Some stats from the game.

Melo went for 20 points, whilst JJ chucked in 18 points. Bosh had 12 points and 9 rebounds. US were good from the floor hit 53.6%, including 51.9% from the land of three.

For the Aussies, Bogut had 20 and 6, Newley put in 15 and no other players had more than 8 points. The Aussies shot 40.6% from the floor, and only 24% from 3. 6 from 25 is pathetic.

Once again, I'll ask the question. WHY SO MANY DAMN THREE'S??? Bogut hit 6/14, scored 20 points, and the team took 25 threes. Someone is directing the team not to go to it's No 1 player....

Smith hit 0 from 5 (go kings!!!), whilst Newley hit 3 from 7 for behind the arc.

Just look at how many 3's the Kings take in a game to find that answer.

I just had a phone call from a work colleague in the states.

His first question was "who is that *$%(wit coach??" Imagine that in an American accent. I couldn't give him a constructive answer, but mumble something like "a tosser called Goorj".

Second question was "what's the go with the three ball. Hit nothing and they they still chuck it up"

Definated Smith as nothing but a chucker (hard not to agree).

Worst ever offensive set in the history of international basketball. Pathetic and shite were used numerous times. Wonder who designed the offensive sets???

Bogut was killing them and the Aussie's persisted with that stupid 3 point game. What's the go with that???

TR but...but....but he's the best coach in Australia and he's won lots of championships and its not his fault the players which he picked and plays arent up to international standard and there is noone in the world who could do a better job. Did I mention he's won lots of championships?

Big deal about how many NBL championships he has won... Get Phil back on the bench instead of BG... at least Phil knows how to coach a Boomers team.

Bad coach. Why?
Most time given to three players in the entire competition with almost the most turnovers. (CJB, BN & AB)

Hardly any time given to the two almost best top 3 point shooters in the entire competition.

Reverse this and we could have fluked a win. Simple as that. I think Aus are statistically challenged.

M dizzle he is not the best coach in aus to coach the boomers just cos he won a couple of champs doesn't mean he's the best to coach aus.

'its not his fault the players which he picked and plays arent up to international standard'

who's damn fault is it.


'there is noone in the 'world' who could do a better job'

i can think of plenty of people who could do a better job in australia let alone in the world.

so stop pickin ya nose and start thinkin about what ya post on here

AK, Dizzle is typing that with a big silly grin on his face laughing his ar$e off. It's all tongue in cheek. He knows my pain on this subject.

I'm just waiting for all the people with a Goorj blow-up doll under their bed to start proclaiming that us loosing by 40 points is a sign off good things to come, Barlow and Kendall are the second coming of Lebron and Wade and that Goorj will be able to walk home after parting the water between here and Japan, just because we made the second round (2-4 is a shite record), and doesn't deserve a mention.

John, sorry but Phil isn't the answer.

Thank god the WBC is nearly over, I can put this disappointment behind me and concentrate on the bobcats (Morrison for ROY. I should be use to losing, but at least they have a legit gameplan, structure and coach in place) and the 36ers.

Oh, just in case I forgot to type it early in this post. Goorj isn't good enough to coach at the international level.....

I agree with 'Bronte'. What's with all the turnovers. You can't out fancy the USA. Play it safe with Barlow and Wothington on to shoot from outside the perimeter if Bogut fails get through. If they maintain their average (50%+) from the previous games Aus would have had a chance.
P.S. Newley is a disgrace.

I believe that the Australian team lacks something called a 'point guard', hence the turn over problem. They also lacked something called a shooting guard'.

Read a book called 'The Basketball Handbook' (Goorj are you reading this) By Lee Rose describes a point guard as a coach on the floor, who can handle and distribute the ball to teammates. CJ isn't a PG.

The same book also describes a shooting guard as 'a good shooting guard will often attract double-teams, shooting guards are frequently the team's back-up ballhandler to the point guard. Most shooting guards, however, focus primarily on scoring, allowing the point guard to worry about distributing the ball.' We lacked one of thingies as well.

We did have a pretty damn good Centre, but somehow we forgot about him.

Anyone got a definition of a coach????

Rule 1: Know your players strengths and weaknesses

Rule 2: Understand that the NBL and International ball are completely different

Rule 3: Learn how to count time outs

Rule 4: If you have a dominant centre, do not constantly chuck up three's.

Rule 5: Exception to Rule 4. Must have a shooter (two is better) that can hit over 45% of three's then the 3-ball is a plausible game plan (within reason).

Rule 6: Understand that the Sydney Kings are not the Australian Boomers.

Well said TR. I totally agree. So do the Stats if you look at the leaderboards of individual performance throughout the competition for all international competitors.

BEST (worst) TURNOVERERS per min:
BN, CJB, AB

BEST 3 point %:
MW, DB

we were well and truly undermanned, i just hope we have better luck with injury before next olympics.... then we may medal.

So what are you people saying, that we would have won with Smyth as a coach? USA werent even trying and they won by 40. There is no way, even with no injuries and a better coach (I seem to remember Smyth not doing anything with the Boomers either) that we would ever beat the USA team

oh yeah, and 3/7 from the 3 is a great percentage. Most NBA players, hell, most basketball players strive for a 40% clip from the 3.

oops...sorry M-dizzle

Just thought I'd get in with all the excuses before the boy-goorj posse came on here and blasted all of us with them. Don't worry I had a good laugh, no hard feelings.

Goorj can eat my......ill just cut it before it gets R rated. He is disgraceful

One thing that you can't blame Goorj for is the decision to include CJ in the team for the world champs. It would have been one hell of a lot worse without him.

But it would be nice to develop at least one true pg before Beijing. Too bad D-Mac will be 43 and only averaging 20 ppg and 8 apg by then. Obviously not good enough to get a game.

For the future of Australian point guards I hope the Bruce develops into a NBA talent, and that Patrick Mills is as good as people here in Canberra are saying.

Newley needs to develop (I wonder if he's now thinking maybe the college route would of been better, esp after Coach K's comments) along with Bogut, Luke and Anderson. We need to find a decent SG and a lock-down defender. We also need to find a real gunner or two. A real playbook would also improve things.

Hopefully by then we won't need CJ to run the point.

Waaaa Waaaa Waaaa Waaaa Waaaa Waaaaa Waaaa I'm a teenage zit popping wannabe with NBA black nickname's ha ha. Get your OWN identity!!!Toss bags.

Australia played in the toughest conference of the WBC's and with a team missing four starters could've finished on top.

Waaaa Waaaa Waaaa. Start up a thread about something you guys really know about your zits, the sock under your bed, being white but talking in an American accent, lollies.

Hey TR what did Coach K say about Newley?

Apparently during the press conference at the end he said that Newley is a good talent, but not not sure if he's a NBA talent.

Boy Goorj Is A Joke !!!
CJ was a good pick for us, and bailed us out in a couple of games, but would have been better off playing the 2 spot and slashing IMO. He is too turn over prone to run the point, D.Mac would have been a way better option, who gives a shit about his age if the guy has game ????
By the way, I typed this in an Aussie accent....

I agree with John Lawrence, who cares about how many championships people win, either as a coach, player, scorer, fan or even an announcer.. If you have a stacked team at local level it wont translate to a win on an international level.

BA needs to look at themselves.. Why they couldnt figure out the neilsen situation, and why he didnt realise that it may have been an issue before he signed the contract, i dont know.. The issues addressed above are also valid points.

Cattalini & holmes performances over the weekends show they probably shouldve been in the team..

Despite AB being a scorer more than a leader, he still has the potential to offer more than CJ. His youth and inexperience aside, he has balls and is willing to have a go. CJ looked scared in the USA game.

Another thing is that despite AB's high turnover counts, most of those passes were good balls. It's that his teammates were either too crap or just weren't awake to his ability that saw them usually spilled out of court.

Perhaps not by Beijing, but in 4 years time I would like to see a Boomers team that looks something like:

Aaron Bruce
Andrew Bogut
Brad Newley
David Andersen
Matt Neilsen
Patrick Mills
Luke Schenscher

And with the remaining slots fought out between:

Daniel Kickert
Nathan Jawai
Aleks Maric
Alex Loughton
Ben Allen
Luke Nevill
Joe Ingles

I also believe that Basketball Australia should also provide the Australian based players more test series. They don't play nearly enough.

Oh, add Worthington to that list.

Maybe Barlow, but to me he still seems iffy. As does Levin.

Is Ryan Kersten a serious potential for Beijing or nowhere near the mark?

most of you have enough excuses to last a life time!!!

get over it!! we got owned in every avenue of Basketball last night! The US made us look like little kids in the land of giants... I dont think i recall any of the US players breaking sweat...

Anyway, Im proud of the boys and Goorj!!! Even though we didnt come home with any medals... I think we did pretty good considering our league lacks the budget, social consideration, and of course the talent compared to the other nations. Nice one lads!!

So you bag people for making excuses but go on to say we did well considering blah blah blah.

Hello kettle, I'm pot, I think you're black.

gold!