Shane Heal not in the commentary so that is a positive

Hopefully we can also put the ball into the hole for more than one quarter

Sandy B ain't going anywhere. Her whole system relies on big liz cambage

Do you have to wear the black sports bra when you play for the Opals?

This is brutal

Korea have got nothing.

Went from brutal to very scrappy, but probably fair enough. It's been a long week and this one is over.
Hopefully we see extended Seekamp, Nicholson & Blicavs time this quarter.

That was an interesting conversation that the commentators were having about why Allen and O'Hea werent in the Opals 2016 Olympic team. The answer they were looking for was Brendan Joyce as coach with his pet players in Lavey and Burton.

Just saw something funny. Korean guards #22, #7 and #4 are serial travel violators, yet never get called by the Asian refs. And so bishop slides across her opponent to put up a shot (which goes in) and cops a travel call (which looked marginal at best). She and the bench erupt in laughter.

Blicavs has a future inn2-3 years.
Seekamp, should be her last stint.

"The prospectsnthere were high hopes,for like Sharp,and Horvat arent doing so,well."

What??

That inbound from Talbot was disgraceful

You'll have to excuse my caution but there are no sure things. Plenty of junior players show potential at a young age, but Australian basketball seems pretty average these days when it comes to developing them into world class level.
I don't think we should ever write off a player under 30, especially if they are new to the Opals system.
I'd love to see some younger players come through and cement themselves a spot, don't get me wrong, but they've got plenty of proving themselves yet to do against good competition.

Brondello is better than that absolute clown Brendan Joyce

That could well be the first ever thing posted on Hoops that no one disagrees with

Shane Heal not in the commentary so that is a positive

This gold medal game has been good value. Looks like it will go down to the wire.

Anyone would be better than Brendan Joyce, but Brondellos problem is the same as the problems within BA and the women's program, they are old school, Jan Stirling needs to let a younger fresher person take the reins, she picks those like herself. Brondello likes the old style players, and you can see that when it gets tough.
Australia looks for its tall timber rather than fast smart guards, and Sandy will rely totally on Cambage.

For the Opals to move forward, they will need a different coach that can match the Euro style play .

They need an injection of new blood at these camps, and frankly a coach that resides in Australia that can actually go see what’s out there and not rely on preferences from other coaches or tape replays.

Not much will change between now and the next olympics, and by the time 2024 comes along you would want to hope that they have developed more than the"usual” ones they pick especially in the guard spots.
The bigs are more plentiful than guards right now

Remind me - who are the fast smart guards that Brondello keeps leaving out of the team?

Incredible game by Motohashi to lead Japan to the gold. Great to watch.

Bec Allen named in the tournament all star 5. Well deserved. What a great 13 months she's had.

Motohashi MVP.

Great quality final. Japanese womens basketball has run a top quality system. Motohashi is a gun.

If I've understood all the threads recently
- most wanted Brondello to get her chance, which she’s had
- she isn’t God’s gift to Australian coaching after all, even though she’s a WNBA coach, and some already want her sacked
- she’s too old-school in her selections and game-plan, preferring slow bigs to fast small or medium-size players
- she selects with a bias towards what works in the NBA rather than what she needs against Euro and top Asian teams
- either she won’t pick talented 3x3 players or she’s not allowed to
- she doesn’t seem to have a Plan B for when things go pear-shaped
- she’s been unlucky with injuries to key players
- she seems to prefer older players who are over their peak, ahead of promising young ones of which we have so many
- she recently took us to Silver

Some of these points seem similar to the criticisms about Lemanis but with gender reversed.

Nostraballmus commends Hoopie on his compare and contrast. He would add 'not delivering medal/gold medal despite having the roster to do so'

Nostraballmus sees a theme that our national teams performance is never due to us. He sees that it seems our results are ultimately always due to something outside of our control like the refs, the draw, FIBA, other team's injuries etc

We won silver because we had a good draw and we got 24 and 11 avg from cambage. The next best was Allen with 9 and Whitcomb who was backup sg with 8. Second leading rebounder was George with only 4.7 rebounds.

If we were on the other side of the draw, we would have finished outside of the 4, we would played against teams with a completely different style.

We had Nigeria, Argentina, turkey, china, Spain, losing to USA in final. Spain the only test n which they are now in transition.

The other side had Japan ( injuries), Canada, (§injuries), France p(injuries), and belgium.

Agreed.

cant believe Im saying this, but after watching all the games I actually think Lavey would have been the better option as backup PG, this seems to be our weakest area, strange really when you consider is normally talls that you struggle to find. Cole and Garrick , like Clydesdale were all cut or in Garricks case dont think she even made the camps. All similar type players, so think it looks more like Sandy doesnt like hat style they play, shes most definetly old school basketball. I dont think I saw the Opals huddle more than 3 times on court the entire tournament, but maybe it was cameras not showing it. so if they are not talking on court are they simply going through the motions.

Brondello is a good coach, but I dont think its been as beneficial as predicted or thought, mainly due to her absence from Australian basketball, and her preference for old style players who may be fine up against USA teams , but very flat footed against the Europeans, who all play small ball. Not enough is put into developing our guards as BA are only interested in 6ft plus players

Where were all teams from the Middle East?

At home presumably, since they all suck at basketball

Of course they suck if they aren't allowed to play.

Of course they suck if they aren't allowed to play.

I didn't mean this tournament specifically but in general throughout FIBA Asia women's tournaments historically. Their women's teams are weak because there is probably no opportunity to play in the first place.

I don't follow what happens, but teams like Kazakhstan & Uzbekistan are getting FIBA ranking points from somewhere. The countries have to want to compete first. (and in some cases, have to allow women to play sport)

Well that's great. Good to hear.

I was just doing some browsing on the FIBA website trying to understand olympic qualification.
Was the Asia Cup tournament completely worthless? It seems that the same 8 teams who just played in the Asia Cup will play again in the November 14-17 qualifying tournament, and that tournament is the one that will send its top 4 teams to the last olympic qualifying tournament, in Feb 2020. What the hell?

BENGALURU (India) - The official draw for the FIBA Women's Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Asia-Oceania region took place on Saturday at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bengaluru, India.
All eight teams from the on-going FIBA Women’s Asia Cup 2019 will be playing at the FIBA Women’s Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Asia-Oceania region. The teams have been drawn into two groups:
Group A: Korea, New Zealand, Philippines, China
Group B: Japan, Australia, Chinese Taipei, India

The FIBA Women’s Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Asia-Oceania region for the Tokyo games will take place from November 14-17. The host of the Asia-Oceania Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournaments will be announced next week.
Eight teams will compete for four spots at the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments 2020 in February next year.