By Jeremaiah M. Opiniano 

A second-tier Australian team ruled a basketball kingdom that is the world’s largest by size: Asia.

The Boomers swept past the opposition, including a gritty Iran side last night, 79-56, to claim the FIBA Asia Cup championship in Beirut, Lebanon.

Australia swept all six matches in both preliminary and knock-out phases, beating opponents by an average of 28.83 points.

In the final, Australia led 12-2 to start off the game, but Iran soon gained ground. With the margins 16-14, guard Jason Cadee made a back-to-the-basket shot over Iranian center Meisam Mirzaetalarposhti with 2.5 ticks left in the first quarter.

From there, world number ten Australia were never threatened by world number 25 Iran, three-time champions of the old FIBA Asia Championships.

The gold medal match was the first FIBA Asia Cup which covers the old Asia zone and the Oceania zone, which Australia ruled for decades.

The scary part is Australia’s Beirut squad had none of its eight current NBA players led by Andrew Bogut and Patty Mills. There were only two holdovers of the 2016 Rio Olympics team who barely missed the bronze medal over Spain: David Andersen and Brad Newley.

On average, Adelaide 36er Mitch Creek led the Boomers in scoring (14.7 points per game) while fellow 36er Matthew Hodgson towed Australia in the rebounding department (6.6 rebounds per game).

Australia’s offensive attack was more balanced, to the point no Boomer made it to the tournament’s mythical five and the top five players in the major statistical categories like points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks and three-point shooting percentage – an exception is overall field goal shooting percentage, which Creek topped (68.5 per cent field goal).

That alone reflects the depth of the Australian basketball program. Asian countries like Iran, China and the Philippines had some of their best players skipping the tournament or retiring from international play. But some of their leagues’ best players played in Beirut.

Australia’s long-time Oceania rival New Zealand lost to Korea in the bronze medal game, 71-80. China snatched fifth spot over Lebanon (79-78) while the Philippines got some end-game luck to beat Jordan for seventh place (75-70).

The entire FIBA Asia Cup mattered for countries’ current world rankings. But the tournament did not create any impact on the forthcoming home-and-away qualification matches for the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China.

These matches, patterned after football’s FIFA World Cup qualifications, begin November 2017 and end November 2018. Australia is bracketed with Japan, the Philippines and Chinese-Taipei.

Jeremaiah Opiniano is an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Arts and Letters at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila, Philippines.

• Korea, Iran in with a shot to challenge Australia, NZ for basketball crown
• Australia, NZ slug it out for FIBA Asia Cup crown

By Jeremaiah M. Opiniano in Adelaide 

Two former Asian champions earned the right to square-off for a finals ticket and possibly an opportunity to beat Australia or New Zealand in the ongoing FIBA Asia Cup in Beirut.

Former Asian Games champion Korea (world number 30) was too hot, too slick and too tough on defense in a masterful 118-86 win over previously unbeaten Philippines in the first quarterfinal yesterday.

Former three-time FIBA Asia Championships titlist Iran then broke the hearts of home fans by beating Lebanon, 80-70 in the second quarterfinal tussle.

The two countries will meet in the upper bracket of the semifinal round Saturday, August 19.

The lower bracket of the semifinal round is yet to be determined with games today pitting long-time FIBA Oceania champions Australia versus reigning FIBA Asia champions China, and New Zealand battling underdogs Jordan.

Winners of the last two quarterfinals matches will meet in the other semifinal match. Should the Boomers and the Tall Blacks win, only one team from the Pacific will head on to the finals slated Sunday, August 20.

Korea upset New Zealand, 76-75, in during a Group B preliminary round match. And with the way they played against the Tall Blacks and against the Philippines’ Gilas players, the Koreans may enter the finals.

Korea played with a younger batch of players. Its stalwarts in either FIBA Asia or the FIBA World Cup such as guard Yang Donggeun, shooters Cho Sungmin and Kim Taesul and the Moon brothers are have given way to the younger players like centers Oh Sekeun and Kim Jongkyu, and guard Sun Hyungkim.

Iran still has ageless Hamed Haddadi, part of a triumvirate that towed Iran’s title runs in the 2007, 2009 and 2013 FIBA Asia Championships (former name of today’s FIBA Asia Cup). That triumvirate included players who have retired from FIBA play: small forward Samad Nikkahbahrami and Mahdi Kamrani, both former mythical five selections in previous FIBA Asia tournaments.

Given the reformatting of continental tournaments, as well as qualification for the 2019 FIBA World Cup to be held in China, the former Asia and Oceania zones merged into one FIBA zone (Asia).

The merger made Australia the zone’s top team (world number 10), followed by China (number 14) and New Zealand (number 20). Australia, with a line up filled with at least six NBA players, almost won the bronze medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

Most of the teams at the FIBA Asia Cup did not field in their best players. Some teams are reserving these players when the FIBA World Cup qualification tournaments, featuring home-and-away games (similar to football), begin this November.

Jeremaiah Opiniano is an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Arts and Letters at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila, Philippines.

• Australia, NZ slug it out for FIBA Asia Cup crown 

By Jeremaiah M. Opiniano in Adelaide

Basketball countries in the rugby-crazed Pacific will try to rule a merged Asia-Pacific regional zone when the quarterfinals of the new FIBA Asia Cup begin today in Beirut, Lebanon.

That is even if many countries in the ongoing continental hoops showcase did not send their best players.

Like Australia. With the merging of the old FIBA Asia and FIBA Oceania zones beginning this year, the world number 10 is tipped to rule the tournament over defending 2015 FIBA Asia champion China (number 14) this August 17th.

The other team that did not send its best players is world number 20 New Zealand. And even if it lost to Korea, 75-76, in Group D preliminary action, the Tall Blacks are primed to make it to the semi-finals.

Owing to changes in the format of FIBA’s international competitions, many countries across the world have opted to keep their players for the home-and-away 2019 FIBA World Cup qualifiers that begin this November 22. The new format for spots in the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China are similar to that of football’s qualification format in the triennial FIFA World Cup.

Australia sent a crew made up players from its National Basketball League (NBL) led by Rio Olympics veterans David Andersen and Brad Newley. The country has eight NBA players —Patty Mills, Andrew Bogut, Matthew Dellavedova, Dante Exum, Joe Ingles, Thon Maker, Aron Baynes, and 2016 top rookie pick Ben Simmons— who can all form a formidable FIBA World Cup team. (Andersen plays in the French league as Newley returned to the NBL after a stint in the Spanish league).

And even with the NBL players towing the Boomers, Australia breezed past Japan (84-68), Hong Kong (99-58) and Chinese-Taipei (90-50). The Boomers will play a struggling Chinese team, with the latter playing minus former NBA center Yi Jianlian and NBA rookie Zhou Qi.

New Zealand, for its part, still topped Group C (the “Group of Death”) in Lebanon despite the loss to Korea. New Zealand, Korea and host Lebanon all had 2-1 win-loss cards but the Tall Blacks had the superior quotient.

New Zealand thumped Kazakhstan, 70-49 and endured a rowdy hometown crowd to beat Lebanon 86-82.

The Tall Blacks team in Beirut differs from the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournament squad in Manila last July 2016. Missing in Beirut include brothers Corey and Tai Webster, center Isaac Fotu, Thomas Abercrombie and Mika Vokuna. Only Shea Ili and Jordan Ngatai are remnants from the Manila squad who are in Beirut.

Adelaide 36er Mitch Creek banners the Boomers’ scoring binge during preliminary play (15.7 pts. per game) as his team balances its offensive arsenals. Meanwhile, Ili of the Wellington Saints (14.7 pts. per game) tows the Tall Blacks offense.

If Australia beats China and New Zealand hurdles Jordan August 17, the two face off in the semi-finals August 19.

But the other topnotchers in two other preliminary groups, Iran (Group A) and the Philippines (B), hope to make it to the Final Four as well.

Two-time FIBA Asia Champions Iran, with former NBA Center Hamed Haddadi and two others left from its previous champion squads, meet Lebanon today.

The biggest surprise is the smallest team, the Philippines. Without its naturalized American Andray Blatche and three-time Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) most valuable player June Mar Fajardo, and with only a week’s practice, Southeast Asia’s only qualifier upset China (96-87) and breezed past Iraq and Qatar to top Group B.

However, an old continental nemesis —Korea— awaits the Filipinos. Korea always breaks generations of Philippine teams in continental meets such as the old FIBA Asia Championships and the quadrennial Asian Games.

The breakthrough came at the 2013 FIBA Asia Championships in Manila when the Philippines upset the Koreans and qualified for the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain.

The now FIBA Asia Cup was previously called as the FIBA Asia Championships and the older Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Championships. The now FIBA World Cup was then the FIBA World Championship and the World Basketball Championships.

No matter who wins the Beirut conclave, results will not affect the FIBA World Cup Qualification matches. The home-and-away matches will be on November 2017 and on February, June, July, September and November 2018.

Australia is bracketed with Japan, the Philippines and Chinese-Taipei. New Zealand is grouped along with Korea, China and Hong Kong. Iran is the luckiest as it is bracketed with Kazakhstan, Iraq and Qatar.

The FIBA Asia zone offers seven slots for the 32-team FIBA World Cup in China. Australia, New Zealand (Oceania zone), Iran, the Philippines and Korea (Asia zone) played at the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain.

Jeremaiah Opiniano is an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Arts and Letters at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila, Philippines.