U17 World Cup: Reflections on the Crocs' 15th place finish

The 4-3 record might appear passable on paper, but the Australian Crocs ultimately finished second to last at the 2024 FIBA Under-17 Basketball World Cup. Here's how it all went down.

Australia has a rich history at the FIBA Men’s Under-17 Basketball World Cup, with two silver medal finishes back in 2012 and 2014. The Crocs entered the 2024 edition with a strong roster on paper, and recently defeated New Zealand at the 2023 FIBA Under-16 Asia Cup. But the New Zealanders ultimately finished fourth when it mattered at the 2024 Under-17 World Cup, while Australia was left languishing in 15th place - second last. Both teams finished on a 4-3 tournament record, but the Crocs lost the games that mattered, and were ultimately left wondering what could have been.

Credit: FIBA

In the group stages, everything appeared to be going smoothly for Australia. Despite struggling in their opening match against Egypt, where the boys in green and gold eked out a narrow 85-82 win, the Crocs bounced back to defeat Germany by a 74-60 score line.

Harrison Beauchamp lead the scoring for Australia in both games, initially with 19 points on 6/9 shooting against Egypt. Beauchamp flashed his in-between game (as per the video below) to nail a couple of nifty floaters, including one late in the fourth quarter, and also excelled as a cutter on various occasions. The 17 year old ended up scoring Australia’s last six points to ice the game, including four clutch free throws.