- Sep 26, 2004
- 47,574
- 64,404
- AFL Club
- Carlton
- Moderator
- #1
The Olympic basketball competitions are always much talked about and highly anticipated events and this year is no different.
The United States are once again heavy favourites in both competitions & rightly so - it is hard to see them being beaten, with this looming yet again as a scramble for the 'minor' medals.
In 2012 our men made it through to the quarter finals before being comprehensively beaten by the United States, which saw us ultimately finishing in a disappointing 7th place.
Our women are significantly stronger and took home the bronze medal last time around. We lost once in the group stage, to eventual silver medal winning France, and then were beaten in the semi finals by the United States, before beating Russia in the bronze medal match.
So...what can we expect from Australia this time around?
Our men are just OK and nothing more than an outside chance of taking home the bronze. Most important is that they avoid the US for as long as possible through the knockout stages of the competition so it is imperative that they finish better than 4th in their group, because you'd expect the US to finish top of theirs barring some sort of disaster.
The picture is a far brighter one for our women who are a genuine medal chance and are in fact second favourite to take home the gold. Expect the US to once again take the gold but the Aussies are very strong here and will fancy their chances to compete for gold.
FYI here are the groups and schedules for both competitions...
MEN
WOMEN
The United States are once again heavy favourites in both competitions & rightly so - it is hard to see them being beaten, with this looming yet again as a scramble for the 'minor' medals.
In 2012 our men made it through to the quarter finals before being comprehensively beaten by the United States, which saw us ultimately finishing in a disappointing 7th place.
Our women are significantly stronger and took home the bronze medal last time around. We lost once in the group stage, to eventual silver medal winning France, and then were beaten in the semi finals by the United States, before beating Russia in the bronze medal match.
So...what can we expect from Australia this time around?
Our men are just OK and nothing more than an outside chance of taking home the bronze. Most important is that they avoid the US for as long as possible through the knockout stages of the competition so it is imperative that they finish better than 4th in their group, because you'd expect the US to finish top of theirs barring some sort of disaster.
The picture is a far brighter one for our women who are a genuine medal chance and are in fact second favourite to take home the gold. Expect the US to once again take the gold but the Aussies are very strong here and will fancy their chances to compete for gold.
FYI here are the groups and schedules for both competitions...
MEN
WOMEN
