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Well here it is the world championships writeups, let us all take a moment right now... ok enough of that my first worlds writeups! Exciting, especially because Canada is still in it, without further adieu, here we go!

World Cup:

Pool A:
1.Italia
2.Chile
3.Uruguay
4.Phillipines
5.Australia
6.Misr

1.Italia has to be the favourites in this pool. They have no weakness anywhere. They have a great player at every position and they have depth at every position as well. They have 12 players on their roster so they have space for callups if necessary, I think Italia should do very well this season and itll start with a pool win.

2.Chile, like Italia, have no weakness and are strong at each position, however they are a little weaker at each position which helped me choose Italia over defending champions Chile. One thing that was also a factor was the fact that Chile only has 7 players on their roster, while they do have space for callup(lots of it!) they have no depth at all and that could be a factor, hopefully their players have good stamina ;).

3.Uruguay is a deep team with a very strong roster, even at this level and they have a very strong inside attack. Unfortunately they are a bit weak at the shooting guard position as one of their shooting guards is out for a month and another is having GS issues, hopefully theyll be able to hold the fort without those two, but it could be their doom.

4.Philippines was hard to choose. Australia was making a very good case for fourth, but I felt Phillipines has a stronger team. Two negatives about Philippines right now are they have 17 players already so only one more callup slot left, and they have two big men and a shooting guard with mediocre GS that could hurt them.

5.Australia is only down here because even though they do not have any defineite weaknesses they are weaker at each position then the teams ahead of them. They have 15 players on their roster leaving space for 3 more callups if needed and I think they may have to use them. They have an injured shooting guard at average GS, two point guards at average GS, a shooting guard at average, a big man at mediocre and another big man at average. Not too great for them.

6.Misr is actually a pretty strong team, they are the African champions at the moment and their roster is strong They hava definite inside presence, but are lacking in the outside deparrtment and it will be their downfall. Being the African team is harder, I think this team is strong enough to steal a win or two however, watch out.

Picks:
Italia(4) at Philippines(17)
Italia is the strongest team in this pool and while Philippines is a strong team they just can't handle Italia at each position. This week I think Italia will attack from the outside as they have great players who have great GS this week so an outside attack is eminent. My pick: Italia wins.

Uruguay(15) at Misr(34)
Uruguay is definetely the stronger team and can handle the bigs of Misr so this game seems pretty straight forward. My pick: I think Misr uses some extra effort, but Uruguay can handle them and wins.

Australia(8) at Chile(1)
Chile is the defending champions of the world and have another strong team this season, I think Australia is the weakest non-African team in this pool and that Chile should take care of business and could do it any way they want to. My pick: Chile wins this one and saves some effort for later on in the tournament.

World Cup:

Pool B:

1.Poland
2.Espana
3.China
4.United States
5.Canada
6.Al Maghrib

1.Poland has HCA, and a very strong inside attacck, they should be able to beat everybody in this pool and advance to the 2nd round of the World Cup.

2.Espana has a deep, strong team and will definetly challenge Poland fir the number 1 spot and are contenders to be world champions.

3.China has a pretty full roster and it is a deep roster as well, they have a few GS issues though and it could cost them a game or two.

4.United States has a good outside attack, and good current GS. One bad thing is that they have a weak inside attack for this level competition and it could be their downfall this tournament.

5.Canada has a balanced roster, but are not deep inside and it is something that can hurt them in a competition like this. Their outside attack is strong and could be their saviour, I think they can get the win against Al Maghrib but that might be it.

6.Al Maghrib is the African team, they have a very weaak team for this level of competition and should get dominated this tournament.

Picks:

Canada(12) at Al Maghrib(61)
Canada gets the easy matchup to start off and should be able to save up some enthusiasm in this one. My pick: Canada withstands an Al Maghrib team usig extra effort.

Espana(5) at Poland(9)
The big matchup to start off the tournament? Love it. Espana has some GS advantages and frankly are stringer outside. Poland has HCA and an extremely strong inside attack. My pick: Poland and Espana use the same effort level, but Polands inside attack and HCA is enough to get the victory.

China(2) at United States(11)
United States has some really good GS situations right now and Chinahad a really bad GS update. United States has a very strong outside attack that cannot be matched by many teams, but China is one of the few teams that can match them, however the bad GS that China's outside players have is going to be a huge problem. My pick: United States wins, but uses more effort, China will pick its spots.

Sorry that this one was much more basic, but I have to rush its getting late :P

Bang on write up for our pool, please predict Canada by a large margin in the near future, my heart cant take it.

This week I was not able to get the writeups done as I was busy all long weekend, next week they should get done however. sorry.

I will be waiting them, they are great =P.

Worth noting that the Australia vs. Italy game was fantastic. The last few minutes of regulation and overtime was insane, kept me on the edge of my seat.

As an Australian, you must be mad the way the game ended..

Bit of an anti-climax! Would have been better if they made a shot! We had 3 chances to win the game and didn't, that's our fault.

I'll do some short recaps of last week:

Group A

Misr 118 - Philippines 110

Minor upset here as Misr (1-1) took down Philippines for their first win in the Worlds this season. Philippines dropped to 0-2. Misr was led by star big man Sulayman Yousef who had an amazing 34pts, 22rbs, and 4asts, to go along with 4-5 3 pointers. This game was not as close as the score shows, as Misr held an 18 point lead with 2 minutes left. Guard Norman Migallos led Philippines with 24 points in 18 minutes of play off the bench.

Chile 130 - Uruguay 117

A rematch of the Americas semifinal in Season 15. Chile flexed their inside muscle in this one, putting up a fantastic marvelous inside scoring rating and now have a 2-0 record in Group A. David Tapia dominated inside, with 25 pts on 10-12 shooting, along with 13 rebounds. Uruguayan guard José Pedro Pimienta had 36pts in the losing effort as Uruguay dropped to 1-1.

Australia 138 - Italia 139

Definitely the match of the night here as the Australians fought their way into overtime with the Italians. Australia looked like they had a chance to win in regulation, but PG McNamara missed a crucial free throw allowing Italian C Pericle Sinibaldi to hit the game tying shot with 8 seconds left. Then Australian PG Shaun McArthur missed a driving layup at the buzzer and the game went to overtime!

In OT the lead went back and forth and the game got intense when McArthur found big man Liang Huaizheng for the dunk to give Australia a one point lead with 17 seconds remaining. Italia had the ball and a chance to win, but the game ended in controversy as Australian monster center Rudolph Radford was called for a personal foul with no time remaining on the clock! Sinibaldi canned both clutch free throws and the game was shockingly over. Italy improved its record to 2-0, while Australia dropped to 0-2.

Group B

Al Maghrib 133 - Poland 182

Not much to discuss here as Poland crushed Al Maghrib by nearly 50 points. Poland used a Full Court Press and forced the Moroccans into 28 turnovers. Sylwester Rakus led the way for Poland, with 34 points and 18 rebounds. 7 players scored in double digits for Poland, as they continue to impress in these Worlds, improving to 2-0. The Moroccans were led by guard Hassam El-Haroun, who showed some fight as he scored 51 points in this game. Al Maghrib dropped to 0-2.

United States 122 - Canada 111

The battle for North American supremacy was a good one, as this game went down to the wire. Down 18 at one point, Canada fought back, cutting the American lead to 2 when Essa Abu-Kaleel hit a jumper with 1:45 remaining in the game. The Canadians could not pull off the amazing comeback as American guard Joe Bronson hit a clutch 3 with a little over a minute remaining to put the game out of reach. Irwin Velasco had 29 points on 12-13 shooting for the Americans, who improved to 2-0. Canadian center Christopher Moran had an impressive 21 points and 25 rebounds as Canada fell to 1-1.

España 101 - China 86

España came out of the gate strong in this one, as both teams went to their inside offenses hoping to earn their first victory in the Worlds this season. Though the ratings appear very similar for both teams in this match, the matchup at Power Forward clearly went to the Spanish as Lantz Irakozi dominated with 23 points and 16 rebounds, and held Chinese PF Peng Dingxiang to only 10 points and 6 rebounds on 5-17 shooting. This was a surprisingly poor performance from Dingxiang as he was in proficient game shape. China is in a tough situation now as they fall to 0-2, while España improves to 1-1.