Australian Boomers’ preparations for Basketball World Cup in Melbourne

The Australian Boomers will hit the court this week in Melbourne to prepare for the upcoming Basketball World Cup.

Three warm-up games are scheduled at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena, featuring matches against Brazil and Venezuela, both ranked among the top 20 internationally, as well as a team making its World Cup debut.

Ranked #62 globally, the South Sudanese national team boasts abundant talent, including guard Sunday Dech and forward Majok Deng, who is a recent addition to the Tasmanian Jackjumpers.

Australian head coach Brian Goorjian has trimmed the team’s roster from 15 to 13 players.

He has balanced the Australian team by incorporating both youthful potential and seasoned experience, contributing to the team’s odds of $9.50 to secure the World Cup title in top sports betting markets.

The squad comprises ten players who have NBA experience, including Boomer captain and stalwart Patty Mills, emerging talent Josh Giddey, and Joe Ingles.

Notably, the squad list excludes two significant names: Matthew Dellavedova and Will McDowell-White.

Given his impressive resume as a three-time Olympian and two-time FIBA World Cup representative, fans were surprised to see Matthew Dellavedova’s name missing. He has long been a pillar of the Boomers program, providing leadership both on and off the court.

He was also a member of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medal winning team and captain of the qualifying window in Melbourne last June at John Cain Arena in front of a passionate home crowd.

Last week, the Boomers concluded their camp in Cairns with a decisive 99-65 victory against the University of Houston.

They will now play the three pre-Basketball World Cup games, starting with a clash with Venezuela on Monday with tip off at 7.45PM, taking on Brazil on Wednesday at 7.45PM and then the third game against South Sudan at 7.45PM on Thursday.

The results of the warm-up games will help decide the final 12-man squad that heads to Japan for the World Cup that starts later this month.

The Boomers World Cup campaign will tip off on August 25 as they take on Finland ($4.50), with the Australian representative team as $1.18 favourites in that game.

They are also $1.33 favourites to win the group stage against the other nations in that stage: Germany ($3.80), Finland ($9.75) and host nation Japan ($34).

Team USA remain strong favourites paying $1.91 to take the World Cup title, followed by Canada ($5) and then Australia ($9.50) as the only teams paying single-digit odds in betting.

Updated Boomers Squad For 2023 FIBA World Cup

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