Liz was dominant although the team didn't play well together.

Liz scoring a contested 2 on one end and giving up a wide open 3 down the other end because she can't guard a pick n pop doesn't lead wins. Neither does players like Penny not being able to play their own game while Liz is on the court.

^glad your not coaching.

Game 1: Liz +15 in 29 min; No Liz + 3 in 11 min
Game 2: Liz +14 in 23 min; No Liz - 9 in 17 min
Game 3: Liz + 9 in 15 min; No Liz + 9 in 25 min
Game 4: Liz +23 in 25 min; No Liz -17 in 15 min
Game 5: Liz - 1 in 23 min; No Liz + 9 in 17 min
Game 6: Liz +11 in 27 min; No Liz -13 in 13 min

She was clearly the most dominant player on the court for the Opals. Probably best to keep her on the court.

Liz needs a coach who can get Liz to buy totally into a philosophy of the game. a philosophy that gets Liz to play like an experienced mature superstar, who works at her game, fitness and team work, one who talented players want to play with, and not as a "take me as I am or not at all" individual.

I have no idea who that could be.

if she doesn't allow this to happen, then she will probably remain unrealized potential in a team sport.

I'm not even certain that she likes basketball, or even team sports in general.

I wish she did, because she could have a Chamberlain/Russell type impact on the sport. At the moment she's only physically resembles those two players.

I think she had a right to be as emotional as she wanted, she near on carried us through that tournament and saved us from a few losses that could have been. Think the entire team are allowed to cry after a disappointing loss that ends their Olympic campaign. Don't think that was their biggest problem.

The way she was crying after the loss last night and being consoled by teammates as if she were effected more than most was embarrassing.

Wow Dazz love to see you suit up for Australia one day! So what she cried at the end of the game...Probably tears of joy that she doesn't have to play for that pathetic coach anymore. Very hard to stay motivated when you've got Joyce as your coach and players on the team that shouldn't be there.
Have to agree with anon in that Liz pretty much carried the team during crucial moments throughout the campaign. A real shame for Penny though.
Poor performance by our media slamming a camera and mic into Penny's face post game, she didn't even make it to the change room.

I assumed Dazz was being sarcastic.

Any team that puts its entire game plan around only one. Player is doomed..... More so when you have players of Taylor's caliber unable to get her game going because of it.
It's a team sport, you want to be an individual star go try tennis or track and field.

Any coach who has only one plan and that is to give it to just one person all the time should also find another sport , or should certainly not be coaching at Olympic level

My only issue with Liz is her childish tantrums she threw when called for fouls. Jumpin up and down stomping her feet and cussing at officials I can't believe they didn't tech her. Ultimately the blame falls on Joyce and his selections. Bench was weak and not enough defensive minded expirienced players. He also was stubborn to a fault about his line ups. Even the USA men have changed things.. For never coaching women at this level I'd say it was obvious it's about him and not about winning. He micro managed them all game every game and they just didn't respond. They had two days off to prepare and it looked like they did nothing. Poor effort by the coaching staff to get the best out of their athletes.

With this thread I wasn't looking to blame Liz as she is a great player.

I was just trying to highlight that the integration of a player like Liz isn't always easy.

The running her with the second unit suggestion was just something to potentially explore.

She would avoid early fouls and the 2nd unit could also be more geared towards playing zone and keeping her parked under the basket. She could be paired with longer guards.

As good as Liz is she hasn't had a lot of team success.

Bronze in London

WNBL championship in 2011. Although that team did share things around quite well.

Runner up WNBL 2010

Runner up WNBL 2012

Haven't followed the China results.

Injuries.

"as good as Liz is she hasn't had alot of team success"

The key word here is 'team', there are another 8 or 9 people on the fucking team....

You take Liz out of that Opals team and they don't win a game all tournament. Simple as that.

It's also not her fault that the coach decided that the offense would be Liz centric. Or that he didn't pick another big with international experience that could stretch the floor and give the team more options....

And criticising her for crying after the game? Are you for fucking real? That's some of the coldest cold blooded troll shit i've ever read.

She. Was. Crying. Because. She. Was. Invested. In. The. Team. In. The. Game. In. The. Opals.

She was crying because that is what humans do when something bad happens.

Give.
Her.
A.
Fucking.
Break.

I get the feeling some folk are still salty at the fact she had the audacity to call out the blackface incident......

Well said, Kingpodge.
I get that people are disappointed with how the Opals went. I am too. I want nothing but success for this great group of women, and they fell short this time.

But that's no reason to completely lose the plot.

liz was the Opals best player. Carried the team to wins.

I thought it was great she cried. It showed her commitment to winning and to the team. If you are not disappointed/pissed off etc at losing , then your heart is not in it. I thought her commitment/enthusiasm was great. Players are not robots and need to show some emotion.

Posters have gone from, joyces fault, Burtons fault to Lizs fault.

They LOST due to 26 TURNOVERS that resulted in 24 pts to Serbia!!!!!!!!!! (guards committed the most)

You can't blame Liz for anything except a bit of immature petulance during the game, and for being human afterwards.

I agree with wherearethey, the loss was largely due to the coach: his initial selections, the way he worked with his assistants and captain, inadequately preparing the team, inadequately motivating the team before and during the game, confusing them by being in their ear the whole game, not having a play up his sleeve in the last seconds when we needed one, and putting certain players in situations where they couldn't perform to their best.

Since I didn't see or hear anything, I can't comment on whether his time-outs and talking to his players were useful or not.


[I can't wait for one of the players to write a book or give their own version of events somehow.]

oh, I actually included the tag "/sarcasm" but it must have been read as HTML

Awesome post King Podge. U nailed it. Liz played her guts out and doesn't deserve the crap coming out of some posters mouths.

haha Dazz i just assume everything you post is sarcastic unless otherwise mentioned

Kingpodge
"You take Liz out of that Opals team and they don't win a game all tournament."

So true, the results from the 2014 WC makes it clear that you just so masturbatinly correct you are right on the moeny as "hammer" would say...

( sorry meant to Type "fucking" to show just how how serious and grown up I am, as well as dark, dangerous and unbound by societies' conventions)

Podge how did you get time to comment on this while competing in the shot put?

You guys are funny and sad at the same time :)

If you watch closely, Liz is not treated evenly or equally by almost all officials when she plays.

She is uniquely big for a female basketballer, at any level, so when she plays she is fouled often but not given the benefit of going to the line anywhere near enough times to make if an equal playing field.

That's just one of her challenges, so everyone in her team has to adjust to this, and of course she is a spirited individual with emotions, so what, I like her when she is intense on court.

Maybe at times she can use social media less, maybe even ignore it at times, but we need to understand young people today are living in a different world and we are all trying to get used to these social media changes, globally.

She is no doubt a key player for the Opals, she will no doubt continue to be, she is the player every team tries to stop and our coaches need to work out better ways to exploit her benefits to the team while we all need to support her, not stand back and abuse her.

'Tall Poppies', remember the syndrome?

"You take Liz out of that Opals team and they don't win a game all tournament. Simple as that."

Not liking the bashing of Liz, but this comment isn't correct. Easily the Opals best performance was against France, when Liz only played 15 minutes. Obviously they were outstanding in 2014 without Liz.

That's not a dig at Liz, this was a coaching issue. Joyce wasn't able to balance the highly-successful style of 2014 with the style needed when Cambage is on the court.

This Opals team had the potential to be an awesome two-speed team who could dominate teams with pressure and speed ala 2014 but also excel in slower half-court situations thanks to Liz's inside presence.

Problem was Joyce just created a sorry mix of the two styles that allowed very few of the players to utilise their strengths.

His line-ups were unbalanced, undefined and he spent much of the tournament on the back foot reacting to what was happening instead of setting the agenda with what was a versatile roster.

On top of that, some key players weren't that interested in defence and the players made some of the most basic fundamental errors you'll ever see against Serbia to cost themselves a clear victory and a SF berth.

A sad end to a sad tournament.

Caps Fan -I'm assuming by your comment that you didn't watch the pool games because you were too engrossed in the synchronised swimming - completely understandable. If you had watched those games, with your keen insight into the sport of basketball, you would have noticed that without Liz they would haven't even beaten Japan....
If we were talking about the 2014 WC you would be correct.... but we're not... and you are not correct.... So... yeah....
The only thing "dark, dangerous and unbound by societies' conventions" about me in my browser history......

_Strungout_ - the wifi in Rio is great.

Paul - slightly hyperbolic I grant you, but given she was instrumental in the comebacks against Japan and Belarus, i don't know where those points come from if she wasn't there. 100% agree with the rest, spot on.

Liz is a good player so too many of the others, problem is when all the focus is on that ONE player it can be detrimental to a "team" game.

That's exactly what has happened her, penny Taylor is a far better all round p,Ayer than liz ever will be, but because of liz and her gigantic frame it becomes "all about liz"

The team chemistry suffers especially when it's made all about one player who's already all about herself.

She's not a child, she needs to start acting with far more maturity both on and off the court

And yes she as our top,scorer, but that was because the entire offence was structured around giving her the ball, again when that's what the main focus is it limits others contribution.
It also puts a lot of pressure on that one player to do well, and liz does not do pressure well.

All this comes down to poor coaching from Joyce who really was the achillies heel in this program

To echo some of the other posters... I think Liz's future Opals success will largely depend on the Head Coach's ability to run an appropriate offence to suit the personnel & to get the best out of each person(ality).