Series: Australian Boomers vs New Zealand Tall Blacks

[Saskibaloia]

From NBL.com our most likely starting lineup is:
CENTRE: Chris Anstey
POWER FORWARD: Andrew Bogut
SMALL FOWARD: Sam McKinnon
SHOOTING GUARD: Jason Smith
POINT GUARD: Andrew Bruce

Boomers-Tall Blacks ready
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 09:41 AM
Basketball Australia

The Australia Post Boomers open their four-match series against New Zealand in Napier on Wednesday night with NBA star Andrew Bogut suiting up for the Aussies.

Game One tips off at 7:30pm in New Zealand (5:30pm AEST), with the match broadcast on delay on FOX SPORTS 1 at 11pm (AEST).

A team of 12 was named by Boomers coach Brian Goorjian on Sunday and all players are reported to be fit to suit up for the series opener.

Game 2 will be played in Napier on Friday night at 7:30pm. The teams will then travel to Australia on Saturday and will play the Resi Mortgage Test Series in Hobart on July 17 and Melbourne on July 19.

Boomers schedule
Wednesday, July 12 – Match v New Zealand in Napier – 7:30pm (NZ)
Friday, July 14 - Match v New Zealand in Napier – 7:30pm (NZ)
Saturday, July 15 – Return to Hobart, Australia
Monday, July 17 - Match v New Zealand in Hobart – 7:30pm
Tuesday, July 18 – Travel to Melbourne
Wednesday, July 19 - Match v New Zealand in Melbourne – 7:30pm
Thursday, July 20 - Basketball Australia Hall of Fame dinner in Melbourne


Boomers team
Chris Anstey (Melbourne Tigers), David Barlow (Sydney Kings), Andrew Bogut, Aaron Bruce, Wade Helliwell, Russell Hinder (Sydney Kings), Luke Kendall (Sydney kings), Sam Mackinnon (Brisbane Bullets), Aleks Maric, Steve Markovic, Brad Newley (Townsville Crocodiles), Jason Smith (Sydney Kings).

Smith backs Bogut
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 10:17 AM
NBL, Herald Sun

Sydney Kings star and Boomers veteran Jason Smith has told the Herald Sun newspaper ahead of Australia's four-game series against New Zealand that the Tall Blacks have no answer for Andrew Bogut.

"We just need to get the ball up the court and throw it inside to Bogut," Smith told the Herald Sun's Grantley bernard. "Why complicate things?"

"I honestly don't know what they can do to stop him."

"They'll just have to try to clog up the middle and force the ball outside."

Despite his confidence in the Milwaukee Bucks young star, Smith said the Boomers weren't likely to go into the series expecting anything but a tough match.

"We've come to expect nothing but a hard game against them," Smith said.

"We definitely won't underestimate them."

Meanwhile, Tall Blacks star Kirk Penney has told the New Zealand Herald his team can upset the Australians.

"We're going up against a good team. We just have to execute, play well and knock our shots down. We know what our strengths are and how to go use them, but we have to fire on as many cylinders as possible," Penney said.

"Australia are a tall team, but there are a lot of ways to counter that, it's just a matter of going out there and running our stuff."

Goorjian: Kids no gamble
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 11:02 AM
NBL, The Australian

Boomers head coach Brian Goorjian says adding young college stars Aleks Maric and Aaron Bruce to the team which will take on New Zealand in a four-match series starting Wednesday is no gamble.

Only five players from the Commonwealth Games gold medal winning team have been recalled for the four-match series against New Zealand starting in Napier on Wednesday night. Instead, college stars Aleks Maric and Aaron Bruce have been selected along with fellow rookies David Barlow (Sydney Kings) and Steve Markovic (formerly West Sydney Razorbacks).

Despite the youth movement sweeping through the Boomers, Goorjian told The Australian's Peter Kogoy that adding the rookies was a calculated move.

"The fact he has size and is mobile attracted me to the kid," Goorjian said of the 211cm and 125kg Maric.

"Aleks has all the fundamentals and will get to play some minutes off the bench backing up Andrew Bogut and Chris Anstey."

"I don't see myself as gambling in throwing Maric and the other kids into the fray against the Kiwis."

"Retirements since the Athens Olympics, injuries and players not available has opened the door to blood new bodies, the next generation of players who will be around the national program for the next five to 10 years."

"I'm looking at putting the building blocks in place not just for next month's world championships in Japan, but I'm also looking ahead to the Beijing Olympics in two years' time."

Goorjian said Bruce would have the opportunity to show his stuff at point guard.

"I would have liked to have had selected either CJ Bruton or Brisbane's Stephen Black, but neither are available," he said.

"Bruton is in the United States playing Summer League, while Black is out injured, but Bruce has proven himself at point guard as starter with Baylor University."

"But this will be a big test for him."

Bruce is expected to start alongside Sydney's Jason Smith in the Boomers backcourt while Brisbane's Sam Mackinnon fills the small forward role alongside Bogut and Anstey.

[Saskibaloia]

GAME 1: AUSTRALIA 81 vs NEW ZEALAND 79 (OT)

Very disappointing

Boomers hang on
Thursday, July 13, 2006 - 08:30 AM
Basketball Australia

In his first match in green and gold for three years, Chris Anstey helped Australia maintain its recent dominance over New Zealand on Wednesday night, guiding the Australia Post Boomers to a thrilling 81-79 overtime win in game one of their four-game series which will culminate in the Resi Mortgage Test Series in Hobart and Melbourne next week.

Anstey finished with a game-high 24 points and added 12 boards in the triumph at Pettigrew Green Arena in Napier, New Zealand.

The Boomers and New Zealand were tied at 67 points apiece when the buzzer sounded to signal the end of regulation time, Tall Blacks guard Mark Dickel hitting the game tying three-point shot in the dying seconds to force overtime.

After a Chris Anstey free throw put the Aussies up by two points with seconds to go in the extra period, the Boomers managed to hold on to draw first blood in the series.

NBA star Andrew Bogut suited up in the Australian uniform for the first time since the Athens Olympics, and although finishing with a double double of 14 points and 10 rebounds, did not dominate as expected throughout the match.

Although realising his team's first hit out would be tough after naming a largely new team on Sunday, Boomers coach Brian Goorjian wasn't overly pleased by the effort of his young team.

"We've got a long, long way to go," he said. "New Zealand executed well off their sets and we haven't been together for very long. This was our first game together."

Tonight’s match marked the 51st meeting of the cross-Tasman rivals, with Australia's dominance including a come-from-behind win in the gold medal match at the Commonwealth Games in March. The side needed a similar effort in the first match of the series after a terrible start, which saw them behind 16-12 at the first break.

The second quarter saw the Aussies work together slightly better, but the Kiwis still managed a 34-31 half-time lead.

With guidance from their veterans, Australia gradually worked their way into the match and held a 67-64 lead in the final seconds before Dickel's desperation three-pointer tied the scores.

The Australians underestimated the tenacity of the New Zealanders in the closing stages, giving them the look at the basket that allowed them to tie the game.

Kirk Penney led New Zealand with 17 points, while Jason Smith added 19 points and seven boards for Australia.

"I think we got some good looks, but we didn't execute well," New Zealand coach Tab Baldwin said. "We should have played better than we did today, and we had an opportunity to get a game that we didn't get. We just have to play better and we should play better."

Game Two of the series is scheduled for Friday at Pettigrew Green Arena in Napier. The series then moves to Australia where they will play in Hobart on July 17 and Melbourne on July 19.

AUSTRALIA 81 (Chris Anstey 24 points 12 rebounds, Jason Smith 19 7 rebounds, Andrew Bogut 14 points 10 rebounds)
NEW ZEALAND 79 (Kirk Penney 17, Phill Jones 12, Pero Cameron 12).

[Nemesis 11 (aka Sabas 11)]

Game 3 is going on now! And OZ Tv doesn't give live coverage! What a joke!

[Saskibaloia]

I'll second that.
However, you and I know that our beautiful game is treated like third class in our country following the "basketball boom years" (the 1990s).
Remember back then on how much basketball games was shown.
They even would show the 1998 basketball exhibition series against the Canadians which featured a very, very large man called Tood McCulloch.

[Nemesis 11 (aka Sabas 11)]

I'll second that.
However, you and I know that our beautiful game is treated like third class in our country following the "basketball boom years" (the 1990s).
Remember back then on how much basketball games was shown.
They even would show the 1998 basketball exhibition series against the Canadians which featured a very, very large man called Tood McCulloch.

FoxSports has two channels they could show it on. Surely it was worth putting on live. They are so afraid that something can take the attention away from the "footy" be it AFL, NRL or Union. They are already trembling because "real" football (soccer) just had the WC and everyone was hooked on that (understandably).