Australia or Serbia! Who you got Aleks Maric?
When you talk about the depth of the Australian Boomers frontcourt, names like Bogut, Andersen, Nielsen and Jawai roll off the tongue without a stutter.
But there is another Aussie "big" that is making a name for himself in Euroleague and just reminding Boomers Head Coach Brett Brown that all is not set in stone for the 2010 World Championship team.
Aleks Maric has just received his second Euroleague Player of the week award.
Maric who plays for the Serbian based Partizan club had 34pts and 16rebs as his team snuck past Turkish team Efes Pilsen in Round 7 of the second best basketball competition in the world.
But the most interesting point to come out of the success that Maric is currently enjoying, who will he support or play for in Turkey come World Championship time? (you may need google translator for the above article)
My understanding of the FIBA rule is Maric has to play for Australia because he has already represented the green and gold. But it seems if I translate the translator correctly, Maric may be able to suit up for Serbia if Basketball Australia gives him the ok. (I will endeavour to find out the ruling on this over the next few days.)
It would be a shame to see Maric suit up for someone else, but if Australia cannot find room on their roster for him, should you really be able to hold someone back from pursuing a dream?
I'm sure we will hear more about this over the next few days.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Aleks Maric Is Big Time
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5 comments:
Suit him up in the green & gold if he's doing that well in the second best league on the planet. And as a side note, Bogut's mentioned before how close he is with Maric & his family.... I'm sure that would bring extra focus & motivation for the big fella to play for us & play well in the WC's.
I'd hate to see a player of Maric's obvious talent lost to the Boomers. He's shown glimpses of his ability in streaks at Nebraska, but has really come into his own of late. Given his current form, I'd start to question if the likes of Jawai and Andersen are really ahead of Maric, or if by much.
Certainly this should be more cause for concern for AJ Ogilvy, whose form has slumped considerably.
Is there room for Bogut, Andersen, Jawai, Neilsen, Ogilvy and Maric in a 12 man team?
Maric should be ahead of the last 2. What a front court we have!
add to that, Bruton, Newley, Worthington, Ingles, Mills, Barlow and we have a preety good team!
In this type of scenario, I think BA have to take the plunge and offer Maric a gig with the Boomers. The ball is then back in his court and he has to decide who he wants to play for.
It's better to make a minor mistake with a bench PF/C then to lose him for good. Inevitably we have injuries/pro duty which precludes some of players from competing, so you'd think down the track Maric will become a sure-thing for Boomers duty.
Bogut is a lock at C, you'd assume that Nielsen is the current PF, with Jawai and Andersen pushing strong off the bench for playing time at those two spots. At the same time, this will possibly be Nielsen's last major tournament, so Maric would be in line down the track.
It's always good to have too many bigs.
-- mookie / A Stern Warning
Agree with Mookie, you can't have too many bigs. Also I think Jawai isn't as developed as Maric, while Andersen isn't that great down low. Really Maric is our best option as a back up centre to Bogut.
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