Goorjian backs Boomers to get back in zone

Boomers head coach Brian Goorjian has revealed his side was underprepared for the zone defence it faced against Brazil on Wednesday night, and has stated he’s “comfortable” with his side’s preparation ahead of the rapidly approaching World Cup.

Australia faced Brazil two days after its dominant 56-point win over Venezuela, while the visiting side entered the clash following a 10-point win over South Sudan.

A slow start and stuttering finish from the Boomers saw Brazil emerge as four-point victors, following a first term in which the Boomers went down by as many as 11 points.

Australia scored just 15 points in the final quarter to Brazil’s 26, as it suffered to come to grips with the change in the opposition’s defensive structure.

“They went to the zone and we haven’t played against that – we’ve talked about it and knew they were going to do it – we came here at 3:30 and ran through some stuff with that but it looked like that, we were totally stuck, and a guy’s shooting a ball contested and hoping it goes in,” Goorjian said post-game.

“It’s easy to come down, take a hard dribble and shoot it and then you’re back on defence. The cutting, the grinding, that’s the difficult part.

“I did think we started the game really soft, we were 0-8 to start (from three) and we had a lot of good looks, but they were quick. I thought the end of the game there was total confusion in our game attack.

“I feel comfortable that that will get corrected, but the start of the game, getting the ball to the second side, our defensive intensity, the cutting, that was a step off it from jump street and that has to be addressed.”

Former Perth Wildcat Nick Kay was among Australia’s most impressive performers in the disappointing defeat, and ended the game with 10 points and seven rebounds.

He believes a repeat performance of Wednesday’s result will be deemed unacceptable.

“Really, we don’t have time to play like that again,” Kay said. “We have limited opportunity so it’s understanding what we need to improve on.

“One of our strengths is our mateship and we didn’t exactly cover each other out there on the floor, if we’re better at that, we’ll be better as a group.”

Following Thursday’s clash with South Sudan Australia will trim the current 13-man roster down to 12 players before heading to Okinawa for the start of the FIBA World Cup.