http://www.fiba.com/news/pr-n53--fi...g-game-against-angola-at-2014-fiba-basketball I don't think the Aussies are the only teams to have gamed the system this way. If FIBA (or the NBA or any other league or tournament, for that matter) want to stop this, they really should looks at changing the seeding (and the lottery in the case of the NBA) to remove the initial incentives for the losing.
"Disciplining" them. btw: is tanking a game when you earned a guaranteed advancement really that bad? I guess it's harder to do in FIFA World Cup because of simultaneous games.
I think that Aus having to play Turkey was punishment enough. Be careful what you wish for as you may get it. Great game.
Just thought of something: *after* Group play, they could randomly scatter the #1s and 2s from each Group, so that you don't know which bracket you will be in until after Group. So the #1 and 2s from each Group are still guaranteed to be in separate brackets, but you just don't know which one.
doesn't the d league have a system where the top team gets to pick their opposition? the playing for group positioning has been going on for years..... can't believe this is the one that tips it over
FIBA are responsible for Olympics basketball too. Why didn't FIBA discipline Spain for tanking their game against Brazil? Spain tanked to avoid getting drawn with the USA in the knockout round before the medal games. Why is there drama about it now? No problems with Euro teams doing this until one of them complains about a minnow team turning the tables on them. It's not world basketball if FIBA continues to be so Eurocentric.
Basically played their B Squad against Angola. Didnt play Baynes or Ingles (best two players in the tournament for them). Played Delladova for like 5 minutes. Only upside was we saw alot of Exum
It's such a load of nonsense.. The game was hardly 'tanked', we rested key players and if it weren't for a crazy second half by the angolan SF, it would have been much tighter. FIBA trying to show a strong hand.. whatever, we lost anyway
http://www.smh.com.au/olympics/news-london-2012/tanking-questions-rear-their-head-again-as-spain-avoid-star-us-team-after-giving-up-10point-lead-20120807-23r9r.html tutututut fiba
I have difficulty understanding why that strategy was not legit. Granted, it was bad for the fans, but...you would do whatever rules allow to increase your chance of winning, no? How is that a problem?
First of all the title is wrong, it has opened an investigation they are not disciplining us as of now. Also are we gonna kill the spurs every time they rest their starters and don't win? Are we gonna kill Spain for doing the same thing a couple years ago We played 5 games in 6 nights not including preseason games right before that in a game that we had guareenteed our selves advancement. The players went out their to win and were doing a great job and just went cold on shooting and unless none of you have ever played basketball you have times in games were it doesn't go in. Also Australia has docter papers which says that certain players shouldn't play due to players being over worked and a higher risk of injury which fiba fails to mention in their BS report. If you think players who were battling for playing time in the next game wanted to play bad on purpose for thier country then your opinion is invalid, /rantonamericans /rantonfiba
Hilarious. I was so happy to see Australia lost anyway in the elimination game. Can't even tank right.
