Only gold medal games streamed again which is pretty pathetic.

Boys favourites sa m already upset by nsw c.

Qld N were boys favourites, IMO. But NSWC over SAM definitely a massive early upset.

SA Metro boys still favs with QLD Nth. Don't forget they're kids it is a long week and plenty of time to recover.

SAM boys 37 turnovers! Wow

And NZ announcing themselves as title contenders up 40 in the 4th v NSW Country. Wouldn't surprise me if 3 of the top 4 are from that pool

Early on, final 4 looking like
Qld n, vic m, wa m, nz Boys
Vic m, sa m, vic c, nsw m girls

NZ a very athletic and physical unit for 16's. Across the board there doesn't look as much talent as Kilsyth last year.

I agree. Pretty down on talent this year.
I still see a few players making Asian champs though.

Definitely Wigness in the boys, a couple may make the squad of 18 but not the final team.

2 centres will also.

How far off are the listed heights? I'm guessing the kids listed sub-160 are generally mistakes but are there a few genuine bigs kicking around? Based on the published team lists, only SAM, Vic Met, and WA Met have one kid each 6'8" or taller. If that's accurate, it's a pretty small age group in the 4/5 spots.

No comparison to Kilsyth with some unbelievable winning margins that are completely mind blowing! BA what is going on

4 best Aussie post players currently in u16s
Vic m C 6'8
Nsw c C 6'5
Wa m C 6'5
Qld s C 6'7

Not very big at all.
3 months from Asia qualifiers and Another year until worlds.
Some may grow another inch by that time but assuming some of these young blokes will be chosen to represent Aus, we will be very small compared to last u17s where our front line was 6'10, 6'10, 6'8, 6'7, 6'7.

The 01 group ain't that big either.
Some good Pfs at 6'5-6'6 but no real stand centres.

2 guys at 6'6-6'7 who both played u16 last year and u18 this year.

New Zealand is going to begin out qualifying our boys for both wc's soon.
U19 did not make it, scraped through on last second shot the previous time.

Agreed #403 no standout 01 bigs at 18's. Two 01 guards in top five scorers for the week and a forward fourth in rebounds. Some decent talent but it's at shooting guard or small forward. This may be ok for the Asia champs but some work needs to be done before the worlds in the 4-5 spots.

Thanks for the info on heights, I was surprised reading the program. Will be very interesting to see how they select the squads given the lack of size in the front court. Taking a 6'8" guy to Worlds to play the 5 doesn't make much sense to me.

As for the margins, 50 has not been an unusual gap between top and bottom, historically speaking. It's really just NT with the two losses of over 70 that are crazy, and that happens every now and then with the territory sides because there's so little depth. And it was foreseeable with this NT group after Darwin and Alice finished 22nd and 24th at Club Champs.

I feel incredibly sorry for NT basketball. SAC just beat them by close to 70 and SAC have already had two 50+ defeats?
You need them in the competition but this team is by far the worst ever!

I reckon they might be splitting nz into north and south in the future.

Good for NZ, and I reckon it's good for us, too.

Boys top 4
A-nz, qld n
B-vic m, qld s

Girls top 4
A-Vic m
B-sa m, nsw m, vic c

I think by this time next year you'll see some decent growth spurts.

Imo we will end up with a front line of 6'9, 6'8, 6'8, 6'6, 6'6.
3 from 01, 2 from 02.

Sfs-6'6, 6'6
Sgs-6'5, 6'3, 6'3
Pgs-5'11, 6'1


Last u17 team..
6'0, 6'1, 6'1, 6'4, 6'4, 6'6, 6'7, 6'7, 6'7, 6'8, 6'10, 6'10
In comparison
5'11, 6'1, 6'3, 6'3, 6'5, 6'6, 6'6, 6'6, 6'6, 6'8, 6'8, 6'9

Not a huge difference really.

talent is the difference

Nz vs vic m grand final

NZ, VM, 2 QLD teams and a weeks worth of daylight

Best WA Country team in a while. Have the potential to knock off NSW Country tomorrow, which could play a big role in finals placings.

It could be an all-Qld gold medal game, but I think the odds favour NZ-Vic Met with the Qld teams playing for bronze. There's still a lot up in the air, though. Results in pool B could still see SA Met finish 3rd, and despite the game 1 result, they're a better team than NSW Country. That gives Qld South a much tougher matchup in the QF and could certainly see them miss the medals. If SAM finish 4th, though, I think the top 2 from each pool will go to semis.

Talent might be down but it makes for a more interesting event when finals placings aren't determined halfway through pool play.

If potter has a bad game, are vic metro women beatable?

Next years talent is real good in the women's for those born 03/04.

Parents lol

Not a parent but have seen futures squads in 4 states.

NZ toughness double day of the tournament with Qld Nth and SAM.
$ still on a NZ v VM gold game.

^^Yes and have to wonder what impact that will have come finals. VicM and QldS both yet to play a single digit game, almost all players sitting between 15-25 minutes a game. NZ, SAM and QldN all have kids playing massive minutes in tighter contests.

Anon, have you observed the growth of our elite junior boys from u16 onwards? A kid who is 6'8" at 15 years old is almost never going to see his growth "take off" after that point. Amongst the guards there might be a lot more differentiation now, with the 180 kid who's done growing a totally different prospect to the 180 kid who ends up 195.

Yes there'll be changes to the size of the age group. But these kids are so far off the growth chart that suggesting their growth patterns follow that of the general population is silly.

And size matters when it comes to matching up at international events, which is what some of these kids are about to be selected for.

LOL at stressing over kids' heights... relax parents

Some good guards that never made state squads also.

How bad are Vic Country in the boys? Just played Tassie and got beaten by a Tassie team that arent big or all that good! Could drop as low as 14th considering we were silver medalists last year in Kilsyth. The standard of competition is nowhere near last either.

Yeah worst vic country team in some time.

The talent right across the board is down from previous years U16's. Wont be to many of these kids apart from Wigness being named in the Asia squads.

I think the two leading rebounders will make the team along with Wigness.
The other 9 from 01.

Agree with the above, worst Vic Country result for some time and a massive drop off from last year, although last years team may have been a bit of a one off.

What happened to the vic country pf that didn't make the team last minute? Injured?

Game of the tournament coming up...
Vic m vs sa m.

Semis

Boys
Nz vs qld Sth
Vic m vs qld nth

Girls
Nsw m vs vic c
Vic m vs sa m


Prediction
Nz vs vic m final boys
Nsw m vs vic m girls

Vics have looked a class above so far in the boys, but Qld North seem to be trending the right direction while NZ look tired. I think the boys' top 4 goes Vic, Qld N, NZ, Qld S on ability but they can't finish in that order. I give whoever wins the Vic/Qld N semi the best shot at gold, and whoever loses it the best shot at bronze.

pretty pumped to see a all queensland final! we were robbed our of state classics and this has proven many doubters wrong! Go queensland south!

Why robbed, what happened?

robbed? who got robbed?

Queensland U16 state classics was cancelled due to floods in mackay.

One hope, one quest, wigness the fitness

Championships got cancelled because of cyclone Debbie

I think the people who got "robbed" were the victims of the cyclone and floods rather than those affected by the cancellation of a basketball tournament.

No evidence in that final that anyone was beating Cairns at Classics anyway

Final standings-boys

Qld n (gold)
Qld s (silver)
Vic m (bronze)
Nz
Sa m
Nsw m
Wa m
Nsw c
Tas
Sa c
Vic c
Wa c
Nt
Act

Surprises..
An all qld final
Nz top 4
Some peoples Favourites sa m 5th
Highly touted wa m 7th
Last years runners up vic c 11th
Nt not finishing bottom

Final standings-girls

Vic m (gold)
Vic c (gold)
Nsw m (bronze)
Sa m
Nz
Nsw c
Qld s
Wa m
Tas
Qld n
Act
Sa c
Wa c
Nt

^Oops vic c (silver)

A few stand alones for both girls and boys and should make upcoming Aus rep camps.


Pretty sure it will be an all Victorian gf in the girls next year.
Nsw m vs vic m in the boys.

Give credit where it is due , the population bias to the larger states makes it almost impossible for regions such as ACT, NT, WA ,SA and TAS to compete at the top level.
I saw some great talent from Tassie ,WA and SA over the week but certainly the lack of depth affected these teams , both metro and country. Tassie stood out to me as the State who punched above their weight at this carnival . SA metro also performed well , girls always seem strongand boys were ok given they took some time to get it together.

I would add Qld going 1/2 in the boys is an amazing effort , knocking out Vic M and NSW m is huge !

QLD North batting well above average then if you're talking population bias. They have nowhere near the player base to draw from. How do they win 2 golds in 3 years with completely different players and coaches?

The trend shows that "country" teams in general are faced with an absolute massive challenge to both prepare and then to compete at this level. Metro teams have a better Network of coaches and more sound systems. The odd team (Qld N and VC) for example in both boys and girls manage to challenge but it is due to 1-2 outstanding players and some old fashioned grunt. Imagine how good some of these players could be with better coaching and greater opportunity??

In saying that well done to both Qld Nth and VC for their unbelievable achievements, the respective State HP coaches should be very proud indeed.

Would have to agree Qld is doing a great job ! I spose we should be considering participation rates as much as anything.
Also agree we should be praising the country programs a bit more considering the extra challenges they face.

He may be a spy communicating in code.