Hoops

2016 FIBA U18 Oceania Championships preview

Think the Emus will have a real challenge against NZ. This is based only on a brief look at the two side's respective blowouts in this tournament, but while Australia may have an edge in length/athleticism, NZ look to have a few more players comfortable putting the ball on the floor. Will be interesting ...

Combining*

Combing every Pacific Island into one team is a wast of time - still couldn't compete in a decent domestic competition unfortunatley.

It won't be long till both go through.
When we join with the Asian region, they'll be I think 4-5 spots available.
China, Japan and Korea with Australia and New Zealand.

I also think it sucks that either one of the Kiwis or the Aussies have to miss out on worlds, I think Oceania should get two through because we have proven ourselves good enough by far and the Kiwis are not that far away from us these days...

I am just gonna throw an idea out there, I love the fact that we give these island nations a platform to participate at the international level, but I wonder if the competitiveness or lack of it is compromising the whole thing these days.

My idea is that the island nations combine their best players into say four teams for each of the men and women, to maybe at least offer the Aussies and Kiwis some harder games.

From memory players can come from quite a few island nations that include:

Tahiti
Fiji
Tonga
Samoa
New Caledonia
Guam
American Samoa
French Polynesia

There may be others, I am only suggesting that they may be able to pool some of their players and give themselves more confidence in the games against the big two especially...

As I was saying, the next LC

Just took it from Stat sheet...

I'm guessing its ogler then?

Haha, that was a trick question, she is at home injured

Simmons - 9mins, 9 pts, 4 rbds, 2 asts, 2 stls.

You could be the next LC - how did Simmons go?

Walker, Clarke, jillings, reed, Whittaker was nz starting lineup.
Cubillo, Shelley, Horvat, Bibby, Magbegor was Aus starting lineup.

Thanks for reporting on the live stats LC

New Zealand women beat Guam 132-18.

I think both Aus teams are in trouble.

A few things always reveal themselves at FIBA Oceania juniors.

1. Only two teams can ever win through to the final.
2. It is a great opportunity for the small island nations to play against AUS and NZ, they get a huge buzz and we all need to acknowledge this.
3. Oceania should get two teams through to worlds, because it is obvious that NZ is catching up and almost as good as AUS but they only get one chance to get through.
4. Both AUS and NZ are ranked much higher in basketball, than say soccer, the game needs a boost here and allowing two teams through would aid this.

Emus won 95-14. The Kiwis will given them a run for their money.

shows how relevant the event is

Gems win first game 125-5! Forced Tahiti into 50 turnovers...

By now everyone should know about Wikileaks. The website that has caused much embarrassment to the US Government by leaking sensitive documents showing alleged war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Wikileaks frontman, Julian Assange, has been elusive for a number of years to protect his personal safety. Suddenly, he is now facing a charge of rape and is on the top ten list of the CIA's most wanted. One US soldier is in jail for leaking documents and is likely to be there for a long time.

The CIA are not people you really want to annoy. They have a colourful history of changing governments (refer Guatamala 1954 and the American Banana Company), funding terrorists to upsets legally elected governments (most Central American countries), funding terrorists to fight American enemies (eg Mudjahadin in Afghanistan), and assassinations and assassination attempts (a very long list here....) on people they don't like.

Some of these assassination attempts are not obvious and include things like poisoning a victim's toothpaste tube.

I wonder when Julian Assange will have an "unfortunate accident"?