I laughed at that doing the same thing Kent.

Keogh??

Your post got me thinkng Kent, who the top 4 teams at these champs were:

Greece - 4th Place:

Panagiotis Giannakis, Fanis Christodoulou, Panagiotis Fassoulas, Georgios Sigalas, Nikos Boudouris, Efthimis Bakatsias, Kostas Patavoukas, Nasos Galakteros, Christos Tsekos, Efthimis Rentzias, Ioannis Mylonas, Argiris Papapetrou (Coach: Efthymis Kioumourtzoglou)

Croatia - 3rd Place:

Toni Kukoc, Dino Radja, Stojan Vrankovic, Arijan Komazec, Danko Cvjeticanin, Veljko Mrsic, Vladan Alanovic, Davor Pejcinovic, Josip Vrankovic, Alan Gregov, Ivica Zuric, Miro Juric (Coach: Giuseppe 'Pino" Djerdja)

Russia - 2nd Place:

Vasili Karasev, Sergei Bazarevich, Mikhail Mikhailov, Sergei Babkov, Andrei Fetisov, Sergei Panov, Vitali Nosov, Evgeni Kisurin, Igor Grachev, Dimitri Domani, Evgeni Pashutin, Sergei Ivanov (Coach: Sergei Belov)

USA - 1st Place:

Shaquille O'Neal, Dominique Wilkins, Alonzo Mourning, Shawn Kemp, Reggie Miller, Derrick Coleman, Joe Dumars, Kevin Johnson, Mark Price, Steve Smith, Dan Majerle, Larry Johnson (Coach: Don Nelson)

That USA team, looks so poor in comparison to the previous US team, I don't know that I would have even nicknamed them the Dream Team II.

I can't see with the team we had how we would of beaten any of these teams.

You don't remember Damien Keogh DB?

Name players to take the spots then in 94...

Which team Kriss? The Dream Team or Boomers?

That is a pretty decent team all things considered ... Gaze, Heal, Ronaldson, Vlahov and Bradtke were all at the height of their powers - only player missing is Longley (think he may have sat out).

Decent shooting with McKay, Nameless & Hubbard off the bench.

Pat Reidy was handy - not sure how much he played.

Not an athletic team but Gaze would have been the tournaments leading scorer (or close to) - they would have been well drilled, played good D, moved the ball and hit the open man - 5th seems reasonable.

Probably have to remember that Yugoslavia and USSR would have just broken up so only Croatia and Russia qualified in the tournament (leaving out quality Eastern European players and teams). Brazil was in decline (lost Schmidt), Argentina and Spain were not powerhouses like they are now.

We actually had a better record than Greece who finished 4th but we got screwed on the 2nd round draw that put us in the group with the Yanks and Croatia (who had Toni Kukoc, Dino Radja & Stojan Vrankovic)

There is more parity is world basketball now than there was back then.

Just checked gaze was the leading scorer

Top scorers (ppg)
Andrew Gaze (Australia) 23.8
Dino Radja (Croatia) 22.3
Paolo De Almeida (Brazil) 19.4
Arijan Komazec (Croatia) 19.3
Hur Jae (S.Korea) 19.3
Moon Kyung-Eun (S.Korea) 19
Richard Matienzo (Cuba) 18.8
Shaquille O'Neal (USA) 18
Marcelo Nicola (Argentina) 17.7
Reggie Miller (USA) 17.1

I guess back in 94 there simply was not the depth world wide as there is today .
The last 5 years especially ensuring Basketball as a truly global game .

Geez that aussie team is not the most athletic group to pull on the green and gold .

But our team was not too bad back then with Gaze , Smyth , Bradtke , and Vhalov as a nucleus .

The frontline was definitely below par .

Keogh used to get way more time than he deserved .

Ronaldson was reasonably effective and everyone remembers the 4 point play .

Mckay always played above himself in limited oppurtunities for Oz.

BB from beyond thunderdome was an average coach , can i say that .

If my post comes up , sorry SVD was writing at the same time without intention of looking like i was repeating you .

Great minds and all that rotate

Yeah Bizz, I remember him, just never really rated him, that's all.

Does anyone really DB?

It was pretty close to THAT team which knocked off Croatia in the 96 Olympics which left Australia in 4th overall (still the best record they've ever had).

It was the Olympics in which Ronaldson's 4 point play took place (not the 94 WC's). He also defended the crap out of Dino Radja who finished that game (after averaging 20 something for the competition) with ZERO points and a couple of rebounds.

They also only lost the Bronze medal game to Lithuania by 6 points.

Steve Breheny would certainly remember Damien Keogh!!

It was pretty close to THAT team which knocked off Croatia in the 96 Olympics which left Australia in 4th overall (still the best record they've ever had).

It was the Olympics in which Ronaldson's 4 point play took place (not the 94 WC's). He also defended the crap out of Dino Radja who finished that game (after averaging 20 something for the competition) with ZERO points and a couple of rebounds.

They also only lost the Bronze medal game to Lithuania by 6 points.

Dino Radja - there's a name I haven't heard for a while.
Also had Toni Kukoc on his team - the guy that reportedly said (before he eventually went to the Bulls) that he couldn't play for the Bulls because the best two players in the world shouldn't be on the same team. Ha Ha!

As for the Aussie team - I actually think it is a good balanced team - scorers, rebounders, role players, experience. Our best chance to medal at a major tournament was still in Sydney tho - we should've beaten France and played US for gold.

Bizzy - absolutely. Our team will be well balanced, defensively sound and run by hopefully 2 very good floor generals, Mills in particular who will thrive at the Olypics IMO. I think we can medal for sure.

Yeah Bizz, surely with the talent at our disposal we should give it a real shake.

Good defense, plenty of quality bigs compared to previous years. As lockstock said Mills will be very exciting to watch as well.

You blokes are kidding yourself if you think that the Boomers will medal at the Olympics, they will have done well to finish in the top 8.

As per Patrick Mills, he is a talented kid and will be a good player for Australia but playing against college kids and mark dickel (n.z series) is completely different to playing against the top guards from the Americas, Europe and even Africa.

Dickel didn't even play did he??

Thought Henare was pg.

Ice i agree with you... They will be lucky to finish in the top 8... I will give them 7th at best!!

As far as getting a medal - i think we have a decent chance, don't forget all that was between us beating the Greek team (gold medal game losers - and knowcked off team USA) in the last FIBA's was a David Barlow T/O... We had them - but for that... So - considering the quality of that squad Vs what we can hopefully have in Beijing, I don't think a medal is out of the question...

The world game is so even these days that you would have to put the Aussies up with a chance at a medal - along with about 8 to 10 other countries.

And there is where it becomes a much more difficult task to really rate the Aussies. If you were to put the squads side by side, I doubt you could say that the Aussies were the third best squad.

It comes down to how they 'gel' together and team dynamics. In that area, anything can happen and the Aussies are as good a chance to unite and be a force as any other.

One of the biggest differences then could come down to the coaching. On that score, with Goorj's international coaching record, I don't like our chances.

What a great thread...with the final squad announcement only 6 weeks away, this is a great topic.

I think the Aussie's will finish top 8 however that rests on Gorjian's ability to pick 'the best team' and not his pet team. I hope this happens this year - with Smith and McKinnon out, we can't rely on Saville and Kendall to get the job done. Although Wortho and millsy are now members of his pet team they are definitely worthy of a spot on the roster. The strength of this years team is the endless array of options at the 4 and 5 spots, Anstey, Bogut, Anderson, Redhage, Jawai, Schensher, Ogilvy, Maric and Nielsen are all worthy of a spot on the roster but we can't take them all. The 1 spot is interesting, CJ and Millsy are walk up starts IMO. Other options include Bruce, Mee or Kendall (swinging 1/2) I know there are others, but not for me. Infact I'm putting a line through Mee right now. The most important aspect when considering Boomer success is Beijing is not experience or youth, or whether Mills lives up to the hype, rather who BG picks at the 2/3 spots. I want to see pass first perimeter players that can shoot the shit out of it. Worthington, Ingles, Newley and Barlow are the best 2's and 3's, they can all play the 3, Wortho can swing to 4 and the others to the 2. However the all shoot first. Here's what I think we need to take to Beijing to ensure a second round Boomer appearance.

Lock in...
Andrew BOGUT
Chris ANSTEY
David ANDERSEN
Shawn REDHAGE
Mark WORTHINGTON
Joe INGLES
David BARLOW
Brad NEWLEY
Luke KENDALL
CJ BRUTON
Patrick MILLS
Aaron BRUCE

I'd love to see Nielsen play, but I haven't seen his game for so long. I used to be a huge fan.

It would be great to find a way of squeezing Jawai and Ogilvy into the group with an eye on the 2012, possibly taking one less gaurd (Bruce/Kendall). However, there's not alot of point to that other than giving them the experience.

Go Boomers!

I'd take out Redhage and put Neilsen in.

FYI, Joe Ingles was fourth in the league for assists last NBL season and was often criticised for not being selfish enough, especially when he was hot. He's hardly a "shoot first" player.

And I wouldn't let Kendall near this year's Boomers team. To me, they need a serious spot up shooter in that team.....James Harvey should be given the nod. 21ppg at 44% from the 3pt line? Deserves a slot.

Andrew BOGUT
Chris ANSTEY
David ANDERSEN
Matt NEILSEN
Mark WORTHINGTON
Joe INGLES
David BARLOW
Brad NEWLEY
James HARVEY
CJ BRUTON
Patrick MILLS
Aaron BRUCE

I like it.

The Matt Nielsen I remember would lead this team, however his stats read 9.9 ppg and 4.8 rpg. I hope he's as good as he used to be.

I like Harvey too, but I'm not coaching this team. Brian is, and he won't play Harvey even if his game enough to pick him, think John Rillie. He sat and sat while Brian played 'his boys' Jason, Glen, Young CJ and Luke. I'd love to see Harvey light up for 25 on the international stage, but I can't see Brian giving him the opportunity. I also think we need to be concious of getting the ball inside first to give our bigs the opportunity to win games for us, rather than chasing Newley's bricks all over the place.

Getting the ball inside?

Something the Boomers are famous for.