Hoops

U17 worlds

Bloody awesome, great effort by all concerned, very proud to be an Aussie with this result.

Well done girls!

When they tuck it in, you can't see it. I think it's like that for a reason.

Shyla really came through in the 4th. Great result.

Think Chemist Warehouse should maybe consider moving their logo to the back of the shirts in future as they might get more exposure, like the French team had.

Heals got to be the starting pg for u18 team?

Good tournament for our girls. Glad they got up in the end. Heal is just terrific.

Heal was huge in the final minutes. What a comeback. Congrats to the sapphires.

The Sapphires stormed home in a 26-14 final term for a come-from-behind 57-51 victory over Hungary to secure bronze at the 2018 FIBA Under-17 World Cup for women in Belarus.

Shyla Heal tallied 14 points in the fourth quarter to finish with 16 points to lead the Sapphires’ charge, with Lily Scanlon adding 11 and Agnes Emma-Nnopu coming up with 9 rebounds.

Heal was also named All-Star Five.

Bronzed Sapphires top Hungary, Heal named to All-Star Five

Heal and Melbourne in the end got us over the line.
Great job girls.

Another medal for Seebohm means he should go around again.

The opposition plays a little defense and we fall to pieces.

Nice embed. Watching a game within a hoops.com.au post is sick!

Watch the bronze medal game live on The Pick and Roll Facebook page!

I had expected Anstey and Hollingsworth to pick up Rupert in d which they did in H1 and did a good job. A big reason Aust enjoyed an advantage at half time was that these bigs won more rebounds and reduced supply of quality ball to Rupert/Chery in the first half.

That being the case I was puzzled as to why these assignments changed in H2.
Now Fowler - and occasionally Nnpopu - defended Rupert. Both are fine players in the 3/4 role but each was outmatched in terms of the size-skill package that Rupert offers.

I was also disappointed to see a lack of imagination in Aust setups to break the French press in H2. Some rudimentary scouting of the French would reveal which players they use in the press, taking note of their relatively large size. Furthermore, the Italy game had revealed a propensity of Aust guards to dribble into traps, resulting in weak passes and turnovers.

This armchair expert says "well done" to our girls who played their hearts out. We have a good team here - pity they could not overcome the French, but that's sport.

When BA start looking at some better talent they will do better! They stick with coe and can’t play the younger age much.
Gold last year!

Side by side

Starters
2016 - 2018
PG 5'6 Heal (WNBL-Perth) - 5'3 Cubillo (SEABL-Canberra)
SG 5'10 Palmer (SEABL-COE) - 5'9 Shelley (WNBL-Melbourne DP)
SF 6'0 Potter (SEABL-COE) - 5'11 Simmons (NCAA-Oregon State)
PF 6'0 Nnopu (SEABL-COE) - 6'3 Pizzey (WNBL-Dandenong)
C 6'3 Anstey (WNBL-Melbourne DP) - 6'4 Magbegor (WNBL-Melbourne)

Bench
2016 - 2018
5'6 Amoore (SEABL-Ballarat) - 5'5 Conti (WNBL-Melbourne)
5'9 Scanlon (SEABL-COE) - 5'10 Goodchild (NCAA-Duke)
5'10 Melbourne (WNBL-Melbourne DP) - 5'10 McLean (WNBL-Bendigo)
5'10 Porter (PREMIER LEAGUE-Sturt) - 6'0 Simons (NCAA-St Mary's)
6'1 Fowler (WNBL-Townsville DP) - 6'0 Rowe (WNBL-Dandenong)
6'2 Hollingsworth (SEABL-COE) - 6'4 Mcspadden (WNBL-Sydney)
6'4 Hannan (SEABL-COE) - 6'5 Cochrane (SEABL-Nunawading)

Might be time to rethink our banning of zones at the U14 level?

Watched the replay on Foxtel, I'd take the 2016 team by 30+. Compare that to the semi that we won over USA which is still on YouTube and you will see what I mean.

Great effort. Should get the bronze.

talent going forward for the next group (03/04) looks quite good.
Seems to be a lack of size in the frontcourt again though.
Qualifying for next u17s starts in December at u15 oceania champs.

This team would have beaten the 2016 team back then imo. Backcourt was more advanced at the same age.
Only difference is the skill level and quality of opposition has gone up and will continue to do so.
Some of the 2016 players have more potential though. Magbegor, Simmons, Conti look like future opals.

Heal and Palmer look like potential opals too. Scanlon also.
Nnopu will need to develop into a 3 at her size. Fowler too.
Potter as a bottom ager still so young but has good size (6'1) and skill. Another one with a bright future.
Anstey, hollingsworth and Hannan will battle for national team positions but have the likes of Smith, Magbegor, Aokuso, Scherf, Mcspadden etc in front of them.
Porter, Melbourne etc did not get a lot of gametime. Hard to say.
I'm sure Melbourne as a bottom ager will be amongst those fighting for a position for u19s down the line in 2021.

“Coach Seebohm has some analysing to do after this tournament. I wonder if he primed the girls that France was going to be aggressive coming out in the 2 half. He played the young girl Heal for too long without any small breaks for her. Scanlon sat on the bench for too long in the 2 half. Iv liked her aggressiveness and we missed that. The young girl Melbourne with good handles and a offensive mindset didn't see any game time and very limited time since the NZ game. Why not bring her on no use having her there just to wave a towel around. And Anstey our tallest player should have been on more to combat those O boards that France killed us with in the 2 half. Oh and that press. Who would of thought the good old press that demoralises teams across the nation from juniors to here now. That was our undoing.”


But how many time do you see this same scenario play put at all levels not just juniors, coaches choose( or should be choosing) p,ayers they believe can get the job done when asked, not just 5 or 6 they believe in and then the rest make up training numbers. If as a coach you cannot ( especially at national level) gather a ten strong team that you have faith in you are going to come up short more often than not.

A smart coach uses all their players in a tournament, so that when it comes to find make his stronger new are not burnt out and his less favourable ones have had enough of a run to be able to fill the void should it be needed.

Good effort for that squad, nowhere near the talent or depth of two years ago and came close to making the final.

The Sapphires’ charge towards a second consecutive Under-17 World Cup gold medal has ended at the hands of France, who staged a daring comeback to rally from 15 points down to secure a 68-58 semi-final victory.

Guard trio Lily Scanlon, Shyla Heal, and Isabel Palmer all finished in double figures, with Palmer burying five three-pointers to tally 17 points. Yet a turnover count of 24-10, combined with impressive French defence, put the Australians on the back foot as the game unfolded.

Turnovers compound Sapphires’ second half struggles in loss to France

Who will make the u18 roster later on in the year?

Heal most likely.
Anstey maybe because of a lack of bigs in this age group.
Scanlon, Palmer, Nnopu outside chances.

Best lineup I Thought was

Heal
Scanlon
Palmer
Nnopu or Potter
Anstey

Went with

Heal
Palmer
Potter
Nnopu
Fowler

Agree, not sure why Scanlon and Anstey were not on the floor.
Ended up with almost 30 turnovers I think.

Lost it between the ears.
Couldnt get pass the press.

Dam, what happened?

Really good 1st half by the Aussies. Bigs held their own, and the guards did some real damage. Palmer = money.

People find it hard to use YouTube?

What's the point of having it on fox...

looks like it...
Not a good thing.

Couldn't watch any of the boys games after the 1/4s because of the deal.

Any truth to the rumour that the semi is being shown on foxtel?

Are you talking about wadoux?
Pardon comes off the bench.

Starting lineup is

Fathoux 5'9
Wadoux 5'10
Ewodo 5'11
Chery 6'2
Rupert 6'4

We are currently playing

Heal 5'6
Palmer 5'10
Potter 6'0
Nnopu 6'0
Anstey 6'3

I think we can beat France.

They have a welter of quality bigs (notably Rupert) and mids and rely a lot on high low action in off. They have a terrific guard in Pardon.

However, to me, France look slow and that makes them foul prone.

Apart from the opening game vs Japan (who have strong guards, but lack size) France have yet to be tested against a quality all round team in this tournament. Aust has one of the best hustle defenses around which often unsettles opposition teams.

France's offense will have to crank up a notch against the Sapphires. They have to find an alternative path to scoring than going through Rupert, as Australia has the size and quality to contain her.

If France insist on forcing the ball inside - Australia should win. France will be encouraged by high turnovers Australia's guards yielded to Italy. If Aust passes the ball as badly as we did against Italy, Aust loses. France should be more efficient than Italy in transition. Aust needs to put up more outside shots - particularly past the 18 sec mark on the shot clock - we yielded too many time violations against Italy.

Hard fought win by Sapphires against a gallant Italy, who offered physical defense which exposed frailties in the Australians which would have been noted by France and the US.

Italy closed to within 5 points in Q4, had made 2 successive steals and had the Sapphires looking rather untidy. Sapphires yielded 23 turnovers in this game, 13 of which were steals. Thankfully the Italians were not too efficient in turning steals into points. This, and missing free throws, kept the Italian score down.

I thought our bigs were good. All our bigs copped a lot of barges and reach ins that were not called. To their credit they were not fazed, offered a strong contest, out-rebounded and out-scored the Italians.

Credit goes to Seebohm for substituting in mids (notably Potter and Nnenna) in H2 which calmed the offence and (in the case of Nnenna) made key baskets that checked scoring run by the Italians. And - of course - Heal was just terrific breaking the game for the Sapphires in Q4 with 2 layups, making free throws and a high pressure 3.

Izzy getting a very rough deal from the ref's. Um 12-0 at the start but only up by 6 at the half. Italy doing a good job on us defensively, we look a bit out of sorts

Isaac, I know it’s worlds, but these kids are still 16year olds, so I don’t think they should be named. As for individual s, sometimes when you’re not scoring, smart players create for others. I haven’t had time to check other teams, but so far, our team has been short impressive defensively and have been well organised on offence. Maybe, just maybe, we can repeat!

What time in Aus is their game tonight?

They are getting tired, I still think this group will play for the Gold though. Melbourne will be good but not quite there yet as a BA, Palmer too much time at the expense of Potter and Porter

I think we've got Italy.
But france... I'm not so sure.

I think we will play for bronze. Hungary or Japan. Both good teams.

I'm daring to dream and watching each game closely.

I think the girls have done a great job and have assets outside and in.

Just imagine the kerfuffle in the US if the Sapphires triumph again?

Think we should have taken 4 pgs with this 2 pg lineup. The 3 on rotation you can see get real tired in the second half. Mainly on defense. Alot of workload for them.
Don't really think of Palmer or Melbourne as pgs. Both playing the 3 spot atm or the 2 on occasion...

Henderson, the reserve or the injured vic guard would have come in handy to take some of the workload off heal, Amoore and Scanlon..

Shyla Heal is a cut above and yes about the dads question. College coaches will be lining up to sign her. Not sure she's interested in that pathway though, already playing wnbl why bother. Our 3 PGs have been excellent thus far

So are these the daughters of Shane and Chris?

Palmer who's probably one of our best has struggled. I'm expecting a big game from her vs NZ.

Another suffocating defensive effort from the Sapphires combined with an outstanding first half at the offensive end, have delivered the Australians a 64-48 victory over Canada to top Group D at the FIBA Under 17 Women’s World Cup.

Lily Scanlon led the Sapphires with 22 points, with Shyla Heal adding 16 and Isobel Anstey grabbing 12 rebounds.

Sapphires suffocate Canada to set up Round of 16 clash with New Zealand

i wouldn't take them lightly.
Leger-Walker, manumaleuga, robati and fulu are good players.
Also a few players haven't played.

Nice to see potter get some gametime.
Think heal, scanlon, Palmer, nnopu, anstey is our best lineup.

Nice win.
NZ next... finished last in there group but still a very good team.

15min till game time!

11pm tonight, should be a good game v Canada. Winning would give them a chance to medal.