Match Report Australia V Saudi Arabia 15/7/13 (3rd game of U21 Asian Championship)
After 2 straight victories and some solid performances in a couple of scrimmages, the Australian Buzzerbeater Basketball community was extremely confident heading into their 3rd pool game this time against the 85th ranked Saudi Arabia, so confident that they decided to stand down Wee Willie (Tic Tac) for disciplinary reasons.
On paper this game again loomed as a one sided affair as Saudi Arabia have only 11 active managers (down from 14 near the end of last season) as compared to the 454 active managers of the 42nd ranked Aussie team.
Other statistics that pointed to a one sided game include;
Players salaries -Saudi Arabias squad of 15 players have combined salaries of $105,259, which is slightly less than the combined salaries of $112,753 for Australias highest paid 3 players.
(Australias combined salaries for their entire squad of 14 is $336,514)
Game shapes - Australia had 6 players on proficient, 7 strong and only one player, the ill disciplined Tic Tac, with Respectable gameshape.
Saudi Arabias game shapes were; 4 x Proficient, 3 x Strong, 2 x Respectable, 2 x Average and 4 x Mediocre
Average players age - Australia has 2 x 20 year olds and 12 x 21 year olds as compared to Saudi Arabias, 3 x 21year olds, 4 x 20, 5 x 19 and 3 x 18 year olds
Given those statistics one had to look further to discover how this undermanned team was able to get within 41 points of the 15th ranked Indonesian team and 17 points of the 17th ranked Iranian team in their previous Asian Championship pool games.
Well the answer just might be that the Saudis have an international coach from Hrvatska who has worked hard to give experience to and develop the countries younger players.
Saudi Arabias five highest paid players had before this game collectively represented their country in 65 competitive games, which is considerably more than the 8 games that Australias highest five players had played.
This edge in experience that the Saudi players have might explain how come they were not overcome by the occasion when they first walked onto the hallowed floor boards of Whitebeards “The Moby Dick” arena for tonights game.
It took 2 minutes for Australia to hit the scoreboard and once again it was Barth doing the damage, and not content with scoring once, within the space of 90 seconds he poured in 10 points to give Australia a 10 to zero lead.
Majid EI Ameen, answered Saudis prayers and steadied the team with a free throw.
Abdellah Raqqi hit a hook shot to close the gap to 10 to 4, before Ted hit a couple of free throws.
Ironically Australia apart from Barth, was none from 9 field goal attempts before the Bald Guy accepted a pass from Evonnes son to jam one home.
Quarter time and the Aussies led 26 to 9, with Saudis 2 from 18 shooting making Australias 9 from 24 look almost acceptable.
2nd quarter opened up with an intercept by Birss and an offensive foul on the Duke, but scoring, through poor shooting, was slow with it taking 3 minutes of play before the Duke hit the first field goal of the quarter.
So ordinary was the game to watch that it didn’t take long for the Wombat King to notice that Tic Tac had wandered away from the bench.
Last edited by Sid Vicious at 7/16/2013 6:50:18 AM