Basketball On The Internet.

DON’T you love the way at every soccer World Cup draw, football’s aficionados trot out the perennial “Group of Death” – and usually that’s any group Australia is in.

(That “Group of Death” shite and trying to work out every other week which soccer team actually is the Red Devils, are two aspects of that enigmatic sport I can never fully grasp.)

But with today’s FIBA draw for basketball’s World Cup, what I did fully grasp was that, for the first time in living memory, the Boomers are in a six-team pool they could actually win.

OK. Without putting undue strain on rookie Boomers boss Andrej Lemanis, it is fair to say Lithuania and Slovenia will be formidable challenges.

And no-one would write off Mexico, Angola or Korea, either.

But if Australia isn’t in the “Group of Life” then I don’t know who is.

I’m not saying they WILL win Pool D. I’m just saying they are a chance. And wouldn’t that be a change, going through to the next round as #1 instead of at #4 and the USA waiting to eliminate us?

The Boomers could grab first, second or third and all of those would be preferable to fourth and the crossdraw with Pool C’s No.1 team – which, barring the (very) unforeseen, will be USA.

Group A (Granada), The Group of Severe Back Aches: 1. Spain; 2. Serbia; 3. France; 4. Brazil; 5. Egypt; 6. Iran.

Group B (Seville), The Group of a Very Nasty Migraine: 1. Philippines; 2. Senegal; 3. Puerto Rico; 4. Argentina; 5. Greece; 6. Croatia.

Group C (Bilbao), The Group of a Large and Painful Hickey: 1. Dominican Republic; 2. Turkey; 3. USA; 4. Finland; 5. New Zealand; 6. Ukraine.

Group D (Canary Islands), The Group of Life: 1. Slovenia; 2. Lithuania; 3. Angola; 4. Korea; 5. Mexico; 6. Australia.

Australia’s best-case scenario is it gets all the way through to the Semi Final round, where it would face USA. (Actually, the BEST case would be USA knocked out earlier, as has happened at various World Championships. But it is very unlikely now.)

Even that would ensure the Boomers have topped their best previous World Championship result of fifth and at the very least match them up to three previous Olympic results of fourth.

That’s if they don’t win a historic Bronze Medal.

Of course, this is all wild speculation because, fact is, as Lemanis says, every team at a World Cup will present its own challenges.

No-one is going to Spain as a bunny.

And, to my way of thinking, any time a nation as small as ours, with sporting priorities in so many areas ahead of basketball, can lodge itself into the 5th-8th category, it has, if not over-achieved, certainly close to fully realised its potential.

So those three Olympics – Seoul, Atlanta and Sydney – where the Boomers did get to play for Bronze, were really very outstanding achievements.

“This is the first time we have the maturity in those younger players who have gone through Euroleague, such as a Joe Ingles or a Brad Newley, at the perfect time in their careers,” four-time Olympian and Sydney Kings coach Shane Heal said today.

“Lithuania is certainly beatable and Slovenia is a very tough team.”

Again, the best-case scenario for the Boomers is an Australia-USA Semi Final. (Perhaps the teams can draw straws before tip-off to see who Kyrie Irving plays for?)

But that is BEST CASE. Realistically, getting into that 5-8 bracket of quarter-finalists always should be the goal, if not the target.

The target is medalling, of course. But it’s a bloody big world with a lot of mighty good basketball players in it.

Here was our take today at News Corp: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/basketball/australia-enjoy-luck-of-the-draw-for-fiba-world-cup-but-the-kiwis-were-not-so-lucky/story-fnii09gt-1226817173688

And this was the interview after which Shane Heal and I talked World Cup: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/basketball/shane-heal-to-cross-tasman-and-coach-wellington-in-nz-nbl-after-sydney-kings-season-ends/story-fnii09gt-1226817839009