Australia center Andrew Bogut is building up a full head of steam before the 2010 FIBA World Championship with the seven-footer so dominant for the Milwaukee Bucks that he has been named the NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week.

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The 25-year-old led the Bucks to three straight victories by averaging 19.3 points, 13.7 rebounds, 3.7 blocked shots, 2.7 assists and 1.3 steals while the Milwaukee Bucks have climbed into fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings with 36 wins and 29 defeats.

His national team coach, Brett Brown, could not be any happier with Bogut’s form. “At the moment, there is no center in the NBA playing any better than Andrew Bogut. Forget my opinion. Just look at his statistics and look at the mere fact that his team is winning basketball games.”

Bogut is ranked second in the league in blocks, is tied for seventh in rebounds and is one of only two players averaging at least 15 points, 10 boards and two blocks with 16.2 points, 10.4 and 2.5 blocks on the season.

Brown, an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs, said: “If you had spoken to the large majority of people here in the NBA at the start of the NBA season, very few thought the Milwaukee Bucks had a chance to be in the play-offs. They are well coached, and they’ve done a great job of building a team while still trying to manage their money. Andrew has been the focal point of their program and day-to-day, night-to-night, he just keeps delivering. Andrew came back from the All-Star break just building on what was already becoming his best year and lately he’s just been, simply, dominant.”

All coaches are hopeful that their leading players will be fully fit by the end of the season and Brown is one of them.

“He’s (Bogut) been fantastic in regards to communicating with me (about the national program),” Brown said. “He’s been very candid about his situation at the moment being up in the air, we’re not sure how his back is going to hold up,” said Brown. “(Basketball Australia) are trying to do everything we can to help him with resources with our strength and conditioning coaches that he’s comfortable with. Anything that we can do to get him with the team is our main focus. He is the crown and jewel of our Boomer program and we really hope we can have him with us.

“His performance and his statistics to date are positives but it’s a long season for him. I really want to coach him and I hope that we can have him with us.

“That final decision is going to be Andrew’s and we support him in that decision. He is passionate about representing Australia and helping his teammates get to a higher level on the world stage. He’s got some decisions to make like all these NBA players that play eight or nine months in a row.”

Basketball fans in Kayseri, where the Boomers will play Argentina, Serbia, Germany, Jordan and Angola, are excited about the potential presence of Bogut and not just because of his performances in the NBA.

The image of a giant Bogut peering around Istanbul’s famous Galata Tower is seen all over the country as he and his Milwaukee teammate Ersan Ilyasova of Turkey were among several players to take part in a promotional campaign for the FIBA World Championship.

Read the original article at FIBA.com.