Do the Aussies have a shoe sponsor? It almost looks like they have a custom colorway on the hyperdunks.

Found..

Patty Mills' draft stock is going to skyrocket before/during/after the Olympics...

If he keeps this up it will. Gotta love Andersen matching up on Ginobli.

Aussies up by 7 with 6 left in 2nd.

Looking good at the half.

Up 47-35. Bogut with 2 points!

Looking pretty good... Finally getting some feeds inside as well - the 3s were nice, but we can't live off them... Hopefully the boys can keep their focus for the final 20 of regulation, and not fade down the stretch as they seem to have done in this tourney so far...

looking good.

im liking this.

Nice work boys. Can't wait for Olympics.

Andersen's footwork in the post is just... pretty.

How about the free throw discrepancy?

cmon aussies dont let this one slip.

up by 3 with 6 minutes to go.

WERE IS ANDERSON. our aussie 'coach' has no idea.

Jose with the big 3 point play.

SAVILLEE FORRR 3!!! cmon aussiesss!

Amazing effort. sounds harsh, but i think coaching lost the game for us..

agree goorj had to do better.

fingers crossed he coaches better at the olympics.

aussies are a bronze chance.

agree goorj had to do better.

fingers crossed he coaches better at the olympics.

aussies are a bronze chance.

What exactly could Goorj have done better?

Same old story - snatching defeat from the jaws of voctory... All credit to Agrentina though - they are getting old, but they can still ball... Scola 30 points like it was nothing at all... Commentators comparing Rodman and Scola was a laugh - just when i was starting to warm to them one of them said something so clueless and the other agreed... :(

4 quarters boys... not 2...

The Boomers showed they have the chops to beat the big teams - just need to keep focus longer...

On the plus side apart from the first 2-3 quarters - our young bloods (Mills, Jingles, Barlow) played exceptionally well!!!

Brad Newleys FTs at the end? - No comment.

Just to expand on my comment, could Goorj have shut down Manu? Was he out there letting Scola get easy offensive boards? Did he have something to do with Anderson and Neilsen being in foul troubles, and Anderson fouling out?

I know we all hate Goorj, but give him a fair go. If you want to complain about something, have a go at the refs. They were terrible.

Here's my summary of the game (from look at a few stats in the 2nd half).

Encouraging signs:
- We were beating Argentina by 19 points
- Bogut didn't have a big game but we were still good
- Argies best players all played heavy minutes and played well but they didn't blow us out
- Wide spread of minutes
- All 12 players on the scoreboard
- Patty Mills contributed well in limited minutes
- Shot at a good percentage and scored 91 points against quality side

Discouraging signs:
- We blew a 19 point lead
- Had trouble closing the game out (again)
- Had trouble stopping their superstars and conceded 95 points in 40 minutes.


Observations:
- They had 39 free throw attempts to our 17 - bad umpires or different styles of play?
- All 12 players got minutes and points for us, is this how Goorj is planning on running at the Olympics or is he still testing players and rotations? I'd like to think it's the latter. Argies seemed to play with the rotations they'll use at the games with only 6 players playing more than 9 minutes. The fact we have depth is great and if we manage to get deep in the tourney we'll have fresh legs which we've not had in the past with Barnes's Gaze/Heal high minute philosophy.

Conclusion:
- More good signs than bad, with luck we have the capacity to make some noise in a week.

Ok - to start with, we were down by 1 with Arg to inbound from an Aussie time out. He bring NEILSEN out who has 4 fouls, yet he wants the team to quick foul. Guess who the ball goes to? Thats right, Neilsen's man. 7-8 seconds wind of before mills can foul.

Every point you make is valid billo, great post. We will learn a lot from that game and we have to be a medal shot.

All things considered - we won 2 (with variable levels of dominance) and lost one (against one of the great international teams of the 00s) down the line. Can't complain - if this means we are starting to click (which i have a sneaking suspicion is what is happening) it bodes well for the Olympics.

Overall excellent effort tonight. As far as I am concerned the Boomers were the better team overall, but they lost because of AWFUL officiating and smart veteran play from Ginobili and Scola.

If we can just learn how to play the game WE should be playing then we will beat teams like the Argies comfortably. They really have nothing other than Scola up front. Sure Scola is good, but if you stop his horizontal movement in the paint and force him to shoot over you, he aint gonna hurt you much.

When we were posting up Anderson (and even Nielsen!!!) regularly we were dominant. There was nothing the Argies could do, but we went away from that badly in the final quarter and settled for too many 3's.

Does anyone know why Anderson and Bogut played so little? I know they had some foul trouble (see: refs AWFUL) but they could have played more in the 4th.

Our young guys Mills, Barlow, Ingles, Newley (apart from late FTs) all made good contributions to support excellent play from Nielsen and Anderson.

So disappointing result, but our young guys are showing that there is a lot to be positive about for the next decade of Aussie basketball.

box score link anyone?

Boxscore

Shouldn't "Ingles, Jose" be on the Argie squad???

"Ingles, Jose"???? LOL!

Beantown, Bogut was resting a crook ankle and Anderson, as you said was in foul trouble and got fouled out with about 5 minutes to go.

Goorj I don't think showed a full hand last night.

In any case check out this link on YouTube from the U21 World Champs in Melbourne when the Aussies won:
Australia won this semi final against Argentina - notice some of the same players from both sides????

Oberto, Ginobili, Anstey etc etc

Pity this group of Aussies never fully realised their potential. Dwight and Trahair in particular.

Thanks LC, that video gave me goose bumps, amazing win!

Jeez - Bob Turner sounds like one (or both) of his nads just dropped after Trahair's 3... Funny how Aussie Bball (as in the NBL etc) began it's long slide to where it is now after that - i can remember it was all apples then, we won those championships: 4 guys - (Anstey, Rogers, Bruton, Pepper) got drafted, and MacKinnon and Dwight looked like a fait accompli... Funny what ended up happening...

Observations -

(1) Trahair looks pretty scrawny (good thing he buffed up later in his career - helped his game a lot).

(2) "Who likes short shorts? - We like short shorts". Those shorts look sooooooo... well - short... but at the time they were long... I must be getting old...

(3) Anstey still looks goofy ambling about, but nothing compared to what he looked like then (esp. in those Richard Simmons-esque shorts). Anyone ever see him on the tennis court - can't imagine it (of course i am guessing he sprouted like a fungi - so lost his co-ordination...)

de aussies shuld mak a good practce n prep 4 a top team ta prepar dem 4 de medal rounds in de Olympicz!!!