Oh my god, very very average Argentina team.

Hate the big men getting a touch high, looks awful since our bigs can be a little unco at times.

Patty looks a class above. I like Jingles but he is just sooo umm odd. Catches it in funny places and makes funkky ish moves.

Jawai not happy about not getting the ball. Problably why he hurt his shoulder, clapping his hand so hard when he didnt get the pass.

Argentina are horrible . I'm at game they have no enthusiasm just jacking shots . Greenwood and cadee getting minutes

Argentina would be lucky to get a win at Starplex!

Yeah, that was disappointing from Argentina. I know this isn't their first string side, but I would have expected their second string to be a lot better than that. Anyone know if these matches have any bearing on FIBA rankings or is it only major tournaments?

Jawai is a bloody huge. How can a professional athlete, with so much access to personal trainers, and dieticians, etc. be in such bad shape. Injuries aside, he is starting to look like Oliver Miller, with less GAME! If he wants to keep his NBA contract, the boy better start getting in to shape and taking his body seriously.

Let's hope Vili's don't sponsor the Adelaide game- we know who would eat all of the pies!

You are so on the money Achtung Baby.

He isnt Big Nate he is fat Nate.

I really like him but what a waste of talent. If I were an NBA head office type I would not look twice at him. If he can't even get close to being fit whilst being in the NBA where is it gonna happen?


DOn't know a hell of a lot about Alex Loughton but what I saw looked good?

Could he play SF at a pinch? WOuld be nice to have a Mills Newley back court witha big 3.

For mine, here are my observations...

- Argentina were very, very disappointing. If 1-2 of their guys make the WC team, it speaks volume for the lack of Argentine depth. They had no size at all.
- Mills, Newley and Jingles looked a class above
- Loughton and Martin were very good against mediocre talent. Did their chances no harm. Gibson also good.
- Our teenagers in limited minutes wre excellent - Greenwood in particular looked very good and very composed
- Jawai looked very much overweight and out of condition
- Luke Nevill showed some promise after an indifferent start

Interesting game. No wonder Jawai is getting no minutes in big league. He is rubbish! He should have dominated that game considering Argentina had no real bigs. Patty, Jingles and Newley were the stand outs.

I don't understand why all you guys are hating on Nathan jawai ... I was there and he didn't look to bad . No where near as big as it sounds like you guys think he is . He's a big boy but in limited minutes last night I thought what I saw was good . Set strong picks , numerous times had great seals on an extremely undersized opponent and never got the ball , boxed out reasonably well and was a presence on defence . Remember this is his first game in a while and really hasn't had a huge break from the states so I say give him some time , Nd don't be hatin

from last nights game i liked Damian Martin the best out of him, Gibbson and Markocic, Andrew Bogut spoke highley of him too, for his defence, rebounding and improved 3pt shot, will be interestng who gets picked.

Martin for me too. Markovic has surprisingly good size (he is taller than I remember) but his game was far from a standout. Gibson didn't do anything wrong, but is up against stiff competition. Cadell and Greenwood will be better in two years time for the run.

Another thought, off topic for the boomers, but something i thought of watching the game, say if Markovic was available to play nbl at a reasonable price, ie equivalent to a 3rd or 4th best player on a team or a cheap import,just say 80-100k would he be worth signing as our starting pg instead of a import, and us going with 1 import ala perth with a all australian pg rotation.

Not that markovic was a stand out, he was reasonable though IMO, and i do remember him being quite good for the razorbacks a few years ago and im pretty sure he is only around 26, and i reckon a pg rotation of Markovic and Carter is as good or close to Martin and Robbins, which perth ran with last year,

id rather that and leave the import spot open for injury cover/flexibility later in the season ala gelen young at perth than have a import who doesnt perform like Groves last year.

Does a rotation of say

C Johnson/Dowdell
PF Ballinger/Holmes
SF IMPORT/Hill
SG Herbert/Ng
PG Markovic/Carter

compare ok with last years perth team of

C Schenscher/Young
PF Redhage/Wagstaff
SF Weigh/Cattalini
SG Lisch/Williamson
PG Martin/Robbins

C Perth win, but if Johnson can continue his potential and average say around 15 pts and 5-10 rebounds i think the gap is closed

PF i reckon it is a tie

SF/SG If our import is as good,better or close to the level of Lisch, and can average around 15pts-5 rebounds and be versatile, i reckon its fairly close id rate Weigh not that much better than Hill, and Herbert and Williamson as fairly equal, Cattalini is better than Ng, and given this year its Tovey, its reasonably close, id give a slight edge to perth

PG Id give a slight edge to perth, but only slight as we havnt seen markovic for a couple of years so im giving Martin the edge over him, and i reckon the back ups are reasonably equal, id personally prefer Carter, but he probably is fairly equal to robbins.

Markovich was also from memory on the gold medal junior australian team with Bogut, also Martin, Robbins and Carter so gives us a good young pg rotation who are fimiliar with each other,

Just a thought would be interested to see peoples thoughts

i like loughtons game,to me he looks like he could fit nielsons spot internationally.
great 15ft+ range.
competent ballhandler.
very mobile at 6ft 9inch.
solid defender.
very good rebounder.

also liked nevill and newelly

This game and series isn't about the bigs for Australia. They will likely be replaced by Nielsen, Anderson, and possibly Maric almost regardless of how they play. The offense Australia was running was to let the guards who are playing for a spot show what they can do.

Jawai does look like his conditioning was great, but he'll have enough for the minutes he is asked to play at the World Champs. He could have just posted and backed in under the basket if that's what Brown had wanted, but it wasn't. He was asked to be mobile, set good screens, make the right pass and hit shots only if they left him open. He did a good job at running the offense considering he joined the team late. Also, he's actually showing some nice shooting touch out to about the free throw line in both the open training session on Wednesday and in the game on Friday.

You can say how bad Jawai was, and sure he is big and a bit slow but he sets a big screen and there was numerous times when he was not given the ball.

He will come through, stay with him.

My question is what does this mean for the next 2 games, Australia dominated...while thats always good to see I brought tickets to see some good games, Ive convinced ppl who wouldnt normally come to do so to try to get them involved. Dominance and a sub standard Argentinian team wont do that at all.

Same here Skud. I built this up to few people as 'heaps better than Iran was', but I believe that Iran touring side would have knocked off this Argentinian team. They really have played us If BA paid for that 3rd rate team to come out here.

is Loughton an academic excellent having selected for CAA All-Academic selection?