Anonymous
Years ago

Opals team for Olympic qualifiers

Mitchell
Lavey
Ebzery
Madgen
Ohea
Talbot
Allen
Garbin
Magbegor
George
Tolo
Cambage

Terribly chosen squad once again sandy.

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Anonymous
Years ago

No need for both George and Tolo in these qualifiers against small opponents.
Madgen should not be ahead of Nicholson.
Kunek is in great form.

Would have taken out Madgen, Garbin and Tolo who's not in great form.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Would have had

Mitchell
Ohea
Talbot
Allen
Cambage

Lavey
Ebzery/Garrick
Nicholson
Kunek
George/Magbegor

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LC
Years ago

Kunek was not even part of the squad of 19, so no surprise she was not included!

Opted to go taller with Tolo and Cambage over Bishop and Blicavs.

Seekamp swapped out for Lavey and Madgen in for Nicholson.

Need quicker guards who can defend, hence can understand why Lavey was included.

I would have stuck with Nicholson over Madgen though.

Tolo's inclusion was not necessary for this event, but her selection may be an eye towards the Olympics.

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Luuuc
Years ago

Seems fine to me. Nicholson/Madgen ... I mean it's splitting hairs on that one. Both similar players in pretty good form. If that's the difference between qualifying for Tokyo or not then I'll be very surprised.

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Anonymous
Years ago

We played our best basketball in the WC with Whitcomb in for Mitchell. As good a season Mitchell just had in WNBA would prefer Seecamp in to fill the PG minutes.

I too would of added Nicholson as a 3 and D player off the bench.

The amount of bigs doesn't make sense. I like adding Shelley for the experience if no Oregon commitments instead of constantly rolling out the same average guards.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Shelley, lol. Years away mate. Like smith, she'll get her go in her junior or senior college season of performing. That’s 3-4 years away.
Wallace when recovered should be our go to. Hopefully some gametime in lead up to Tokyo.

Luuuc, how can you say Madgen and Nicholson are similar? Nicholson is the superior defender and shooter, stronger, tougher. Ball handling the only thing on par.

We didn’t play japan in the WC and they had a few injuries. Tokashiki for one.
We will struggle again with the guards and only a huge performance from Cambage will get us a win.

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LC
Years ago

I do hope to see Wallace and possibly even Mangakahia fit and firing in the near future...such a shame that injury and illness and set them both back.

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Anonymous
Years ago

If in doubt, just choose the same team that won silver at the WC. Minus Whitcomb who was the naturalised fill in for Mitchell who was injured.
Does Sandy not understand we are playing a much different team to the ones we faced at the WC? Both this round and the next...
only one inclusion will help, and that's cambage. If she has a bad game, we lose. Way too reliant on her...
You’ve replaced seekamp as a distributor with a better defender in Lavey. mmadgen comes in and brings what? Tolo, who is still not 100% and has had a poor start adds? Basically 4 centres (3 of which are super slow) and an undersized pf in the squad.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Mangakahia after Tokyo.
Wallace has a shot at Tokyo.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Mitchell vs Machida
Ohea vs Motohashi
Allen vs miyazawa
George vs takada
Cambage vs tokashiki

They'll,probably bring fujioka,back in to.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Motohashi
Machida
Fujioka
Motokawa
Hayashi
Akaho

easily the 2nd best backcourt in the world atm.

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Luuuc
Years ago

It's clear that thanks to the horrible selections that clueless Sandy has made, we will fail to get past India & Chinese Taipei and therefore fail to qualify for the olympics. What a disgrace.
If only she had picked (player x and player y) instead of the two total scrubs (player j and player k) that are in there at the moment, things would have been completely different.
Since being put in charge she has done nothing but underachieve. ie. winning the silver at the world cup last year. Has no idea about international basketball or building a great team culture.
Bring back Brendan Joyce before it's too late.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Luuuc, don't forget we just got polaxed in Asia cup.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Considering people continue to say our issue is defending quick asian guards, I can't see a starting line up of Mitchell, Ohea and Allen helping in that area.

Cabbage will be the difference.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Culture, yes, she has a much better rapportbwity the players than previous coaches.
Development, hell no. Whos gotten better under sandy, no one. Magbegor a little.
Record for club and country is so so. On the verge of being ousted at Phoenix and poor performances in the lead up to Tokyo will see the pressure on her build 10 fold by going off the comments when we got throttled in asia.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Development? Her job is to win medals.

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ANON
Years ago

I way would you ever take Whitcomb over Mitchell and as for including Shelley ROFLMA , get real , she is years off .
Great junior but not ready for that level at all

Madden and Garbin another two who you would question, Blicavs would have been a better bet. Tool is just an injury waiting to reoccur sadly

But Sandy will just rely on Cambage , let's hope she can bring it

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Anonymous
Years ago

Nice team, should be able to beat those japs now.

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Hoops

Opals team for Olympic qualifiers

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