Emus upset US to storm into World Championship medal round The Emus Australian Under 19 men’s basketball team have caused the upset of the World Championships for Junior Men in Thessaloniki, Greece by thumping tournament favourites the USA by 21 points, 106-85, to storm into the medal round. The USA, who were perfect in the tournament prior to meeting the Australians, had insult added to injury and were eliminated from medal contention due to the loss. Aaron Bruce led the Australian assault with 25 points while Andrew Bogut continued his impressive showing at the tournament with 22 points, 18 rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots. Australia had six players score in double figures in a marvellous team effort, with Brad Robbbins and Matthew Knight adding 13 apiece, Steven Markovic 11 and Damian Martin 10. Paul Davis was the best of the Americans with a game-high 28 points. Emus coach Rob Beveridge was jubilant after the win. “It’s an unbelievable feeling to beat USA and to stop them from qualifying for the medals, and to witness your team doing it,” said Beveridge. “The US team is a complete team that has it all. But this was exactly the motive for us to give it our best shot. Now we can only think about the semi-final and the way to prepare well to win again.” Martin summed up the jubilation in the Australian camp at the victory. “It is a great feeling to beat the US team and with this kind of a margin,” said Martin. “It is something that we couldn’t believe before the game. We feel fantastic, but we must calm down because we have a semi final ahead of us.” Playing their final match of the Quarter Final round at the Alexandrio Sport Stadium, the Australians needed to win by at least seven points against the Americans to advance to the Semi Finals. Early on it appeared that the task would be beyond the Emus, as the Americans started the game on a 13-2 run. The Emus recovered their composure but still trailed 21-13 late in the quarter. An 8-0 charge at the end of the first period however saw the Australians tie the game up at 21-21 at the end of the first period. In the second quarter, the Emus played asphyxiating defence on the Americans and in a four-minute patch starting at the three-minute mark of the period managed to establish a 50-41 lead. The strong play of Bruce helped the Australians take a 12-point lead into the half, 60-48. The Emus team game was firing on all cylinders whereas the US could only manage occasional individual scoring efforts. The Australians managed to increase the margin to 17 points at the final change, 85-68. The Australian lead grew to over 20 points in the fourth period as the US simply couldn’t counter the Emus team effort. The win was the second from three meetings between the Australian and US Junior Men at a world titles. The US won their first meeting in 1987 in Italy while the Australians downed the Americans in 1995 on the way to a silver medal in Greece. American coach Ernie Kent was complimentary in his assessment of the Emus performance after the game. “Australia is a very good team, well coached, and they showed that when you want something very much, you have a good chance to make it,” said Kent. “It is a very bad feeling for sure, to be left out of the battle for the medals, especially when you are undefeated during the whole tournament. They played better than us and won fairly.” The win saw Australia finish on top of Pool E and advance to the Semi Finals with second-placed Lithuania. The team will now have two days off to prepare for their Semi clash against the second-placed team from Pool F, which will be held at Alexandrio Sport Arena at 9:15pm local time on Saturday 19 July. The Emus Semi Final opponent will be decided later today and could be Greece, Turkey or Croatia depending upon results.
More proof that the rest of the world is catching up (and soon will pass us) in basketball. American players don't work on the fundamentals of the game like the rest of the world does.
We are too busy trying to dunk, shoot three pointers and flick no-look, behind the back bull**** Sportscenter passes to worry about fundamentals. What ever happened to the chest pass, bank shot and actually playing defense!!!!
We don't send out best players, and only have about a .800 winning percentage in competition play. Not exactly damning that a team lead by Paul Davis didn't win the title.
is that why we're catching up to the rest of the world in soccer? or does it have something to do with inevitability once massive advantages from headstarts and more resources/interest in the sport eventually go away? hmmmm...
Gloat all you want and we might make you the 51st state... Australia primed to be yanked into US By Tess Livingstone 16Jul03 AUSTRALIA has been urged to seriously consider becoming the 51st state of the US. And American-born historian Dr David Mosler told a Brisbane audience yesterday there was a 20 per cent chance of Australia becoming an American state in the next 50 years. The visiting research fellow at Adelaide University, who has lived in Australia since 1971, said the chances would increase significantly in the event of a major Al-Qaeda attack on Australia or if Indonesia became a fundamentalist Islamic republic. Dr Mosler told the 2003 Fulbright Symposium at Griffith University yesterday that he decided Australia was "an unreformable society" after the loss of the 1999 republic referendum. Australians, he said, had no flag of their own; a weak sense of nationhood; no prime minister in the Lodge, with John Howard living in Sydney; no national bushfire or water plans, even with the worst drought in history; and no "broad knowledge of nation in public discourse or popular culture". Australians had replaced "Empire with Yanks" after 1942, and the country retained a "quasi-colonial status". He said Australian governments, attuned to the British, Americans, Japanese and global capital markets, had "sold off the farm" - electricity, water, ports, airports, resources - while Australians weren't offended by such "treasonous behaviour". He said Australia's passage to American statehood would not be difficult under its Constitution. He listed the advantages of American statehood for Australia as: * Access to the world's best higher education system. * Large savings on embassies. * Being part of the world's most effective defence system. * Merger with the world's strongest currency. * Being part of the world's biggest economy. * A constitution bringing a republic and a Bill of Rights. * Fielding teams in the US national basketball, baseball and gridiron competitions. This report appears on news.com.au. http://www.news.com.au/common/printpage/0,6093,6760977,00.html
Man, can you imagining breaking Canada and Australia into smaller parts for statehood? Kinda like Texas and that 5 state thing we hear about every decade or so. We could end up with like 60-65 stars on the flag! There's a contest for the BBS, name the would-be Canada and Australia states.
If you guys get Australia, then you have to take New Zealand as well. NZ will be part of Australia before Australia becomes part of America! Concerning the new names of Australia and Canada: we already have 6 states- Victoria (capital: Melbourne, and my home) South Australia (capital: Adelaide, the Smegster's home) New South Wales (capital: Sydney) Queensland (capital: Brisbane) Western Australia (capital: Perth) Tasmania (capital: Hobart) and 2 territories Northern Territory (capital: Darwin) Australian Capital Territory/ACT (capital: Canberra) Queensland can be renamed Presidentsland.
Yeah Smeg you can have the league pass and domestic airfare... AND we will finally be able to buy Tim Tams off the shelf.
That would be sweet. Australians are probably the coolest laid back people there is. We can like send all of our convicts there too
GOLD BABY GOLD Emus win gold at World Championships! The Emus Australian Under 19 men’s team have swept to Australia’s first-ever men’s basketball gold medal at the World Championships for Junior Men in Thessaloniki, Greece by comprehensively defeating Lithuania in the final this morning, 126-92. The Emus turned the tables on the Lithuanians, who had defeated the Australians earlier in the second round. Tournament standout Andrew Bogut showed once again why he was the talk of the tournament by scoring 35 points and adding 14 rebounds for Australia. Bogut was rewarded with tournament Most Valuable Player honours as well as selection to the All-Star Five. Steven Markovic had 30 points for the Emus and Matthew Knight and Brad Newley contributed 17 and 16 points respectively in a dominant performance by the Australians. Linas Kleiza led Lithuania with 26 points. Playing the gold medal game at the Alexandrio Sport Arena, the Emus were looking to go one better than their silver medal in the 1995 World Championship in Greece. The Australians started strongly and built a 10-poit lead by quarter time, 35-25. By halftime, the margin had increased to 21, 71-50, on the back of some near flawless shooting by the Australians. Astonishingly, the Australians broke the magical 100-point barrier by the end of the third period, going into the final change up by an incredible 26-points, 100-74. The Lithuanians simply had now answer for the scoring of the Australians and couldn’t bridge the gap in the final period. The Emus clinched their historic gold medal with a stunning 34-point win, 126-92. Australia shot a sizzling 35-of-58 from the field including 11-of-19 three-pointers. The Emus did a remarkable job containing the big Lithuanian team on the boards, out-rebounding the Europeans 47-33. In the bronze medal playoff, hometown favourites Greece thrilled the crowd with a 73-64 win over Croatia. The heavily favoured US team, which Australia beat in the Quarter Finals to eliminate from medal contention, finished fifth after narrowly defeating Puerto Rico, 73-64. 4 of the team have picked up scholarships to US colleges, watch out for Andew Bogut at Uni of Utah.
