Nice to see Boti repeating most of what I've said ;)

In truth though, that controversy helped Australia stuff itself up in Spain two years ago, leading Turkey 64-59 in their Round of 16 KO match with 62 seconds remaining.

The last minute belonged to Turkey's Emir Preldzic when he first buried an unbelievable 3-pointer with 48 seconds left. The Boomers then committed a shot-clock violation and Preldzic hit the shot of the tournament, a contested three with five seconds left for a 65-64 lead.

Five seconds left. Sound familiar?

Australia went to Joe Ingles for the final possession but he lost control of the ball as time expired.

Fast-forward two years to Rio and with 5.4 seconds left, once again Australia turns over its final possession and, once again, doesn't even get a shot up to pinch the game back.

The single criticism I would level at this Boomers team - our greatest by a mile – is in consecutive major tournaments, it could not get a shot off on its final possession after having a timeout to set it up.

Baynes was solid but had a few confidence issues at times while Matthew Dellavedova (pictured above) was superb for the most part.

Joe Ingles’ offensive confidence was missing early but when he hit the game-breaking 3-pointer in the 11-0 intrapool run home over Serbia, it looked as if he’d overcome it. But he hadn’t, his reluctance to shoot from range brutally exposed by Serbia the second time around.

That lovable larrikin intercepting inbounds passes and hitting step-back threes was very difficult to find in Rio.

Ingles played his role and played it well. He didn't take a lot of shots because that isn't his role on the team. I can name 6-7 guys who I'd prefer to shoot before him.

As for Baynes, I do agree. He can be extremely frustrating to watch play.

And as for the tanking being why we got some poor calls, perhaps, but why do Euro teams like Lithuania always get away with it? It's to the point where if Lithuania needs to lose a game for a favorable crossover you can bet money on the loss.

Baynes just has terrible hands. I'm not sure if they're made of stone or just tiny for his size. The amount of rebounds he gets a hand to but then doesn't secure is just mind boggling, and he is just awful at finishing around the rim with anything but a dunk.

@ME re: Ingles not shooting

It hurts your team when you aren't going to shoot it ever AND the defence knows it. Even on his baseline drives, you know he's no threat to finish at the rim, he's going to be looking for that long bounce pass across the baseline to a shooter in the opposite corner as his first and only option. Once you scout that there's no coming back from it.

the "Tanking" - Its been there almost forever.

in the 1980 moscow olympics , the only result that would stop the Boomers advancing to the crossover games for the top 8, and which would ensure that Italy and cuba both went through to the group crossovers, was if in the last game one of them ( i think it was cuba ?) had to win by exactly 7 points, puting Oz 3rd by 0.015% in the third tie calculations - amazingly and that is what happened - no "investigation" by the "lords of the ring" then.

They actually beat italy, who got a silver medal at the end.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball_at_the_1980_Summer_Olympics

Personally, I wondered if the fact that Jingles new he had just left his wife over the other side of the world, with twins, the first children for them both, effected his game?

I know its the olympics but surely that must have been on his mind.

I thought that too because he did seem 'off' all tournament like he didn't know what he was doing.

I must correct myself for some reason I thought Ingles was 31 he's only 28, nearly 29 so not really past it at all and probably still in contention for the next Olympics.

He's been around forever I can still remember him playing for the new South Dragons team in '06!

I think he looks like he's really lost a step as well. Doesn't have much elevation left at all, when he should theoretically still be on the tail end of his athletic prime.

Yeah I hate it how he always does that. He has no credibility as a writer if he doesn't have the balls to call it for what it was.

Up until the fall of the Soviet Union (and with the obvious exception of LA) Olympic Gymnastics was a beautiful joke.

Aside from the horror of giving young girls androgenetic drugs, the simple fact was that competitors from outside the Warsaw Pact were crucified by the judges.

I wonder if Boti is on the money with his comments about the Europhile refs?

The crazy thing is that half our players play in Europe, but that doesn't seem to effect the apparent bias.

Maybe we should change our uniforms to Red & White, and put "Von" in front of the Players names?