Easier to pick who is not good enough for International basketball.
Heal
Cole
Maley
Aokuso

Leaving

Madgen/Rocci
Whitcomb/Melbourne
Talbot/Nicholson/Blicavs
George/Garbin/Smith
Magbegor/Bishop

Madgen can swing 1/2/3
Nicholson can swing 1/2/3
Whitcomb can swing 1/2/3
Blicavs can swing 3/4
Smith 4/5
George 4/5

Melbourne to be an energiser bunny in 2/3 minute spurts

Better to go big anyway at International ball. Whitcomb likely to carry the ball in crunch time.

Some better seletions.

However
Scherf 15.5ppg, 9 rpg 3pt 67%
Aokuso 10.8ppg 7.5ppg

Scherf totally outplayed her at the Asia Cup. Aokuso struggles to play minutes.


Maddi Rocci - would have preferred to see another guard who has some elite areas to their game, other than turnovers. Mansfield/Wilson as pure point guards, or Wallace as an elite defender, adds hustle, shooting 3 at a good clip and can create own shot.

Rocci is an average shooter, turns the ball over 5.2 turnovers per game and main shot is a right hand layup, and typically has the support of 2 other ball handlers around her. Type of game that doesnt translate to the top level. Plays similar to Cole in many ways.

Nicholson and Blicavs likely selected on past performances.

Cole not good enough for international ball but Rocci is? okkkk

Funny squad , 8th place at best. Sandy has no idea whatsoever.

So Ohea, Lavey, Tolo get automatic WC selections it seems.

No Kunek or Wallace is laughable.

Only good selection made was adding Maley.

#303 proven better to go smaller, like the japs

Melbourne off the bench for her club team, in the Australian squad and bound for the WNBA .... life is good.

Whitcomb
Cole
Talbot
Magbegor
George

Heal or Rocci
Melbourne
Nicholson
Garbin or Maley
Bishop


Cut for these qualifiers
Madgen
Blicavs
Smith
Aokuso

Why not test all players that barely get a look in, why bring those vets like George, Magbegor etc etc

"No Kunek or Wallace is laughable."

No what's laughable is thinking Kunek should take up a spot in a training camp that she can't attend

She can if her club team let her

Sad to the opals fall under sandy over the last 3 years, don't see us making the top 6 at WC.

Unlikely win v Serbia
Korea easy win
Brazil should be more even contest given new additions.

Self titled Defensive coach that has had a terrible defensive record her whole career with both the opals n Phoenix.

Anyone else get the feeling BA never cut the cord with players that haven't worked out in their system, but instead double down on backing them despite the players never producing?

It's ba...

Heals first shot but I'm not sure she’ll be a good fiba player.
Madgen and Nicholson had many chances and have never delivered.

Lots of poor defenders in this squad. Think Wallace should be there on d alone.
Melbourne showed good d against Perth.

Pity we couldn’t see the overseas players.

Japan for the first time in many years have no injuries, absolute star studded squad.
Could very well win gold.

https://twitter.com/japan_jba/status/1483350016513429506?s=21

I can tell you who sandy will choose for the WC.



Whitcomb-Lavey-Heal
Talbot-Madgen
Allen-Ohea
Magbegor-Blicavs-Smith
George-Tolo


Whitcomb replaces Mitchell(age, form decline)
Heal replaces Ebzery(retired)


Basically no changes, only because of the above have changes been made.


The team will be too slow to defend and we will just be unable to keep up once again.
6-10 place finish at worlds, likely 7th/8th imo resulting in brondello keeping her job until paris Olympics for some reason.


Better teams
USA
Japan
France
Belgium
China
Serbia
Bosnia

Fairly Even
Nigeria
Russia
Canada

Beatable
Korea
Mali
Belarus
Brazil
Puerto Rico

Agree with the above. Whitcomb in for Mitchell and Heal in for Ebzery. No other changes to the Olympic team.

I don't think those 2 players alone will help the opals achieve anything.
I’m not sold on heal at fiba level, pressure defense and she really does struggle.


My team would be based on character and desire,

Mansfield 1
Lavey 1
Whitcomb 2-1
Melbourne 2
Wallace 2-1
Talbot 3-2
Kunek 3
Allen 4-3
Maley 4
Magbegor 4-5
George 5
Tolo 5

For different reasons, I would not have (this campaign)

Mitchell
Heal
Rocci*
Cole
Madgen
Nicholson
Ohea*
Blicavs
Froling
Garbin*
Smith
Bishop*
Aokuso
Scherf

*reserves
Some are done with opals imo and some have a future.

why are we suddenly rushing Heal into the opals when she has spent the last 12 months going backwards?

#415 no europe based players were selected because of club commitments.
Kunek, Allen and Tolo.

Wallace has been the flyers best defender Imo, not sure who comes close. Cole played good d in the gf last season but it's not something she hangs her hat on.
Rocci n Rocci have the ability to play good d but don’t have the focus to do so.

Blicavs is a traffic cone on defense, couldn't play the 3 and too weak for the 4 in fiba.

Everyone sucks so let's just pick 3 players

Think Garbin deserves a pf spot. Been very solid for 3 years now shooting the 3 above 43%

Atm, I got

Lavey-Heal
Whitcomb-Wallace-Melbourne
Talbot-Allen
Magbegor-Garbin-Maley
George-Tolo


Reserves
Mansfield 1
Nicholson 2
Kunek 3
Smith 4
Bishop 5


Done with 5x5 imo
Mitchell 1
Cole 2
Madgen 2
Ohea 3


Others that Still have a future with N.T, post 24' maybe.
Rocci 1
Blicavs 4
Aokuso 5
Scherf 5

Avg less than 5 pts as an opal, Madgen even worse.

It is time to make big changes eventhough sandy won't.
Anyone that has played 3-4 major tournaments and not delivered should not be getting another chance imo.

Some players are brilliant in the wnbl but it doesn’t transition to international ball.

The only locks are Whitcomb, Talbot, Allen, Magbegor, George.



7 spots from, could be anyone...

PG (2 of)
Lavey, Heal, Rocci, Mansfield

SG (2 or 3 of)
Cole, Madgen, Nicholson, Wallace, Melbourne, Wehrung

SF (0 or 1 of)
Ohea, Kunek

PF (2 or 3 of)
Smith, Garbin, Blicavs, Maley

C (1 or 2 of)
Tolo, Bishop, Scherf, Aokuso

No need to take 5 bigs as we never use them and our struggle is the guard spots mostly.
2/3 of the teams are smaller than us, hopefully sandy doesn't gomwith 5 again.
Think, people forget that Allen plays the 4 for ny too and Talbot can also play there

Lavey is clearly preferencing AFLW. Should not be anywhere near the Opals squad. Bad enough that she's screwing over the Spirit

Best they can do is move the season, keep aflw players playing basketball

Heal rocci wallace
Whitcomb allen magden
Talbot blicavs
Smith ezi
Tolo George

Just a wild guess ????

No.. sandy will keep the same squad with minimal change imo.


S5-

Whitcomb(replaces Mitchell)
Talbot
Allen
Magbegor
George

Backups-

Lavey or Heal(replaces Ebzery)
Madgen
Ohea
Blicavs or Smith
Tolo




Wouldn't be the squad I choose though.

Opals team

Heal
Rocci
Whitcomb
Wallace
Madgen
Talbot
Allen
Blicavs
Garbin
Smith
George
Tolo



Stupid squad, why bring the vets. You know what ya getting.

Should have tested Kunek, bishop and Mansfield.

Rocci been awful this season, it boggles the mind how she's going avg over 5 t.o

If Madgen doesn't kick ass, surely opals is over.

Not seeing a Nicholson or Kunek doesn’t seem right.

Where is Ezi?

Injured in training

Mansfield and bishop, surely should be tested prior to WC.

Maley didn't make it, surprising.

Take out the vets, we have seen them for years and know what they'll bring.
In a meaningless tournament, test the rest...

Heal
Rocci -Mansfield
Whitcomb -Melbourne
Wallace
Madgen -Nicholson
Talbot -Kunek
Allen -Maley
Blicavs
Garbin
Smith
George -Bishop
Tolo -Scherf

Take out the vets by adding Bishop? right

The current opals vets

Take out the vets by adding replacing 23yo Rocci with 32yo Mansfield? right

Mansfield is way better than Rocci , it's not close atm.

LOL well Talbot is way better than Kunek, Whitcomb is way better than Melbourne, Allen is way better than Maley, Tolo is way better than Scherf, yet you want all them replaced?
Your so called reasoning is not holding up very well!

No, they are locks, he wants to,test all the potentials numbnuts.

We know several are locks so bring the potentials, what's the point of bringing players like George, Tolo, Allen etc. etc

Kunek according hustwaite is injured, Mansfield injured.

Other people saying Cole, Maley, Kunek, Garrick are 3x3 with comm games

What was the score vs France today?

Bishop out 12 weeks

Saw some Twitter feeds that France beat them.
Rocci n Blicavs werent great supposably.

From the French Basketball Twitter page , I cant see scores and I cant read French . There maybe more info there but its not obvious.

https://twitter.com/FRABasketball/status/1490780667667431425

Lots of video about, haven't seen the box score though.

Gruda wasn't playing either

USA Basketball has announced its 12-person roster for the FIBA World Cup Qualifying Tournament:

Jewell Loyd
Kelsey Plum
Ariel Atkins
Stef Dolson
Allisha Gray
Chelsea Gray
Natasha Howard
Bri Jones
Kayla McBride
Kelsey Mitchell
Dearica Hamby
Alyssa Thomas

Change of guard under reeves

Belarus team riddled with covid and booted out of qualyfying.

Canada, Japan and Bosnia auto qualify for WC.


The final 12 is pretty much set Imo.

Korea or Brazil, 1 of not making it
Mali or Nigeria, 1 of not making it
Puerto Rico not making it

The WC will be an eye opener for womens basketball in Aus.
Real possibility we finish outside the 8

For Australian viewers, the games will be streamed on Kayo. The Opals will play three games over the course of the Qualifiers.

AUSTRALIAN TIME SCHEDULE:

The Opals first game will be against Brazil on Thursday, February 10, at 10pm AEDT

The second game will be against Serbia on Sunday, February 13, at 7am AEDT.

The third game will be against Korea on Monday, February 14, at 1am AEDT.

Serbia are testing alot of new youth, far from their best squad.

Lineup looked to be

Whitcomb
Talbot
Allen
Smith
George

Rocci
Wallace
Madgen
Blicavs
Tolo

Heal
Garbin

Imo should be cutting Blicavs, putting Allen at the 4 like New York do, Talbot closer to the basket as the 3 like seattle do and putting another guard next to Sami at the 2 or 1.