Bogut opinions

[Phoebe_in_Sydney]

As an Australian who loves basketball and sees and hears very little about the college game in the US, I'd really love to hear from any of you who've seen enough to have an opinion on Andrew Bogut.

I've really only seen him when he played for Australia at the Olympics, and they screened his last game at Utah last weekend in Australia. Looked pretty impressive.

Of course I've been hearing all the talk about him being a possible number one draft pick.

Trust me when I say I'm not rooting for that to happen just because of national pride. I worry about basketball in Australia -- it's really a minor sport here -- but in the 90s when the NBA got a lot more coverage here, it seemed to foster more interest in our own national league as well.

Nothing would fire up basketball interest in Australia more than a number one NBA draft pick (or at least a high one) so I'm interested to hear what you guys think of Bogut.

I've actually been thinking about posting a thread listing some of your former college 'ball players who are stars in the Australian National Basketball League. Maybe some of you guys would recognise the names. Might try and do that over the next few days.

[ugarte]

1. I'll know more after the Oklahoma game

The problemm is, Utah doesn't play on TV very often, so a lot of people haven't seen him. On the other hand, a 7-footer with any degree of skill is a hot commodity.

[ThorsHammer]

2. Good player, the OU game will be very important

I'm looking forward to seeing him go against Bookout and Gray. That might be the strongest frontcourt he'll see all year. Thanks to the NBA drafting any 7' HS player who can walk and chew gum at the same time, there aren't as many good big men left in college. I love seeing guys stick around college and get better, like Okafor, Bogut, or Warrick.

[THUNDER HANDS]

3. he'll be the first pick in the draft

Hopefully, he won't go to Atlanta.

But he reminds me of a younger, bigger, Kevin McHale.

[ThorsHammer]

5. I hope so

I'm sick of teams drafting HS'ers high (with a few exemptions like Lebron). For every Lebron you have someone like Kwame Brown, Olowolokandi, or Eddie Curry. I wish they had a better development system in place like MLB. NBDL is a decent start, but there are still too many projects being taken before they are ready to play.

Anyway, Bogut reminded me a lot of Sabonis with his passing this weekend. He moves well for a big guy, and the tournament gives him a chance to go up against top competition (Bookout/Gray in round 2, Hayes and the rest of the UK bigs in round 3). There shouldn't be many doubts about his level of competition as he did play in the Olympics, but the last few games should help him a lot.

[Phoebe_in_Sydney]

4. thanks for the answers

We didn't get the Oklahoma game here, but looking at the stats seems he did alright.

In all the excitement about Bogut I didn't realise there was another Aussie going pretty good too. Luke Schenser who's with Georgia Tech.

Don't know whether he's got enough going for him to be NBA material, but I can only hope!

Seems like every country in the world's got someone in the NBA except Australia right now :-)

Anymore reviews would be appreciated.

[slestak]

6. I may be wrong...

but I don't think it's an actual mustache.

I may be wrong.

[THUNDER HANDS]

8. check out these nba draft sites

http://www.nbadraft.net/profiles/andrewbogut.asp
http://www.draftcity.com/viewprofile.php?p=70

[anakie]

7. Australia has already had a number one draft pick

as well as a league MVP and since then there is even less coverage of women's basketball dispite Australia being ranked number 2 in the world. I much prefer the women's game to the mens as there is more emphasis on skills and less to do with size.

Basketball in Australia will continue to be a second rate sport. There is no free to air coverage that I know of; a couple of thousand spectators at the match is a huge crowd; pay TV tries hard but if you are a basketball fan which match are you going to watch on a Friday night - Townsville v Wollongong on Fox or a replay of Lakers v Celtics on ESPN.

Australia's interest in the NBA reached it's peak when Luc Longley was involved with the Bulls during Michael Jordan's era- and would have had more to do with Jordan anyway.

[Phoebe_in_Sydney]

10. I watch NBL rather than NBA on Sat nights

I have the choice and watch the NBL (it's Sat night's btw, not Fri nights). If there's an NBA game on that I want to see (i.e one involving Cleveland) I'd rather watch it live at lunchtime than as a replay in the evening anyway. Having said that, I do wish that, given how little basketball is on TV here that they wouldn't program two games on the same night on different channels.

I agree that Australia's interest in the NBA peaked in the early/mid 90s and I think it had more to do with Jordan than Longley. I used to get annoyed with Aussies who just wanted to laugh off Longley as a tall, no talent who got lucky by being on the Bulls team.

But at the same time as the NBA peaked in interest in Australia, so did the NBL. Attendances and TV ratings in the early/mid 90s were higher then than at any time in the league's short history in Australia.

A couple of thousand wasn't a big crowd in those days (in fact no one thinks of a couple of thousand as a huge crowd now). I used to go to Sydney Kings games where crowds between 5,000-10,000 were not uncommon. I've also been to plenty of rugby league games in Sydney where there've only been a few thousand in the crowd -- and that's the sport that gets most coverage in this city.

I've seen quite a bit of women's basketball, including Olympics and World Championship tournaments and while I enjoy it I can't say I prefer it to the men's game.

The fact that the success of Lauren Jackson and Michele Tims in the WNBA hasn't done much for basketball in Australia doesn't mean Andrew Bogut being a number one draft pick won't make any difference either.

The reality is NO women's team sport is considered anything other than a minority sport in this country -- and it doesn't matter where Australia is ranked in the world.

[micrometer_50]

9. I haven't seen Bogut play yet.

Fron what I've read about him, it seems he's a very talented player.

My college team (Arizona Wildcats) have toured Australia at least two
times, and I think an incoming recruit is from Australia.