Yep - good to see Fox Sports jumping on

Every game will be a smashing. Opals undefeated.

I hope Fox Sports are going to show the finals live too - it's not mentioned in any of their articles so hopefully it's just because they don't know the times yet?

I think that Japan and NZ will be our biggest threats - though now Jap don't have Tokashiki I think we should be able to account for them. I'd be very surprised if we didn't make the gold medal game, to be honest.

As per the Tall Ferns' story, every team automatically qualifies for the quarterfinals:

http://basketball.org.nz/Tall-Ferns-News/tall-ferns-seek-world-cup-qualification-as-fiba-asia-cup-tips-off-in-bangalore-on-sunday

It will be a disaster for the Opals if their Asia Cup quarter follows the same trend as their campaign in Rio.

Regardless of whether they end up first or second in their pool, they should come up against either North Korea or Chinese Taipei in the quarters. We should be able to very, very comfortably take care of both those sides.

http://www.botinagy.com/blog/new-faces-lead-opals-charge/

Is Tessa Lavey anywhere near WNBL level as Joyce claimed ?
I'm also thinking that its a good thing Snell was there today.

Just how embarrassing for Basketball Australia that we have to field a naturalized american in order to compete in Asia/Oceania cups ?.

Yes I know its probably at least our "C" team out there, even if Lavey was a starter last worlds/Olympics . But I just watched the and and thought , just where are the current generation of point guards, we used to be so deep now ... ?

anyway, good on them, they are having a good crack at it and i wish then well, I'm hoping that they will get better as they go on, which will indicate a marked improvement in coaching leadership and competence IMHO.

Not really our "C" team. "B" would be fair though.
Who was unavailable that would/might have made it instead? Off the top of my head:
- Cambage
- Batkovic
- George
- Bishop
- Allen
- O'Hea
- Jarry
- Talbot
- Phillips
- Mitchell/Whitcomb

Took a while for them to settle - understandably for a new group - but they went ok I thought.
The guard situation has been an obvious concern for several years now.

Ohea was available but not picked, All of those players listed could have made themselves available but didn't.

Lavey has never been a great PG , only in Joyce's eyes, Mansfield is too busy conducting the"look at me" show, but will say she's a bit better than Lavey, hodges, way too slow, I'd say closer to a C team.
Only shinning light there was Smith, which is a bit sad in some ways considering she's only 20 , but fantastic for the future, so many good young ones to come through in the next few years, and hopefully ones that are Australians AND committed to play for Australia

Thought that was a solid first outing, considering the group haven't had any warm up games together like most of the other sides have. Although you could really tell that some of the players hadn't played since their respective WNBL/Europe seasons, hopefully they can blow away the cobwebs against the Philippines today, who lost to Japan by 51 yesterday.

What about Talia Tupaea?? Best of the lot. An injury free season this year will ensure she starts at Comm Games and Worlds. Todhunter won't even start at Dandenong this year as Laia Palau is one of (if not the) the worlds best point guards. I don't think Dandenong realise what they have with Laia!

Go Opals

"Where did Mangakahia play.? Thought she was in where Kalani Purcell was but cant find stats."

She was at Hutchinson Community College but i think she blew her knee first year and didnt play at all second year . Not sure how her eligibility worked for NCAA when she played two years of WNBL (not sure if she was a DP) and was contracted to play SEABL at Brisbane Spartans.
Has transferred to Syracuse as a Junior.

No Tolo today.. The commentators said yesterday something about a calf problem (although that could be wrong - they were calling players by the wrong names all game)

Seems like most posters want a squad put together under olympic soccer age rules (all under 23 minus a few seniors).

Can't say that yet - the two teams we have played would be in the bottom 3 in the tournament. I just think in games like these, why were Hodges/Snell given the start. Would much rather them play 10 or so minutes off the bench and give more minutes to the likes of Mansfield, Cumming, Garrick, Kunek or Smith.

Mijovic
Hurst
Jarry
Ohea
Phillips
Tomlinson
Wallace

Are all better options

Starting lineup for today is: Lavey - Ebzery - Snell - Griffin - Tolo

Great to see that Tolo is fit enough to suit up again - though I suspect they were just giving her a precautionary game off due to the opposition yesterday. Honestly I'm surprised Mansfield and Blicavs aren't in the starting lineup, especially against Japan I'd go Blicavs over Snell or Griffin for speed purposes.

NZ also just scraped through for a 6pt win against Chinese Taipei, meaning should we win this game and our first final + NZ win theirs, we should meet them in the semis.

The final standings in group A (Assuming China beats Korea) look to be
1. China
2 NZ
3. Chinese Taipei
4. Korea

Close contest so far. Not a lot of shots dropping for either team.
Opals trail 14-15 after 1.

Not many calls going our way either and some silly turnovers. Hope they get their game together soon

Thank goodness for Kelsey Griffin

Opals up 34-30 at half time
Griffin 12p 5r
Tolo 10p 4r
Snell 5p 4a
We're looking after the ball pretty well, and slightly ahead on the boards (22-18)

Still plenty of good seats available... if you're just driving' around.

It was far from an 'easy' first half IMO.
Coach obviously isn't all that confident either given the shortened rotation.
Fortunately the threes are dropping for us - 8/14 so far.
59-50 with a quarter to play

Ebzery & Cumming on target today :)

Fujioka is good value

6 point game, 2:29 left. Good thing for us that it's too easy.

Opals win 83-74
12/20 from deep!

Still no answer for their high ball-screen but a great perimeter game gets us through, and that's all it's really about at this tournament.

Any word on whether Foxtel are showing the finals?

Haha, don't worry, it's FIBA commentators

Other than the 1 naturalised spot, I disagree that there would be any automatic pushing out.
Mitchell, Whitcomb & Griffin would all be instant inclusions in our best 12 (and possibly even our best starting 5) so that one is going to come down to health, form, and other options at the time. I still think that despite her age, Leilani has the inside running there due to her poise and our lack of other PG options.

Talbot looks like being worthy of a spot regardless of who she plays for in the WNBA. She's doing pretty well this season.
George might not be a Mercury player much longer on current form, in which case there would be no conflict of interest there anyway.

Good quality game. Great shot making from both teams.

Tolo is great in FIBA competitions, great d and a soft touch around the hoop.

I like Olaf's rotations, he seems to have a good feel for the flow of the game and isn't 'married' to particular players (like the previous administration).

Talbot looks like being worthy of a spot regardless of who she plays for in the WNBA. She's doing pretty well this season.
George might not be a Mercury player much longer on current form, in which case there would be no conflict of interest there anyway.


Theirvshould be no bias towards any p,ayers who may play in the opposition WNBA teams, Brondello should be putting the Opals first NOT her WNBA title when it comes to team selection, but why the hell is Olaf coaching, the choices looks like they will come from him the way Chambers and Gorris have literally been pushed aside.

This is a joke, just who is calling the shots at BA,

As for players remaining from this side for the next event that will depend on who ends up being available,but The ones definitely needing replacing are Kunek,Lavey and Hodges, Smith probably won't get a gig once the others are available, though she certainly has shown her potential so far.

Wallace, Antoniadou, both strong PG, but Clydesdale is way ahead of all of them, sorry but being the #PG at a low level community college in Hicksville USA does not an Opals PG are, no matter how much you want to push it,
Add Panoussiss into that mix and probably a few more and shesway down that list right now

And the above summary is exactly why - as much as I love Whitcomb (i.e. a lot) - I think that the naturalized spot is Mitchell's to lose. Because the drop-off is significant and unlikely to change all that much in 3 years, let alone 12 months.

Will the next top aussie PG please stand up.

Non of those overseas " are any good,

Best bets for future is Clydesdale , Wallace and Wherung are shooting guards
Wouldn't right Antoniadou off, she was a freshman behind Romero, then played behind Clydesdale and Toddhunter, now behind the Spanish guard and Lavey hard gig, but plenty of time yet, and some good development for a young player training with and against those guards

Lots of time to go though, so you really never know just who might step up to fill Mitchell's shoes, we really havent had a true Aussie PG since Harrower, and with the trend for the taller PGs now it's really an open field, though any PG must be able to defend, direct and be quick to match the international PGs coming through.

For the immediate future ( next two years) I'd say they have it covered with what they have already

Tall Ferns & Opals quarter finals both being shown live on Fox :)

When are they on, tonight or tomorrow?

Both Aus & NZ's QF games will be shown live today:
QF 1 NZ v Korea today at 3.20pm AEST Fox Sports 505
QF 2 Aus v DPR Korea today at 5.35pm AEST Fox Sports 505

Big game for the Tall Ferns (vs Korea) has just tipped off.

Boxscore

Ouch! From a 20-10 lead to a 20-28 deficit.

Still stuck on 20 points. They're beached as.
20-34 at half time. 24-0 run over the last ~ 7 minutes. Fatal.

Molloy taking a back seat at coaching this second half lol

Geez they needed that buzzer beater three by Edmondson..

Doesn't look good but they're hanging around. Can't hit shots though and Korea are generating much easier looks.

They're literally throwing this game away by making such poor choices, wow

NZ just went down to Korea 49 to 64. The Opals face Korea in the semis should they win today.

I very much doubt it!

[/long time Perth Lynx fan]

Mansfield finally looks like she's getting the start!

Ok, time to kick some arse and book our spot in the worlds.

Mansfield comes into the starting 5. Fair call.

Boxscore

28-12 at quarter time, and it's pretty much garbage time already.

You might be right, #219

Opals win 81-48

That second half was pretty ugly, although Alanna Smith made the most of her time. Looking forward to seeing her against the better teams.

"So Australia v South Korea semi?"

Yes.

I was hoping that both Japan & China would get a crack at us in the playoff stages, but they're in the same half.

^ agree, Mansfield is too busy trying to put on a show, Lavey looks the goods but lacks substance, Mitchell hard to beat in the PG role, like to see Clydesdale as one of the back ups over both Mansfiekd and Lavey

Mansfield has done ok, but yeah there are some aspects of her game that she can work on. Bit of over-dribbling, and a bit of forcing some passes and being a bit predictable with them. But it's her first senior international tournament, right? So maybe she's just trying a bit too hard to establish herself as a distributor.
Passes up some good looks that she can't afford to pass up against good opposition. But it's hard to judge too much in crappy games like today's. That's why I was hoping we'd get 2 tough finals instead of just 1 - so we could get a better look at some players in more meaningful court time.

Bottom line though, Lauren has already done enough to lock her name into the group of guards competing for a spot in the real Opals 12.

Their offence was so stagnant that it was painful to watch, so many poor choices in their shots - or more like they were forced into taking those poor turn arounds when the rest of the team wouldn't offer anything. Add to that the numerous times they attempted to pass to an open teammate but handed it straight to Korea without them having to move at all for it.

I only caught the second half of their game, but perhaps they started their celebrations too early at QT and started to disrespect Korea's ability?

I've got...

Opals 2018 worlds
G
5'5 L.Mitchell 85 PG
5'7 L.Mansfield 89 PG
5'11 K.Wallace 96 CG
5'11 S.Cumming 90 SG
F
6'1 J.Ohea 87 SG/SF
6'2 R.Allen 92 SG/SF
6'2 S.Talbot 94 SF
6'2 S.Blicavs 93 CF
P
6'4 A.Smith 96 PF
6'5 M.Tolo 89 PF/C
6'5 A.Bunton 93 C
6'8 E.Cambage 92 C


Would go with Batkovic but at 37-38, might be best to move on from her.


I like this lineup as well Anon - has plenty of experience but brings in the obvious youth talent with Wallace and Smith. I like the way Sara Blicavs is playing in this tournament - aggressive offensively and great on D. She is physical on both ends too which we will need a bit of to succeed in the better tournaments.

Griffin getting the Opals off to another good start

Boxscore

I like seeing Olaf trying some different combinations.
Yesterday he ran both Mansfield & Lavey at the same time. For a few minutes just then he had neither of them, and used Ebzery + Cumming.

It'd be very handy going forward if Ebzery could become a viable combo guard. Not sure it's going to work though.

A better player, for sure, but I don't know about a better PG just yet. She is clearly working on it though.
Meanwhile though, Mansfield has already tweaked her game and taken some shots she would have previously passed up.

81-64 final score. Bench got plenty of burn.
Looking forward to the final.

Certainly Opals MVP. I don't know about tournament, because other countries have heavier reliance on their stars.
Case in point - Fujioka just finished tearing up China. 19 points, 8 boards, 14 assists.

Opals to face Japan in the final.

You're right, but FIBA like their tournament MVPs to come from the winning team, so Griffin is a chance, especially if she plays well in the final.

Hard to argue if the best player on the best team wins it

Good test for Mansfield & Lavey.

No excuses for the Opals. All our players have had plenty of rest, while Japan had to work their arses off to get past China. Plus they appear to have lost their captain Yoshida to injury, so they are down 1 starter.

I tell you what though, if Fujioka has another game like last night in the final, even in a losing team, surely she will be MVP, it will be too good a story for FIBA to refuse in a big women's basketball market.

Un19s got knocked out of the qtr final, they play off for 5to8th placing now, Russia was too strong , Gems unlucky with their final run too late.

^ they were referring to Japan's U19 team, who are through to the semis.

NZ have finished 6th overall after losing their classification game to Chinese Taipei 45-65. China as expected have claimed bronze over Korea 51-75

Tip-off for the final not far away

Opals-Japan Boxscore

Has been starting all tournament

She has been pretty good IMO

Mansfield getting it done. Griffin has been our best player in this one. Need to give our main 6-7 major minutes here, Japan are a smart team.

Tough going for much of that 2nd quarter but we got back on top late.
Griffin 14 & 5 getting it done again

39-33

Opals on top whenever Snell is out there, +14!

Blicavs hasnt done anything but I would give her some mins in the second half. Lavey seems to have almost fallen out of the rotation.

Man ... this quarter is a real struggle at both ends

I shudder to think where we'd be without Kelsey Griffin. What a machine.

It will come down to what they need more a good PG in Mitchell, or a power player like Griffin

I think the PG may win as what we have here is well below par

Against most non-Asian teams, Griffin is a tweener.
But in this tournament, like in the WNBL, her tweenerness gives her the best of both worlds because she can hold her own at the 4 spot at one end and out-quick her opponents at the other.

Griffin is going to know it was a final when she wakes up tomorrow and can barely move.

Mizushima now 7/9 threes. Someone might wanna keep an eye on her

Well ... I can't say we deserved to win that one, although the refs didn't do us too many favours. (I didn't think we deserved a bail-out call on the last play though)

Where's the "too easy" troll tonight btw?

Wow no China in final. Too easy. Cakewalk.

Surely that last shot by Snell should've drawn a foul..

Griffin a worthy winner of tournament MVP. Even though we lost tonight, that performance really sealed it. She was massive.

So an Opal wins MVP but she's naturalised? lol, where is our development geez

The better team won for sure, even if it was by the 3pt line, men's games are often 3pt shoot outs.

will be interesting to see who will get the nod Griffin or Mitchell, if the end up throwing Cambage back in the line up, told will move to the 4 griffin probably pushed out to get a half decent PG in Mitchell

I don't know whether Steph Talbot & Bec Allen would have been the difference tonight, but they're in the right place to be developing right now.
It's the guard situation that is scary. Our best starting PG & SG are both naturalised, and both a level above the next best candidates.
We need to get more games into the rest, against quality competition.

Why is Mitchell a naturalised player, anyway? I recall Boti Nagy complaining about BA not bothering to have her classified correctly or something.

Would be bloody helpful to have both her and Whitcomb/Griffin.

Wonder if Brondello might look to get Philips back into the opals as part of the PG/SG roster, that might then allow Griffin to be the one naturalised player permitted


No college kid is going to be able to step into a PG position as court leader lets face it, they should have included Clydesdale in this mix, and Ohea instead of Kunek and Lavey

That would have been a far more productive lineup

Huge difference between Smith and a leading PG, yes Smith did really well in her position but she did not have to run a team , she just had to be in the right place and hold her ground, she has a bright future ahead

In what world would Mangakahia ever beat Clydesdale up the crt lol, Clydesdales like a greyhound with her foot speed

Forgot about Bec Cole, she's another handy player but she's been hampered by constant injury which has dropped her off the radar

Don't think they used Garrick to her full potential, and to be fair on Kunek they didn't run her in her 3 position, but even if they did I doubt she is opals material for the future.

Opals desperately need a good court leader at the point, and right now Mitchell is the only one that comes near that role.

But their are plenty coming through behind over the next few years, hopefully one of them will be able to become the floor general every team needs

That damn Ilaf made some dumb coaching errors in the big one, persisted with players who were putting up nothing. Snellu and Mansfield had 3 points between them.

Mansfield's job isn't really to score. Foul trouble is what killed her game last night. She'll learn from that. Lavey's injury was unfortunate timing because she was looking ok out there at the time.

Snell took a lot of shots because no one else was willing/able to. That's another problem in itself. We need some more proactive scorers on the wings.
To me it's all part of getting international experience into these players. Players new to the team like Cumming are naturally going to defer to the others, but in games like this they can't afford to. Everyone needs to look for their own shot (within their own limitations obviously)

Who's Reid?

Mansfield's 4th foul was very, very soft IMO - didn't seem like there was much contact, and if there was it looked after the shot & a whisker in it. A couple of the calls were a bit soft to me, and a few missed ones too but nothing we can do about that.

To me, it seemed that when Jap set a screen, our second defender was pretty slow on helping out and switching which resulted in a lot of their open threes. I mean it was happening almost every play in the second half, you'd think the coaches would've said something - or the players pick up on it.

My take on the 12:

Griffin - obviously awesome. These opponents suited her strengths perfectly. I so wish more players had her desire to win.

Tolo - quality as usual. Delivered exactly what she should have.

Smith - maybe the biggest positive of the tour for me. Not super quick, but she seemed composed and proactive. Bright future ahead.

Snell - more than justified her selection IMO. Shooting was off in the final, but she makes good decisions, and at 36 is out-hustling players virtually half her age. It's good for them to see that.

Mansfield - played herself to the starting PG spot and did well. Some of her play is do-or-die, but she will benefit from this experience and I hope she gets more.

Blicavs - I liked her mindset - she attacked the game. Looking ahead I'm just not sure her ability will stack up against better opponents, nor am I sure what position she can play against them, but playing her is how we find out.

Hodges - she was used as a backup 5 and that was weird. Never really stood a chance. I get why she was in the 12, but not at that position.

Ebzery - earned good minutes and was one of our better players. I like that Olaf tried her at the 1, but I'm not sure she quite works there. I'll be watching with interest this WNBL season.

Lavey - steady & safe is a positive but also a negative. Would be a better fit if surrounded by more scorers, but isn't, and doesn't really make meaningful things happen.

Cumming - Overdue inclusion in green & gold. Needs to find more than just spot-up shooting to succeed at Opals level, but I think earned herself further consideration.

Garrick - I liked her aggression so she was a positive IMO. Has always struck me as too streaky of a shooter, but we'll see what she can do this season.

Kunek - rarely touched the court, so hard to judge. Is she quick enough to play internationally as a 3 though? I'm dubious.


The great thing about experience like this for our WNBL players is that it highlights areas they need to work on. So we got our spot at the worlds, and we got some motivation for some players. The WNBL will be a strong comp this season so let's see who can elevate their game.

Mansfield's 4th foul was very, very soft IMO - didn't seem like there was much contact, and if there was it looked after the shot & a whisker in it.

Great thoughts Luuuc, I think it will be interesting to see how these players who starred in the Asian style of play translate into playing against European/USA styles. Hopefully we get plenty of warm up games/tours heading into Spain next year to test out those on the cusp of selection.

In terms of the WC, as good as Griffin has been, I think we need Mitchell to be that naturalised player. Lavey and Mansfield are too unpredictable, I feel they could get burned if we went with that combo against full strength teams at the WC. That naturalised spot will definitely be the toughest call to make on that WC 12 next year.

Think Mansfield was unlucky to pick up that fourth foul, if you watch the tape, she literally just has a hand up, Japanese p,Ayer jumps forward as Mansfield jumps up, it's the downward action after the shot where you can see Mansfield finger tips almost touch the arm of Japan's shooter,
Crap call, but they are the ones you have to wear

@ Koberulz I think we might be thinking of different fouls - I thought Cumming was the one who twice fouled 3pt attempts. I really felt bad for her, to let it happen once - okay, but twice in a row was inexcusable. iirc Mansfield's 4th foul was on a fast break just under the basket.

Been a busy week for the Mangakahia family.

Been a busy week for the Mangakahia family.

I feel like Romeo flies under the radar because she's constantly hidden away in Europe and no one ever hears of her. I wish she'd come back to the WNBL so we could see how she stacks up against the Aussie point guards.

She's also going to be in her 30s in 2020 , think Australia needs some young blood

Think it showed clear,y the weaknesses within the opals squad and selection process

Well actually the Asia cup was just as important because if they didn't qualify they wouldn't be taking their "A" team anywhere, and I think this has shown they can no longer rest on their laurels, and need to take these tournaments seriously, which means those "A" team p,ayers need to make themselves available in future.

Japan and China are both on the rise with their women's basketball, NZ found out the hard way, that can quite easily be Australia in years to come.

Australia need to start developing their younger players now, get them on the courts in WNBL, stop over playing the older players in the likes of SEABL, or they will end up like NZ.

"So was this tournament a successor failure? For me it was a fail."

I thought it went exactly to script.
Top 4 was always going to be fairly safe as long as we sent a decent team, but winning it was never going to be a sure thing.
In terms of what we saw from the players, there were few surprises to me either. The quality stood up, and the newer players at times showed why they were good enough to be selected, but also why they've got a way to go to cement a place in the full strength team.

I think the Opals hit the mark in this tournament.

They went to within a whisker of winning, but more importantly qualified for 2018 World Cup.

Some big things to come out of this include the emergence of:

- Kelsey Griffin
- Alanna Smith
- Lauren Mansfield
- The Blicavs' sisters (in-law)

I would have preferred to see someone like Kristy Wallace in the team in place of Snell who will not be around for 2020.

I think the clock is on Hodges, Lavey and Garrick, while Kunek will struggle to make the World Cup team if everyone is available for selection.

Lavey - doesn't really make meaningful things happen.

The goal was to qualify for the world cup with our B team. They achieved this. Move on, nothing to see here.

Opals on top whenever Snell is out there, +14!

Snell - more than justified her selection IMO. Shooting was off in the final, but she makes good decisions, and at 36 is out-hustling players virtually half her age. It's good for them to see that.

Opals are done very simple,disgrace not winning this, even when we send a B squad as did the rest of Asia . Not winning this is the biggest joke. Sterling and the CEO need to go, the program has gone backwards. The selection of new head coaoxh and her husband and not 100 committed to all tournaments is ridiculous! With a B team we should have dominated . Snell and hodges should never have got a call up and having selection camps in the US is a mind blowing. Make matters worst u19 went sh#t... what is going on with the program and direction I see to be in a very bad way. Jan and CEO need to go for this momentous stuff up

Tissues happy take, to we need results more than ever, women's basketball is under threat in this country with netball (on tv) and WAFL (also on tv) . We need results not half programs of part time coaches and a leader of the program who are clearly failing ie CEO hasnt got the game on TV and the coaching appointments all levels ... so I will take the tissues as I can see our women's program facing totally destruction!!

CEO hasnt got the game on TV

Yes Hogwash, the U19 went "$h!t" and so you want the senior opals coaching group to be sacked after their first 4 months in the job...........Go for it.

It would seem that's being spoken by someone who has never successfully represented their state or the country either as a player or a coach, but I'm happy to be proven wrong.

The group that went to the Asian cup did well, they did not win the Final, and while on 'reputation" they should have, that "reputation" was built by the (generally) 12 of the 16 best players in the country, over the last 20+ years, in world , Olympic and WNBA not the best of the rest left after you take the best 15+ or so out, and after you have seen the recent retirement of one of the two best players the country has ever had in PT..

They did well,we qualified and that's what was required.

What was also required IMHO was a real world reality check on some fringe ( or not considered fringe) players In that respect it was a very successful "shakedown" of a number of hopefulls , who either furthered their case for selection consideration further down the track, or had their somewhat suspect prior selections put under pressure that made it clear that without a significant lift in their current or future potential performance, they are probably done.

None of that would have happened if we had sent out top 12/15 and had a thundering victory in every game. That would have been pointless.

They should have made more buckets

Actually I take that back. They should have conceded fewer buckets.

"I would be interested in hearing an explanation for hiring a part time coach for a full time position, and how she was later able to appoint her husband and mate after BA made assistant appointments, and how he ended as the main guy on the bench..."

Think so would the rest of the population that follow women's basketball, their should be an inquiry into just how that has been allowed to happen.

Took Gorris out of un19s to be assistant for Opals and he was basically the water boy.

and look how well that just panned out!

Seems kind of straight-forward to me that once the Brondello for coach rumours started bouncing around, and then there was the long delay while details were finalised, that the discussions would have centred around the balancing of her existing commitments to Phoenix and Ekaterinburg.

Also seems kind of straight-forward to me that Olaf would have been a part of the agreed remedy to those issues.

Personally that sits just fine with me. It is basically his system that she is running anyway. They have co-coached together in both the WNBA and Euroleague. There's literally no better person to run with her system when she is unavailable than he is.
So once they decided on Sandy, then the only thing I would have questioned would have been if they had picked anyone *other than* Olaf to fill in in her absence.

Then again, I don't think the sky is falling every 5 minutes, so I know that I'm in the minority around here much of the time.

That's all well and good, except that Olaf was a very ordinary WNBL coach and he has an excellent one sitting next to him in Cheryl Chambers. We were sold Brondello, Chambers, Gorriss, in that order and then we somehow end up with Olaf???

Olaf might know Brondello coaching style, but all coaching g is subject to,change depending on the opposition, unless he had a Brondello in his ear the whole time, the decisions he made were his own.

Where is he listed as the official coach, surely FIBA would require him listed somewhere, if so why is he not listed on BA site as official coaching staff

And why have assistants if you just going to over ride them, let's hope he is down as official somewhere,

What irks me is Olaf isn't named anywhere or given official credit. WTF? Sexist!

He'll be the silent partner in the background