.

That's 9:45pm for the Eastern states.

Been a big variation between their best and worst in the warm up games. Will be interesting as their best is good enough.

Tomorrow night now around 9pm.

Australia vs Mexico tomorrow (Wednesday) 1:45 pm

Some person/people trying to feed some disinformation into this thread to downplay the excellent result the Saphhires and the coaching staff achieved.

Faced with actual data about the opposition, they slink back under their rock(s).

Not sure how someone came up with such bogus information. Clearly was an all college team with some descent prospects.

Chinese u17 apparently descent, so one to look out for. France will be the most difficult of our group for sure even though we have the size over them.

http://netscoutsbasketball.com/blog/fiery-australian-team-upsets-usa-stars/

So I think we've established they played U19 China and Lithuania squads and a USA team made up of 22-23 year old college players (with some wnba prospects). An impressive feat.

This was the USA team they played:
The NetScouts Basketball USA All-Stars include: Marquelle Dent, 5’8, PG, (Wyoming), Danielle Rodriguez, 5’10, PG (Utah), Lexi Petersen, 5’11, G (Oregon), Brittany Crain, 5’10, G (UC Riverside), Jaime Patrick, 5’10, G (Colorado State), Jazmine Perkins, 5’10, G/F (Washington State/Finland), Stephanie Lee, 6’1, F (Northern Colorado/Germany), Talia Walton, 6’2, F (Washington/Los Angeles WNBA), Kaylon Williams, 6’3, F/C (Oklahoma/Los Angeles WNBA) and Shelby Cheslek, 6’5, C (Gonzaga/Phoenix WNBA). The team will be coached by Ryan Johnson and assisted by David Huss of Northeastern (CO) Junior College.
Dent averaged 17.7 points and 5.9 assists her junior season at Wyoming and 15.5 points and 5.6 assists her senior season. She was named to the All-Mountain West Conference 1st team both years and was also on the All-Defensive team each year.
Rodriguez was a three-year starter at point guard for Utah, ending her career this season averaging 9.6 points and 4.1 assists. She was a Pac-12 All-Conference Honorable Mention her senior season.
Petersen was also a Pac–12 All-Conference Honorable Mention selection this season as she helped lead Oregon to the WNIT Final Four by averaging 13.4 points and shooting 44.7 percent from long-distance.
Crain was the Big West Conference Player of the Year in both 2015 and 2016 and was an All-America Honorable Mention in 2016. In her senior season she scored 22.5 points per game, grabbed 5.2 rebounds per game and shot 40 percent on three-pointers.
Patrick helped lead Colorado State to the NCAA Tournament this season, averaging 13.0 points while shooting 41.7 percent on 218 three-point attempts and was named to the All-Mountain West Conference First Team.
Perkins finished her career at Washington State as the only player in school history with 1,000 points, 700 rebounds and 250 steals. She averaged 15.4 points and 7.3 rebounds in Finland this season and has played previously in Israel, Bulgaria and Poland.
Lee joins the NetScouts Basketball USA All-Stars for the second time. She averaged 16.5 points her senior year at Northern Colorado and was named to the All-Big Sky Conference 1st team. She played successfully in Germany this season.
Walton led Washington to the NCAA tournament Final Four this year. She capped her career averaging 16.5 points and 6.4 rebounds and scored 29 points in the loss to Syracuse in the Final Four. She was named to the Final Four All-Tournament team and was selected in the WNBA Draft’s third round by the Los Angeles Sparks.
Williams averaged 12.4 points and 7.1 rebounds for Oklahoma her senior season and was named to the All-Big 12 2nd Team. She was a recent cut of the Los Angeles Sparks (WNBA).
Cheslek averaged 9.8 points and 8.7 rebounds in her final season at Gonzaga and was named to the All-WCC 2nd Team. She was a recent cut of the Phoenix Mercury (WNBA).

No mate.