Thursday, May 31, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
Opals face early mouth-watering clash
The Opals will begin their Olympics campaign against Great Britain late on day one of the London Games.
Australia's women's basketball side has won the silver medal at three straight Olympics but go into London without star player Penny Taylor.
The men's side, the Boomers, will face Brazil in its opening match on day two, before facing a Spanish side featuring the Los Angeles Lakers' Pau Gasol on day four.
The Boomers face the hosts in a potentially crucial fourth match.
The two sides play on alternate days for the opening ten days of the Olympics and continue to do so if they reach the quarter-finals which begin on day 11 and 12 respectively.
Opals draw (times AEST):
Day 1: Sunday July 29, 7:15 - Australia v Great Britain
Day 3: Monday July 30, 23:30 - Qualifier 5 v Australia
Day 5: Wednesday August 1, 23:30 - Australia v Brazil
Day 7: Friday August 3, 20:15 - Russia v Australia
Day 9: Sunday August 5, 23:30 - Qualifier 3 v Australia
Boomers draw:
Day 2: Sunday July 29, 20:15 - Brazil v Australia
Day 4: Tuesday July 31, 20:15 - Australia v Spain
Day 6: Thursday August 2, 20:15 - Australia v China
Day 8: Sunday August 5, 5:00 - Great Britain v Australia
Day 10: Monday August 6, 18:00 - Australia v Qualifier 3
Tags: sport, basketball, olympics-summer, united-kingdom, australia First posted May 25, 2012 06:47:42Cambage and Jackson chasing gold for Opals
Australia's women basketballers have finished second to the US three times in a row and are keen to turn the tables at this year's Olympics.
The Opals' attempt to wrestle the Olympic gold medal away from the US will be led by two players at opposite ends of the career spectrum.
Liz Cambage, 20, will play in her first Olympics while Lauren Jackson, 31, is preparing for her fourth.
Both are big names in the American WNBA and will be strike weapons for the Opals in London.
Standing at six foot eight Cambage is a formidable player and last year was the number two pick in the WNBA draft.
Jackson was a number one draft pick for the Seattle Storm back in 2001 and went on to win three WNBA most valuable player awards.
ABC Olympic reporter Ben Knight speaks to both as they prepare for the 2012 Games.
Tags: olympics-summer, basketball, united-kingdom, australia First posted May 25, 2012 11:10:09Thursday, May 24, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
Boomer Maric unhurt in Greece rock attack
Australian Boomers star Aleks Maric says he is unhurt despite a rock-throwing attack on his team bus that forced two Greek club team-mates to go to hospital in Athens.
The Europe-based basketballer was travelling with his Panathinaikos team-mates to a Greek play-off game against rival Olympiakos when hooligans threw rocks at the bus.
The rocks broke windows and injured local player Stratos Perperoglou and American import Steven Smith.
The pair were treated for cuts from broken glass, with photos posted on Maric's Twitter account depicting brick-sized rocks which had come through the windows and landed on the seats of the bus.
The opening game of the best-of-five series between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos has been subsequently postponed by Deputy Minister of Culture and Sports George Nikitiadis.
Basketball Australia officials are seeking to make contact with Maric to ensure he is safe.
Maric recently led Panathinaikos to the Euroleague Final Four and is expected to join the Boomers after the Greek Finals series as the Australian team prepares for London.
A critical part of that preparation will be The Farewell Series, in which see the Boomers will take on Greece in a three-game series in Victoria in June.
The series will begin with a double-header with the Australian Opals at Melbourne Park on 24 June.
AAP
Tags: basketball, sport, greece First posted May 18, 2012 17:59:30
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AEDT = Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time which is 11 hours ahead of UTC (Greenwich Mean Time)
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Kings sign Blaze skipper Harvey
The Sydney Kings have snapped up Gold Coast captain James Harvey for next NBL season while the embattled Blaze remain mired in voluntary administration.
Veteran sharpshooter Harvey, who captained the Blaze since their inaugural 2007-08 season, was one of four signings the Kings announced on Tuesday.
The others were Cairns Taipans big man Ian Crosswhite and Tom Garlepp, also from the Gold Coast, and the re-signing of Aaron Bruce.
Crosswhite is a ready-made replacement for star centre Julian Khazzouh who, along with Anatoly Bose, signalled his intention to chase a contract in Europe.
Sydney coach Shane Heal hailed 33-year-old shooting guard Harvey as a key acquisition, welcoming his leadership qualities as well as his scoring ability.
"The addition of Harvey to the Sydney Kings roster will help with a crucial missing link behind the arc," Heal said.
"Every team needs a leader, and I am confident James will fill the void from last season. He is one of the most passionate leaders I have played with both on the court and in the gym.
"James Harvey is a big game player who has dealt with persistent injuries over the past couple of seasons, so he will come to the Sydney Kings with something to prove."
Heal added the Kings were hopeful of unveiling further signings, this time on the import front, later in the week after deciding not to offer Jerai Grant another contract.
Harvey's signing was unveiled on the same day Basketball Australia (BA) expressed increased optimism that Gold Coast will continue in the NBL.
BA interim chief executive Scott Derwin said he could not guarantee the club's future but was encouraged by talks with the Blaze about a new investor.
"I flew to the Gold Coast last week and, on Thursday, met with the ownership of the Gold Coast Blaze as well as the players, team staff and the club's appointed administrator Roland Robson," he said.
"Those meetings have given us reason for renewed levels of optimism around the future of the club.
"The team's ownership and management are extremely confident of finalising negotiations with an additional new investor with whom they had already been in discussions.
"Clearly, we still need to allow the administrator to analyse these plans and the overall position of the club in detail before we can be certain that Gold Coast will continue to play on in the NBL.
"However, based on the information we have so far, those who have been forecasting the demise of the Blaze since Friday are certainly premature and quite possibly wrong."
AAP
Tags: nbl, basketball, sport, sydney-2000, nsw, australia First posted May 15, 2012 21:07:33Dream team upbeat despite key injuries
Despite a rash of season-ending injuries to top National Basketball Association (NBA) players, US Olympic basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski said he believed he can bring a solid team to the London Games.
The US roster pool has lost injured guards Derrick Rose and Chauncey Billups and forwards Dwight Howard and LaMarcus Aldridge but the talent still available has Krzyzewski upbeat that he can repeat the gold medal success from Beijing.
"We believe we can have a terrific team with the guys we have right now," Krzyzewski, who said this would be his last turn directing the national team, told a news conference at the US Olympic Committee's media summit in Dallas.
"We believe we can have a special team."
Krzyzewski and USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo feel the labour dispute between NBA team owners and players that led to the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season had complicated things for this Olympic go-round.
"This has been an unusual year in the NBA with injuries, with the shortened season, condensed season, extended season that has led to back-to-back-to-back games early on," Colangelo said.
"Whether injuries were due from that condensed schedule we don't know."
While such luminaries as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook give a formidable look to the prospective US roster, the team applied for and was given a 19-day extension by the US Olympic Committee for finalising its 12-man Olympic roster.
The US team had already been allowed by the USOC to add NBA Sixth Man award winner James Harden and top US college player Anthony Davis of Kentucky, to its pool to bring the once 20-strong list back up to 18 finalists.
Colangelo said that with the NBA Finals running as late as June 26, they would have just two days of training before making their final 12-man roster selection on July 7.
"We need to take inventory of what status our players have," Colangelo said about assessing the health and fitness of the candidates, calling the session more a matter of taking stock than a tryout.
"We need to get through this (NBA) play-off season and pray and keep our fingers crossed we don't have additional injuries."
Krzyzewski, who is 49-1 since taking charge of the team in 2006 and won gold medals at the 2008 Olympics and 2010 world championships, is trying to become the first US coach to win back-to-back Olympics since Hank Iba in 1968.
His primary concern is having enough pivot players to match up with some of the other Olympic contenders, including number two-ranked Spain, which features brothers Pau and Marc Gasol, and NBA-leading shot-blocker Serge Ibaka.
"We're not deep in that part of the pool, so when big guys get hurt that's a concern.
"When that happens we have to adjust accordingly, maybe with a different style of play than if we had Dwight Howard," Krzyzewski said about the three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
"But we have time to react. There's lots of ways to play the game."
Krzyzewski acknowledged the pressure on a US coach of winning on the international stage with all the US homegrown talent, but said he experienced more elation than relief after his team's triumph in Beijing.
"You put your career a little bit on the line when you coach the national team if you don't win the gold," the celebrated Duke University coach said.
"But not ever having the opportunity is a worse loss.
"When we won in 2008, I wasn't relived, I was in la-la land. That's a big difference. I felt the same in Istanbul (world championship) and hopefully I will feel the same in London."
Reuters
Tags: sport, basketball, olympics-summer First posted May 15, 2012 06:57:51Sunday, May 13, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Taipans rate college recruit as world class
Cairns coach Aaron Fearne has earmarked the Taipans' newest recruit as a future Boomers player.
The Snakes announced on Wednesday the signing of Queenslander and former American college player, Clint Steindl.
Steindl, known as a three-point shooting specialist, graduated from the AIS and played at St Marys College along with fellow Aussies Patrick Mills and Matt Dellavedova, who are both looking to go to London with the Boomers.
Fearne says he is expecting big things of the giant shooting guard in the NBL and possibly on the international stage.
"He's definitely a future Boomers prospect," he said.
"He's 6"7', athletic, a world class shooter and he just has that size to play internationally and will be something that the national team coaches will keep a pretty close eye on over the next two or three years."
"I think when you can get some college athletes into your program that have played at a high level and been successful, it's definitely a good signing for us," Fearne added.
"And to out-recruit a number of the other clubs in the NBL is definitely a good thing for us and we're excited about the signing."
Tags: basketball, sport, olympics-summer, nbl, cairns-4870, qld, australia First posted May 10, 2012 09:26:29Blaze in administrators' hands
The ailing National Basketball League has suffered another major blow with the Gold Coast Blaze entering voluntary administration.
The shock move has the NBL in grave danger of dropping to an eight-team competition in the 2012-13 season and could leave it without a club across the east coast from Townsville to Sydney.
Founded in 2007, the Blaze recently made this season's play-offs under coach Joey Wright but the club's owners, the Tomlinson family, appointed a voluntary administrator on Wednesday to control its affairs.
It comes after the surprise resignation of Basketball Australia (BA) chief executive Larry Sengstock.
Accountancy firm Aggs Robson has been been put in control of the franchise.
The Blaze finished third on the ladder last season but fell in three games in the first round of the play-offs to the Perth Wildcats, who went on to lose to New Zealand in the grand final series.
Retired Canadian businessman Owen Tomlinson and his son had been at the helm since the Blaze's inception in 2007 when the NBL returned to the south-east Queensland tourist strip for the first time since the Gold Coast Rollers folded in 1996.
Tomlinson said in a statement earlier on Thursday that the club has a financial backer lined up to take over but legal hurdles are in the way.
"We are in discussions with an investor who wants to proceed," he said.
"However our former coach, who has obtained a Supreme Court judgment against [the Blaze], had refused to delay enforcement proceedings before the required deadline, to enable us to finalise negotiations with this investor.
"So we have appointed a voluntary administrator to control the affairs of the club pending the completion of these negotiations and thereby secure the long term future of the club."
Basketball Australia interim chief executive Scott Derwin said the sport's governing body supported the way the club has handled the situation, and hoped a solution can be found to keep Gold Coast represented in the NBL.
"The league understands that the Blaze took this difficult decision in order to act in a responsible, legal and ethical manner to try and find an appropriate way past their present financial difficulties," he said in a statement.
"Basketball Australia's priority is to find an appropriate solution quickly to the club's current situation that allows the Blaze to continue to play in the NBL and we will explore all reasonable options in our power to assist them in this process.
"The NBL is now seeking to meet with the Administrator as a matter of urgency in order to gather more information so we can formulate an appropriate position on the matter."
The loss of the Blaze would be a double blow to the sport in south-east Queensland after the failure of secret talks with an unnamed consortium to resurrect foundation club, the Brisbane Bullets, for next season.
ABC/AAP
Tags: nbl, basketball, sport, broadbeach-4218, qld, australia First posted May 10, 2012 17:07:26Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Injured Taylor confident in Opals
An emotional Penny Taylor is confident she will be back on the basketball court in nine months after the knee injury which devastated her Olympic Games hopes.
Australian star Taylor suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in a game for her Turkish club Fenerbahce five weeks ago.
After recent surgery in Melbourne, 30-year-old Taylor says she expects to miss the entire American WNBA season and much of the European season as well as the Games in July before she returns.
Her injury robs the Opals - and the London Games - of one of the world's best women's basketballers.
But Taylor is confident Australia still has the firepower to finally break through for the gold medal that has been narrowly elusive in the past three Olympics - and beat the United States.
"Missing the WNBA, missing the Olympics, missing over half the European season, as far as my career goes, it's pretty devastating," Taylor said.
"We have some great talent. It'll be a group effort to get things going. The USA team is always really strong, strong in every position.
"We're going to be competitive and really strong going into this, and we've got players who've played there (at an Olympics), more than probably at the last Olympics, and they're going to have a great preparation."
Taylor had been playing career-best basketball in Europe before her injury.
She will do her injury rehabilitation in the United States with her WNBA club Phoenix Mercury.
The Opals, silver medallists in the past three Olympics, go into the first stage of an intensive pre-Games training camp in Canberra next week.
AAP
Tags: basketball, olympics-summer, sport, australia First posted May 07, 2012 15:59:53Friday, May 4, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Opals can cope without Penny: Jackson
Opals ace Lauren Jackson believes Australia has the necessary depth to challenge for a medal despite Penny Taylor missing London 2012 through injury.
Alongside Jackson, Taylor was a vital figure in the Opals winning silver medals at Athens and Beijing and a gold medal in the 2006 World Championships.
Taylor suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury playing for Fenerbahce in the EuroLeague that ruled her out of the Games.
Although sad her long-time team-mate will not be with her in London, Jackson insists Australia has enough players to make up for her absence.
"There's a lot of talent, a lot of depth in our team," Jackson told Grandstand.
"Penny's a great player and we're going to miss her but we can't dwell on that.
"We need our players to move forward to believe enough in themselves that they can take on what Penny would have brought - the scoring and the defence.
"I think we have enough talent to deal with that. We have got the two months together as a team to work through that.
"With Jenna O'Hea, Belinda Snell, who is a veteran, we've got a lot of weapons, I think we'll be okay."
The three-time WNBL MVP, who is now full fit after a hip injury dogged her 2011 season, rejects any suggestion that Australia has an easy draw after being drawn in the opposite group to the United States at London 2012.
Australia is with Brazil, Britain, Russia and two qualifying teams in Group B while the United States will be joined by Angola, China and three qualifiers.
The United States has won gold at six of the last seven games but Jackson insists there will be no complacency amongst the Opals.
"I don't think anyone's going to be complacent. The rest of the world's catching up," Jackson said.
"Great Britain has (former Opals coach) Tom Maher as their coach so you know they're going to be tough ... Brazil has some great players coming through and Russia (are a) powerhouse.
"It's going to be a tough pool but no tougher than we've experienced before."
Tags: sport, olympics-summer, basketball, australia First posted May 03, 2012 17:16:32Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Tough draw for basketball's Boomers
Australia's men's basketball team has avoided the might of the United States but still faces a tough task at the London Olympics after the draw for the pools was made in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday.
The Boomers have been drawn in Group B alongside hosts Great Britain, European heavyweights Spain, the highly-rated China and Brazil, with another qualifier yet to be determined.
Defending champions the United States have been drawn in Group A alongside Argentina, Tunisia and France, with the Americans favourites to claim their fifth gold medal in six Olympic tournaments.
The top four teams from each group qualify for the quarter-finals, with the final set to take place on August 12.
In the women's draw, the Opals face a similarly tough task after they were drawn with hosts Great Britain, Russia, Brazil and two further qualifiers.
Australia has lost the last three women's Olympic finals to arch-rivals the United States, which inflicted a comprehensive defeat on the Opals in the gold-medal game in Beijing.
Men's tournament
Group A: Argentina, France, Tunisia, USA, two qualifiers
Group B: Australia, Brazil, China, Great Britain, Spain and qualifier
Women's tournament
Group A: Angola, China, USA, three qualifiers
Group B: Australia, Brazil, Great Britain, Russia, two qualifiers
Tags: sport, olympics-summer, basketball, england, united-kingdom First posted May 01, 2012 06:37:00Boomers coach spoilt for London choice
Point guard Patty Mills will front up Australia's campaign at the London Olympics in fine form after taking part in the NBA postseason.
But while Mills is almost certainly a lock after a breakout campaign in Beijing, Boomers coach Brett Brown has plenty of other talent to put around his young playmaker as he looks to cut down his 25-man squad to 12.
Mills, playing off the bench for the Western Conference top-seeded San Antonio Spurs, is the only member of Brown's squad currently playing in the American competition.
Giant Victorian Andrew Bogut, a centre for the Golden State Warriors, is normally a mainstay of the Australian national team but ankle surgery has ruled him out of the hunt for an elusive Olympic medal in London.
Brown will have a myriad of options from which to select his final 12-man Boomers side with 10 prospects currently plying their trade in European leagues, nine from the NBL and five from the US college system.
"Our first camp will effectively be a 'melting pot' of players from various backgrounds and this very early start will enable us to begin moving forward while we wait for our core European players and Patty Mills to return," Brown said.
"How far our players stretch across the globe is a testament to the talent identification and developmental programs delivered by Basketball Australia and the AIS.
"I have great Aussie talent competing all over the world at my disposal."
Five Australian hopefuls are capable of filling Bogut's sizeable shoes at centre, and two of those have tasted limited NBA action.
Journeyman big David Andersen, who will turn 32 in June, had stints with Houston, Toronto and New Orleans but did not play in the lockout-shortened 2011/12 competition.
After a strong season for the Sydney Kings, Julian Khazzouh was given the opportunity to try out for Golden State during the NBA preseason and saw some brief court time before ultimately being waived.
But the NBL's 2010/11 MVP runner-up continued to turn in solid performances in Sydney and finished the regular season leading the league in rebounds per game (10.8) and fifth in average points per game (16.4).
Three players from the 2011/12 grand finalist Perth Wildcats side - Damian Martin, Jesse Wagstaff and Matt Knight - join Khazzouh and five other NBL players in the 25.
Sydney-born forward Nathan Jawai has also seen game time in the US, having played for the Raptors and Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA, and five members of the squad have honed their games in the NCAA college basketball system.
Brown said that he was excited about having to narrow down such a talented roster.
"Our coaching staff is excited to extend invitations to this group of athletes who have earned the right to be considered for the Boomers London Olympic Games team," he said.
"We have identified these players, worked with these players, and watched their growth over the past four years.
"The large majority of this squad has participated in several camps, tours, and world events during my time as coach, and now each of them has the opportunity to take it one final step and represent Australia at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
"This invitation is a tremendous honour and is a result of years of hard work and dedication."
Brown aims to have the fittest team in the competition leading into London, and said he is confident with how the Boomers' preparations will play out.
"All of the athletes understand that we need to arrive into London with the best fitness base of the 11 other countries. This is our main goal," he said.
"Each player will arrive into camp with this in mind, and only here can we truly begin a very serious campaign and focus as we prepare to play the world's best. Our players understand this.
"I am beyond excited to continue on in the final stages of our four-year plan.
"We have not skipped steps along the way and I have complete confidence that we can achieve special results with the players and staff that we have assembled."
The Boomers will assemble in Perth for their first training camp on June 3 ahead of the tournament's opening tip on July 29.
Boomers squad: Anatoly Bose (Sydney Kings), Peter Crawford (Townsville Crocodiles) Matt Dellavedova (St Mary's), Anthony Drmic (Boise State), Adam Gibson (Gold Coast Blaze) Hugh Greenwood (New Mexico), Damian Martin (Perth Wildcats), Patrick Mills (San Antonio Spurs), David Barlow (UCAM Murcia), Ryan Broekhoff (Valparaiso), Mitch Creek (Adelaide 36ers), Joe Ingles (Spain), Brad Newley (Valencia), Brock Motum (Washington State University), Matthew Nielsen (BC Khimki), Jesse Wagstaff (Perth Wildcats), Mark Worthington (Gold Coast Blaze), Nathan Jawai (UNCIS Kazan), Daniel Kickert (PGE Turow), Matt Knight (Perth Wildcats), AJ Ogilvy (Valencia), David Andersen (Montepaschi Siena), Aron Baynes (Ikaros Kallitheas), Julian Khazzouh (Sydney Kings), Aleks Maric (Panathinaikos).
Tags: basketball, olympics-summer, sport, australia First posted May 01, 2012 20:35:11