FIBA World Championships

Well here it is:

The draw for the World Championships in Tokyo in slightly more than 200 days...

Group A

Nigeria
Lebanon
Argentina
France
Venezuela
Serbia and Montenegro

Group B

Panama
New Zealand
Germany
Japan
Spain
Angola

Group C

Qatar
Australia
Turkey
Lithuania
Brazil
Greece

Group D

Senegal
USA
China
Italy
Puerto Rico
Slovenia

- Looks like every group is fairly even with Group D looking like the hardest... I'm not sure what the comp format is but Ithink the top 2 teams from each group advances... What are your thoughts guys?

Australia won't advance, Lithunia and Greece will.

No Croatian team

Group C

Qatar
Australia
Turkey
Lithuania
Brazil
Greece

Whoops! Tough brake for all you Aussies...

Australia won't advance, Lithunia and Greece will.

I don't know who Lithuania will have available (since Bogut won't be avail. I'm guessing some of their big names may not be) but we beat them a couple of times earlier last year, without Bogut. We can do it again.

the hell. china is in the same pool as usa for almost everything

I don't know who Lithuania will have available (since Bogut won't be avail. I'm guessing some of their big names may not be) but we beat them a couple of times earlier last year, without Bogut. We can do it again.

Hmmm... why isn't Bogut playing?

Let's say that if the Lithuanians come out with everybody, including Jasikevicius, Macijauskas, the Zukauskas' ( Z will probably never again play for them, though...), nobody in the groub has a chance, not even Greece.

And Australia without Andrew hasn't got much of a chance of advancing, either.


Brazil might prove a challenge if they bring Nene, Anderson and Barbosa, but still their defense is suspect to say the least.


Turkey is always a mystery... They might play their asses off, or they might kill each other in the locker room.


Qatar, well... it'll be a nice experience for them.


On the other groups:

Group A

Nigeria
Lebanon
Argentina
France
Venezuela
Serbia and Montenegro

Argentina and France are the favorites, with the Serbians capable of even 1st place if they can actually field a team of people talking to each other this year.

Group B

Panama
New Zealand
Germany
Japan
Spain
Angola

Spain and Nowitzki will breeze through this group.

Group D

Senegal
USA
China
Italy
Puerto Rico
Slovenia

This group can go inmany ways. If the US manage to put together a team and not a circus, they'll stomp everybody. Italy and Slovenia have good teams, with Italy on the decline and Slovenia on the rise. And never underestimate the Puerto Ricans. China have Yao, but not much else, so they won't make any noise. That's IF yao plays.

Bogut won't play because he wants to rest. They had something on the news about it ages ago. Australia minus Bogut can beat Lithuania minus Jasiuscevius and maybe one or two others, and have beaten them. I'm not sure those guys would want to miss the World Championships though, so who knows what kind of team they'll spit out. Andrew Bogut's never been the best player on the national team, so it's not like some huge vital part is missing or anything. He'd be nice to have there, but Chris Anstey is probably his international equivalent to be honest.

Andrew Bogut's never been the best player on the national team

From the glimpses I caught during the Olympics, he actually was your best player.

Shane Heal was our best player at the Olympics. Followed by maybe Nielsen, Bogut or Andersen depending on who you prefer. I watched every Australian game.

I think I said to you in another thread, the team actually looked better when Andersen was on in place of Bogut. Bogut's interior D was horrific, Andersen was solid and was grossly underused IMO.

Shane Heal was our best player at the Olympics.

Ah, yes, I remember Shane... Used to play ball here in Greece... I always had the dream of putting him and Igor Kudelin on the same team...

Ah, Shane Heal is awesome, a 4'5 guy who could shoot

serbia will defenitly do good in group A if peja plays

I thought Bogut isn't playing for commonwealth games.. not the Worlds too?

I may have got the two confused... I'll do some research and see what I can find.

Edit: Ah that's what it was, he said he wouldn't play in the WC qualifying stages. He's playing in the main tournament from what I can find.

Difficult draw for Boomers
By Peter Kogoy
January 16, 2006

THE Boomers are likely to run into world powerhouse the US or China in the second round at the world championships in August.

In the draw conducted last night in Japan, the Americans drew China, Puerto Rico, Senegal, Italy and Slovenia in their group D pool matches.

But the Boomers will be boosted with the availability of rising NBA star Andrew Bogut, and European-based stars Matt Nielsen and David Andersen.

One other thing to note, there are a couple of Australian's based in the NCAA who are doing fairly well and could make an impact in the tournament. Namely Daniel Kickert and Aaron Bruce. Kickert especially, his game is just custom made for international ball being a 6'10 SF three point specialist.

I honestly think this is the deepest team the Australians have ever put out. A top 3 finish isn't completely impossible.

I guess this new Boomers is a differently built team. The team from the Gaze era of Aussie ball was definitely guard orientated with many points coming from jumpshots and the such. This time, I'm looking for it to be Andrew Bogut led and the ball being fed to him then kicked back out with Bogut doing a lot of the work needed on the court. Plus, they got 3 decent big men including Bogut.

Two different type of teams... Two different stars. I guess ur right about how deep this team is. Luc Longley (He did in 2000- thats all i know!) didn't play much for the Boomers back in the day hey? If he did... maybe those guys would have finished better than 5th or 4th.

Australia will win by 400 runs

Australia will win by 400 runs

I really like the look of this Australian team... Bogut's passing mixed with the athletic big men we have, and the long range bombers (which is essentially what the NBL is all about) could potentially make us a very good international team. Does anyone know if this is going to be shown on FTA?

I sure hope SBS picks it up! They always do something!

hey Jae... maybe you could write into them?