Anonymous
Years ago

So whats the Boomers real chances this year?

Ok, I know that without Kyrie/Bogut many project this olympics to be nothing more then doom and gloom, however ive seen the Boomers stack up well against Argentina (and even a game against team usa) pretty well without thoes players. plus I think that its a positive that the nucleas of this team has been together for a fair few years now... Can Australia surprise everyone at the olympics, topple a few world basketball powers and do well at the olympics as things are? I know the team has mdeficits but its fair to say that in past olympics teams who were never projected to be top teams have found there way in the medal rounds (france in 2000 anyone?) can Australia get there shit toghether or are they heading for 7-12th places?

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Anonymous
Years ago

I love how you Aussies say 'without kyrie' like he is an Australian! Never has played and never will play for you!

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Vart
Years ago

The tough thing to gauge is the quality of the opposition. Of the eight teams that have qualified so far, there is only one that I would suggest we are clearly better than, and thats Tunisia. USA, Spain and Argentina speak for themselves, while if France and Brazil can field full strength teams they will be very tough. Great Britain are much better than their current world ranking of 43, especially with Luol Deng and Ben Gordon on the team as planned. And China, well, we're probably better than China, but again they have an international stud in Yi Jianlian, so they can be tough on their night also.

All in all, with the quality and depth of international basketball, you simply cannot afford to take a night off, something that the Boomers always seem to do, even as recently as the 2010 Worlds.

Whilst a medal is probably out of reach, we should still be able to sneak into the top 8.

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paul
Years ago

The draw is being held tonight in Rio, so that could have a big bearing. If we could get GB and either Tunisia or China in our group that would give us a red hot chance of progressing to the top eight, and mean we only have to pinch one 'upset' to get to third in the group - assuming we take care of our lower ranked opponents.

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Dunkin' Dan
Years ago

Basically we're completely screwed, but yeah, let's wait on the results of the draw before trying to estimate just how tragic our olympic campaign is going to be.

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Vart
Years ago

Thanks for your nice, positive contribution to this discussion Dunkin' Dan.

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Anonymous
Years ago

weve take it to good teasm with a worse squad then what we have now, thats al i am saying...

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paul
Years ago

That's true, our 06 team was horribly undermanned but beat Brazil and narrowly lost to Turkey and Greece, who won silver. Let's hope for an effort like that, but with close wins instead of losses!

Tournament play is a funny thing, and at least we have a team that has played together quite a bit for the first time since the Gaze era.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Exactly my point Paul... its not the name on the jerseys its how they end up playing together.... im hopeful for a solid performance from them... Id say top 8... but part of me hopes that the chips fall well and they somehow make an unexpected top 4... yes its unexpected but its not impossible by any means.

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Vart
Years ago

Agree with both Paul and Anon - FIBA style tournament play is a strange beast, and sometimes you just need to get on a roll at the right time and you can knock some higher ranked teams over. This group has been together solidly since 2009, without Bogut that entire time. So based on that, we may have a slight advantage over some of the other squads that haven't played together as much.

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Hoops

So whats the Boomers real chances this year?

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