Three NBL stars pushing for a FIBA World Cup berth
The Boomers could have their full slate of NBA stars for next year's World Cup, but the long qualifying process and the NBL season provides a platform for those in Australia to push their case.
Credit: FIBA
With last week’s win over Kazakhstan, Australia officially punched their ticket to the 2023 FIBA World Cup. While the qualifying system for the World Cup can be brutal, with treks to all corners of Asia across several windows of games, the end result was never really in doubt for the green and gold. A remarkable 15-game winning streak, including nine qualifiers split by an Asia Cup title, made the Australian Boomers the first team to advance from Asia.
That decisive game against Kazakhstan was a microcosm of the entire qualifying journey. The Boomers just had too much talent compared to their opposition, with a 31-point quarter-time lead slamming the door shut on the hosts. With all 11 players on their roster hitting the scoreboard, Australia was once again able to show off their enviable depth on the world stage.
That depth has been key to a qualifying and Asia Cup campaign that featured none of Australia’s NBA stars, bar a brief cameo from Matthew Dellavedova before his signing with the Sacramento Kings. That has seen stand-in coach Mike Kelly turn to the NBL for the mainstays of his squad through each window. To date, the Boomers have used a remarkable 31 players throughout World Cup qualifiers – of that group, 18 are currently on NBL rosters, while a further three were in the league at the time of their selection.
“I think [the NBL] has improved greatly over the last bit of time,” Kelly said after the win over Kazakhstan. “Great young players have shown that they’re very good on the international stage… it’s given guys great opportunity and experience to get better.”
Of course, those aforementioned NBA stars will all emerge when the World Cup rolls around next year. With ten Australians currently playing at the top level and only 12 roster spots available at the tournament, competition for selection will be fierce. There’s also plenty of talent playing overseas that will be in contention, with the likes of Nick Kay in Japan and Duop Reath in China, national team regulars with experience at major tournaments.
“We’ve got everybody lining up to play and everybody wants to play, so I think it’s going to be a really hard decision when it comes to this time next year,” Kelly said.
Some of the NBL’s top players have been given an extended audition through qualifiers and the Asia Cup, though, and they will be firmly in contention for a ticket to the main event. With another qualifying window and plenty of NBL games to come, three players are primed to push their case as the tournament fast approaches.
Mitch McCarron
In every window since their Olympic triumph, the Boomers have fielded a relatively inexperienced lineup. Just two of that bronze medal-winning squad have played since, and in their stead there have been 16 national team debutants.
Even with those new lineups, a handful of senior players have made up the core of the squad throughout, with Adelaide guard Mitch McCarron leading the way. With an Asia Cup gold medal already in his pocket and a long NBL career packed with accolades, he was a natural candidate to step into a leadership role. McCarron has suited up for six games in the qualifiers so far, tied for the most of any Boomer, plus the entire Asia Cup tournament, and has been a mainstay for the past year or so in FIBA competition.
“Mitch was the captain coming into this trip, and he did a great job with that vocally and by example,” teammate Thon Maker said after the Asia Cup final. “There’s not one point where he didn’t tell everybody to huddle up and just say ‘it’s ok, stick together’.”
It helps that McCarron’s style of play and personality fully lend themselves to leading from the front.
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