Australia has wrapped up its 2023 FIBA Men’s World Cup campaign in 10th place overall, with focus firmly now set on next year's Paris Olympic Games.
The Boomers qualified for Paris after finishing above New Zealand at the World Cup to secure the Oceania quota spot.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the Boomers finished with their first-ever medal, taking home the bronze.
Basketball Australia CEO Matt Scriven today reconfirmed Brian Goorjian as Head Coach of the Boomers at the Paris Olympics.
“Brian is one of the country’s most respected and qualified coaches, he is contracted until Paris and our support of him is unwavering,” Scriven said, “he will be at the helm of the Boomers.”
“The result at this World Cup is disappointing and we will take the learnings, rebuild and focus on a podium finish in Paris. We understand our fans are disappointed with 10th place, as are we. The players, coaching and support staff feel the loss deeply,” he said.
“It’s how we rebound from this that’s important.”
“A full review will be undertaken on every element of this campaign; we won’t shy away from making the changes necessary across the program where they’re needed,” Scriven said.
“We are all here for the long haul, you take the losses with the wins, you reassess and move on. The Paris Olympics are just ten months away, so we have a lot of work to do in a short period of time and we have the commitment from the players, coaches and support staff to do that.”
Australia opened its World Cup campaign with a decisive win over Finland (98-72) before going down to Germany (82-85). They finished the first group phase with victory over Japan (109-89) but the Germany loss resulted in a must-win scenario against Slovenia. The Boomers went down (80-91) taking any chance of a medal off the table but finished on a positive note with a win (100-84) over Georgia in the classification game.
Highlights for Australia included the debut of Josh Giddey, the 20-year-old becoming the youngest-ever player to lead the scoring for his country at the World Cup with 97 points in total. Giddey averaged 19.4 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists across Australia’s World Cup Games, including a game-high 26 points against Japan.
Brian Goorjian will return to Melbourne to start preparations for Paris.
“There is no doubt we’ll have to make some tough decisions around selections but when the time is right, we’ll commence discussions with players around their availability and willingness to represent the green and gold,” said Goorjian.
