Hoops

Opals - Four Nation Tournament

Both Nakkasoglu and Hollingsworth listed on the Turkey roster.
Maybe one still has to be cut.

“Great defensive performance after quarter-time tonight. O'Hea with some big plays too. Hard to see how Griffin can't be in the team, she is such a heart and soul player and has been an intricate part of this new era. If only we could have her and Mitchell. Bugger.”

From memory didn’t Rangers get away with having three “imports” one year in WNBL when they added Mitchell because her mother was a Torres Strait islander, so she actually wasn’t classed as a “naturalised “player.
That could be the loop hole the opals need to include her and a Griffin, though with this latest injury , added to her every growing list of injuries and her age now coming into effect it may end up not factoring in for Kelsey sadly.

You might want to check your maths on that considering she got 8 in one game

We had our golden era on the women's side...
think we will struggle to get a top 5 finish at the WC.

China wins 70-49

now O'Hea injured in today's game. China beating us easily so far.

If its a major injury, I don't see her playing again.
Hope she's ok.

Let's hope it's some kind of new-fangled non-serious hamstring injury

I'm seriously unimpressed by the amount of workload we're asking Griffin to carry for 6 games in 8 days considering her recent injury history.

OPALS Devastating news for the @ChemistWhouse Opals and @Griffinkelsey23 as she appears to be leaving the court with a serious hamstring injury - we are all thinking of you Kelsey!

Only Mansfield, Ebzery, Blicavs, Ohea and Griffin should be in the mix for the WC team.

Should be laveys last outing, along with kunek(ohea, allen, Talbot ahead)
Seekamp, madgen and Tupaea are (4-6)best SG options and will struggle to get NT time.
Garbin and magbegor still need a lot of development and should not be at the WC.

Great game by Magbegor after griffin got into foul trouble. Good test against some big strong opposition and a vocal crowd.

The boxscore emphasized something I already knew well .
Griffin game's most points and rebounds agen....

Opals-Serbia boxscore
Link

Looks like Griffin went double double agen , naturally.....
...gotta be my favorite player .. pretty to watch...

“I didn't get to see any of it but here's the Google Translated Boxscore “


The spelling of the names is hilarious......who’s Tess March??, it’s not Tassa Ravi( Tessa Lavet) lol

The names are spelt with an Asian accent Lol

no one is really up to scratch.

Probably need Whitcomb more than we need Mitchell or Griffin.


Ebzery
Whitcomb
Allen
Smith
Cambage

Mansfield
Ohea
Talbot
George
Batkovic

Blicavs
Geez I dunno, give it to Hurst, Donnelly or Conti.

Griffin carrying the team as usual. Garbin with some nice scoring in her minutes - which seem surprisingly limited given how few talls we have. Looks like O'Hea played most of her minutes at the 4 spot. Such a weird rotation we sent over.
I'm seriously unimpressed by the amount of workload we're asking Griffin to carry for 6 games in 8 days considering her recent injury history.

I didn't get to see any of it but here's the Google Translated Boxscore

Wow, we are crap...

Anyone got a livestream for tonight's game?

Crazy.
Putting magbegor as a backup to Liz seems pretty stupid.
Needs more time. No elite completion at comm games.

Every other time she has turned down the world champs and been only interested in olympics so I doubt it

is Batkovic going to play with no Tolo or Bunton available?

Yeah that has been speculated for a while now, but I don't know if it is correct.
Sure would be handy though since our best possible team would have naturalised players at the starting 1, 2 & 4 spots.

gotta feelin they'll take griffin.....

“Apparently recovery time now for acls is not 12 months anymore.
Just what I heard.”

That might explain why they keep redoing them
Honestly for the sake of a few extra months is it really worth rushing them back

I guess if you make the program, you stay.

Do not understand why Lavey keeps making these teams?!!

why not test someone other than lavey?

I see the WC side as

Mitchell PG
Mansfield PG
Ebzery CG
Blicavs SG
Ohea G/F
Kunek SF
Talbot SF
Allen CF
Smith PF/C
George PF/C
Batkovic C
Cambage C

If Batkovic or smith don't play, then magbegor will come on.
Kunek could get pushed aside for another guard in madgen or seekamp.

Apparently recovery time now for acls is not 12 months anymore.
Just what I heard.

“Anyone know how far away Blicavs, Tolo, Bunton and Wallace are from full recovery?”

Well considering The magnitude of Blicavs injury you would not expect her ready at the earliest at the end of the year which is 12mths since her injury, but more realistically an injury that involved so much damage you would be thinking 18 months as good.
Button is always injured, don’t rate her chances of staying sound, and she’s missed so much crt time the last few years.
Tolo according to Canberra is looking to be on track for maybe December on limited minutes and Wallace only did hers in March this year so realistically even with a great recovery it’s 12 months fir an ACL, which brings you to the question why did Canberra even sign two players with such long term injuries . Add Griffin into the mix who’s just had surgery on her ankle, and it leaves you thinking it’s going to be a big ask.

This 4 nations team is probably the worst ever put together.

These are the only games prior to Spain, Cram.

Any word on if they're gonna play any games at home before the WCs later in the year?

Anyone know how far away Blicavs, Tolo, Bunton and Wallace are from full recovery?

Going up against big teams like China and Serbia...

Mitchell, Mansfield, Ebzery, Blicavs and Ohea are probably locked in those 5 guard spots.

Problem position is pf.
If Mitchell is taken, Griffin can't make it and you're down to only George (and Smith who is no guarantee)

I'd have

Mansfield
Blicavs
Ohea
Griffin
Magbegor

Ebzery
Seekamp
Kunek
Garbin
Scherf

Donnelly
Madgen

Yeah, the lack of size of the team struck me immediately. What the??

Lauren Mansfield
Tessa Lavey
Tess Madgen
Katie-Rae Ebzery
Tahlia Tupaea
Nicole Seekamp
Stephanie Blicavs
Alice Kunek
Jenna O’Hea
Kelsey Griffin
Darcee Garbin
Ezi Magbegor

I'm expecting a better showing by the guys over our last 3 "battles" with the Breakers, but still think NZ will get up. They have so many options on offense that we'll need a super defensive effort to win.

Herbert, Creek and Ng will all need some minutes in this game and we'll need Helliwell to "use his fouls" also.

I'm tipping NZ by 8

Blog preview up now on my site

http://www.36reasons.net/2012/03/4th-time-lucky-nz-v-36ers-preview-10312.html