Well, at half time of the game last night (my time) I was all set to get online and start laughing about how funny it was going to be for the USA to not make it through the preliminary rounds.....but they finally got their act together. As my younger brother put it, they finally realised that to beat a zone you have to play like a team and pass the ball around and stuff :)

As far as the refereeing goes - wasn't overly impressed...couple of very suspect foul calls. Especially on Duncan and some of the ofensive calls were VERY odd.

What did you guys think?

Didn't see it.
I'm having more fun watching the Thorpedo.
mick

True he is pretty awesome

The game aired out West at 4:30AM. I'm glad that I got up for it before work.
1. I saw real effort and emotion out of those guys. The played unprofessionally, like enthusiastic kids. Great!
2. They played DEFENSE from the 2nd Q on. The 4th Q was smothering.
3. To beat the zone they used their superior jumping ability and threw over the top for dunks.

4. I think that the foul on Bogut of Australia (plays for Utah) was clearly the worst of the tournament. He stood flat-footed in the lane with his two hands up and together. The USA player (Marbury, I think) rammed the ball into his hands and bounced back. Bogut remained motionless.

Thorpedo..... *Sigh* Van den Hoogenband forever!!

ADR

(I'm sorry, off-topic, just a little chauvinism ;))

Thorpedo?? Bah!! Van den Whosamijigger?? Phhhbbbtttt...new king of the pool is Phelps - he's fun to watch! (Actually, so are the other two, but I really can't stand that Gary Hall, Jr. guy!!!)As far as the Olympic reffing - I can't believe the number of double whistles and lack of off-ball calls...

I know that this thread was about the USA-Australia men's pool play game, but I just love the uniforms that the Australia's women's team wore against the USA in today's gold medal game.

MTD, Sr.

It's worth a mention. ;)

From what I've heard, Lauren Jackson posed in quite the interesting 'uniform' back home . . .

I was talking to a D-1 buddy of mine today at a tournament and somebody else asked him about the reffing at the Olympics. He said, "Two-person officiating for the best athletes in the world? Those poor guys were probably just trying to survive." Somebody asked him about officials being "in the quicksand" (reffing from the middle of the key) and he said, "yeah, not technically correct but again you've got two officials trying to get good angles, which is impossible with such big and wide players in 2-person, so the mechanics kind of went out the window when they went into survival mode." He also made the point that we have no idea what the officials were told by the governing body who hired them and assigned them in regards to player and coach decorum. Maybe they were told, "don't give a technical foul unless you are assaulted."

Z

That was obviously what they were told. :(

That's similar to what I was going to say about Phelps and the "Thorpedo".

I actually referred one of the first domestic games to be played with players wearing the (then) new style of bodysuit uniforms.

My local team's colours are maroon and white, and the positioning of the white stripes left VERY little to the imagination....needless to say, after that first game there where many, many young, male referees volunteering to do these games - and yes, I was one of them! :P

I'm sure there was some pretty poor officiating in those games.

Although there was probably less ball watching :D

I suppose you also thoroughly examined the players for proper attire!

Sometimes they make it all too easy . . .

True....

As the referees organiser it was a pleasure to have a large number of refs lining up begging to do the games :)

I missed the game. Anybody got a link to the uniforms? You've got me curious!

Chuck,

Here is a link:

http://www.ba.basketball.net.au/www/...ges.asp?gp=640

to summarize, they appear to be one piece, spandex unis. Looks like they may have borrowed something from the swim- team.

So, Duane, do the refs line up to do volleyball, swimming and gymnastics? Those sports have all been using these types of uniforms for years.

Not really sure - volleyball is a very minor sport in Australia (even beach volleyball is really only played socially). As for gymnastics and swimming, I really couldn't comment.

In all seriousness, it was interesting to see the impact the new uniforms had on both the players, opposing teams, spectators and officials. There was a great deal of contention when they were introduced. The first team in the domestic competition to wear them was Manly Warringah's under 18 womens team. Many parents felt that the uniform was unfair to the "bigger" girls (although none of the players actually opposed them). In fact a member of that team, Anna Crosswhite, has recently been playing for University of Viginia and from what I hear has been doing very well - both on the court and acedemically.(http://virginiasports.collegesports....te_anna00.html)

Most interesting was the psychological effect it had on the players, and their opponents. It brought the team much closer together, they looked and acted more professionally. Many of the opposing teams were overheard making comments about how good the team must have been to go to the effort of getting the custom made uniforms.

Now the uniforms are pretty standard in women's basketball in Australia. Maybe us men will go for something similar one day :)

[Edited by Oz Referee on Sep 1st, 2004 at 08:37 PM]

Won't complain about that!

Nope. It would look too much like wrestling uniforms.

In the gold medal women's game there were a couple of male fans wearing the Aussie women's uniforms. They looked a little like the Washington Redskin fans who wear dresses and hog masks.

By the way, if the WNBA were to switch to the uniform Lauren Jackson wore in the Aussie Olympic promotional calendar, that would really help attendance.

http://www.studiomagazines.com/htdoc...dream/main.htm