‘Worst I’ve seen in a long time’: Australia crash out of FIBA World Cup

The Boomers have to go back to the drawing board for Paris after crashing to its worst performance since 2014 at the World Cup.

The Aussies were left dejected. Photo by Takashi Aoyama/Getty Images

The Boomers World Cup hopes have been crushed 91-80 by Slovenia, the team they beat out for the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

Australia came into the tournament with high hopes but also a target on their back after finishing fourth at the last World Cup and winning its first senior men’s medal with the Olympic bronze.

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With New Zealand failing to get out of the group stages it means that the Boomers have automatically booked their tickets to Paris for the 2024 Olympics, but their World Cup goal fell well short.

Slovenia and Germany will advance from Group F and Group E after the Germans beat Georgia 100-73 earlier in the day, and the Boomers will only have a placing to play for.

Having come into the tournament ranked third in the world, Australia will drop dramatically to around ninth pending their final match against Georgia.

With Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic averaging 30 points for the tournament for Slovenia leading into the match, Australia was able to keep the superstar to just 20 points after he was in early foul trouble but he was well supported by Mike Tobey with 18 points, 12 rebounds, Gregor Hrovat and Klemend Prepelic, who each had 10 points.

Josh Giddey lived up to his hype. Photo by Takashi Aoyama/Getty Images

For Australia, it was once again Josh Giddey who stepped up when Australia needed it most.

Giddey scored 25 points with eight rebounds and four assists as well as two steals — even though he also had six turnovers.

But he came into his own in the third quarter, scoring 13 points to drag the Boomers back into the match.

He was supported by Patty Mills with 17 points, eight assists and Dante Exum with 13 points.

However, there was not much to write home about for the Boomers.

Speaking after the match, Giddey said the side was well aware it was a must-win match and was disappointed not to make the knockout stages.

“These slow starts against these good teams, it’s hard to come back and win and we were playing from behind all night trying to dig ourselves out of a hole that felt like it just kept getting deeper and deeper,” he said.

“Every time we made a run it was hard to sustain. There’s obviously a lot of emotional, this is the end of our tournament, we can’t progress any further. It’s disappointing.”

The post-mortem began immediately with the Olympics less than a year away, the basketball program scheduled to run from July 27 to August 10, 2024.

Boomers great and NBA champion Andrew Bogut wrote: “Never a good thing to not be heading the 1/4 finals @ a World Cup but this was a tough campaign to watch.

“Huge drop from our 3rd place in 21.

“Something just didn’t fit with this team. Nothing looked easy for the Boomers.

“This will be our worst finish to a tournament since 2014.

“On to Paris!”

Sporting News’ Jed Wells tweeted: “This tournament hasn’t shown me a lot to love from Goorj, just a complete inability to bring in new young talent apart from Giddey, riding Ingles, Kay, Patty (to a much lesser degree) even when they’re offering significantly diminishing returns. On to Paris I guess.”

Luca Doncic got some revenge on the Boomers. Photo by Takashi Aoyama/Getty Images

Zero Digital Sports GM Nick Splitter commented: “Worst defensive performance I’ve seen by the Boomers in a long, long time.

“Slovenia too big, too strong, wanted it more.

“Australia offence so disjointed and dysfunctional. If Giddey wasnt cooking nobody else had anything, save a couple Exum drives.

“Just an awful display.”

Looking at the pool, not sure what the scope is for the Boomers for the Olympics to improve outside of getting Landale back (ignoring the Simmons elephant).

Giddey will be better for the tournament, as will Green, Exum strong as ever.

— Ben Quagliata (@bensquag) September 1, 2023

Nothing to like about that. #Boomers have looked clunky and off balance all #fibawc tournament and will now be far from the business end of things in coming days.

A bit of work to do before the Olympics next year.

— 🐯 ɹǝʞuıɹᗡ ǝǝɟɟoƆ ɐǝɹ∀ 🐯 (@chris8875) September 1, 2023

Disappointing tournament from the #Boomers. #FIBAWC#WeAreBasketball

— Scott Rea (@ScottRea) September 1, 2023

Just haven't understood the player rotations at all for the #boomers at the #FIBAWorldCup2023. Why the hell wouldn't you bring in a sniper like CG43 when our usual shooters don't want to shoot?! Coaching fail.

— Gin (@Gin82au) September 1, 2023

While there was a fair bit of pessimism after the lost, commentator John Casey said the result likely showed that there was a changing of the guard in basketball, and being a top 10 nation is nothing to sneeze at.

“I’m not too down on that performance to be honest with you,” he said. “If you’re within two of Slovenia in the last quarter when you’ve dug yourself out of a 14-point hole, you’re in the mix.

“Yes, you want to move on but sometimes it’s not your day.

“I know we were No. 3 and we were talking about a podium, but top 10 in the world... The reigning champs got beaten today (World No. 1 Spain lost 74-69 to Latvia), the world No. 5 (France) didn’t even make it this far in the tournament (finished third in Group H) — the world is changing. Basketball is an evolving place.

“Slovenia deserve this, they might win the whole thing.”

Australia was chasing throughout the match as Slovenia led from beginning to end.

After taking a 5-0 lead in the opening seconds, before leading by 10 at the end of the first quarter.

After going to halftime down by nine, the Boomers finally made some inroads late in the third, cutting the lead to just by the end of the term.

While it looked like Australia was coming home strong after cutting the lead to just two, Slovenia righted the ship, getting out to a 19 point lead with two minutes left in the final quarter before Australia added a little bit of respectability.