Brazil Opens With Austrailia

[George O'Brien]

http://www.fiba2006.fiba.com/

Brazil v Australia

HAMAMATSU (FIBA World Championship) - Australia go into their opening game at the FIBA World Championship with new-found confidence after playing well in the Stankovic Cup.

The Australians, without several players in Japan for a variety of reasons, struggled in the Al Ramsey Shield against New Zealand, splitting that four-game series with Tall Blacks winning the competition on points difference.

But in the Stankovic Cup played in Nanjing, European champions Greece beat Australia but the Boomers upset France before losing narrowly to China.

"It’s been a short period of time together with this group," said Goorjian, who does not have Matthew Nielsen, Chris Anstey, Glen Saville or David Andersen for the FIBA World Championship.

Basketball Australia balked at the insurance fee for Nielsen's insurance policy asked by his Lithuanian club, Lieutvos Rytas, while Anstey injured his knee in the New Zealand series.

Andersen failed to fully recover from double-leg break suffered earlier this year in a game with CSKA Moscow.

Saville, a sharpshooter on the Olympic team two years ago who plays for the Wollongong Hawks in Australia's NBL, has a long-term knee injury.

"We’d never played with this group at that level (in the Stankovic Cup)," Goorjian said.

"If we can play at that level, and I think that is something a young group needs to do to believe in themselves. I think what we got out of that win (against France) was a little bit of belief.

"We rolled into the next night and lost by a couple to China but I think when you look at those three games, from where we were coming into this tournament, we’re on a grade going up.

"We played Greece to eight points, beat France and played China who played the game much more serious (than Greece and France) and we played them basket for basket so we come into this (World Championship) feeling much better than we did."

The return of point guard CJ Bruton helped the Boomers. Bruton missed most of the build-up in a failed attempt to win a contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs had asked Bruton to try out but opted not to give him a contract.

Brazil have emerged as one the favourites to reach the podium and possibly win a gold medal.

Leandro Barbosa and Anderson Varejao are coming off very impressive seasons in the NBA, and the team is still riding high after last year's FIBA Americas Championship title.

"We have players who are doing well in the NBA and I hope they can do the same for the national team," said Brazil center Tiago Splitter. "The other players who play in Europe or Brazil, they also play at a high level so it will be great to show how our basketball is growing."

 

[F-Dog]

Splitter is an interesting player to keep an eye on, because IIRC he'll be in the draft next summer. Thanks to Fran Vasquez, no team will touch Splitter without assurances he'll come over to the U.S., so he can be recruited.


It killed me when the Cavs took Varejao with the pick immediately prior to the Bulls' pick in 2004, but the Suns were apparently set on Jackson Vroman anyway, so it wouldn't have made any difference.

 

[SunsTzu]

Splitter has wanted to come to the NBA for some time, but has been unable to because of the ridiculous contract he signed when he was pretty young. I think he'll go in the top half of the 1st round and I don't think teams will worry about him doing a Fran since he's not even european.

 

[George O'Brien]

I think Splitter will be a lottery pick, but maybe a bit latter than his talent would suggest due to the Vasquez factor.

One interesting aspect of his play with the Brazilian national team is that they run, while his team in Europe (Tau?) doesn't.