The Australian Opals are ready and in fine form, leading into the 2010 FIBA World Championships of Basketball for Women, to be held in the Czech Republic. Yesterday, they defeated Spain 85-64 to take out the Salamanca Invitational Basketball Tournament -- this without Lauren Jackson (WNBA commitments), Abby Bishop (WNBA commitments), Penny Taylor (back injury), Marianna Tolo (ankle injury) and Kristi Harrower (ankle injury), forcing the Opals to suit up only nine players. Prior to the victory over Spain, the Aussies defeated Team USA, amounting to some solid preparation for the World Championships.

Jackson, the WNBA 2010 MVP and Bishop will join the squad after winning the WNBA Championship with the Seattle Storm. Taylor joined the Opals camp recently after her team was pushed out of the Finals race.

The following is a post I wrote for the Official FIBA BBall app -- available via Nokia's Ovi Store.

Dance to the beat of the drum...

In my last post you read as I lauded both the Argentinian and Lithuanian crowds as they pushed their teams to wins over Brazil and China respectively. Well, it's amazing how things change, yet they stay the same. Once again, crowd support had a massive impact in this match, between Argentina and Lithuania, however this time the fans in blue and white forgot to show up - figuratively speaking of course.

Ater Majok has withdrawn from the University of Connecticut Huskies basketball program. After a disappointing first season, which he started late due to eligibility issues, it has become apparent that Aussie-Sudanese Majok was not working well in the UConn program. Read more about the news at the CT Post.

In other news, more posts on the FIBA World Championships will be coming from tomorrow onwards, as I recap the days past and begin covering the playoff rounds of the tournament.

To say that last night's victory by the Australian Boomers over Germany was unexpected is an understatement. Sure, there was always the chance of a win for the Boomers -- and all in attendance from both countries agreed that it would be a tight match -- but for Australia to pull off this dismantling of Germany was a sizeable surprise.

The following entry was originally posted on the Official FIBA "BBall" App available on Nokia mobile phones. Get the app for yourself via the Ovi Store.

Watching three games of FIBA basketball per day is no easy task (I hear your hearts going out to us!). The emotion involved in watching one thrilling basketball battle after another drains fans of vital energy. And where do they turn to replenish this? The fine restaurants of Turkey, of course.

The World Championships are pumping along just nicely, with the second day of action now under way.

Day one in Kayseri saw a mixed bag of results. Firstly the Aussies gave their fans near heart-attacks with their last gasp win over lowly-ranked Jordan. Andrew Vlahov was in the stands to cheer the Boomers on. Defence was the main deficiency for the Aussies as they let the Jordanians waltz in for numerous uncontested baskets. The only Aussie performances of note came from David Andersen and Aleks Maric. In fact, Maric's performance was so dominant that I had German girls in my hotel asking what NBA team he played for. He was the cog inside that the boomers definitely needed with Andrew Bogut's absence. Meanwhile, Patty Mills didn't show enough on either end to justify my usual man-love for him.

Next up we saw Serbia tear African champions Angola to pieces. They were simply too big for Angola and came away as 50 point winners.

The marquee matchup of the day saw an always tough Argentina take on a youthful Germany. The crowd participation in this one was integral, as the Argies showed off their chants against the Deutsch drummers. The game was tight during the first half, with Germany leading marginally most of the way, until Argentina pulled away in the third. Germany took advantage of their opponents' seemingly napping in the fourth to pull thee game right back to level, behind some stellar play by guards Steffen Hamann and Demond Greene. However the experienced Argentinians managed to hold out for a tight victory.

Day two sees Australia attempt to withstand the might of Argentina, a potential nail-biter between Germany and Serbia and another potential tight one between Angola and Jordan.

Whilst updates to A Stern Warning usually have to wait til I return to my hotel at night, twitter updates @ASternWarning come thick and fast during the games, so make sure following...

For those that missed the Team USA v Greece warmup game yesterday, you can check out the highlights below. Ultimately, it wasn't a close game, but Greece always had the excuse that they were missing three key players. Bring on the real games!

Finally it has almost arrived. The 2010 FIBA World Championships tip off in Turkey in just over two days and I will be there on the ground, trying to give you coverage of as many matches as possible.

If you have a Nokia new-generation phone, then make sure you download the BBALL app through the Ovi Store, as I will be part of a team updating the app content as the championships roll on. And hopefully there will be plenty of coverage right here at A Stern Warning as well.

Meanwhile, as I sit on a very long plane ride, check out a couple of videos from recent days.

After months of preparation and trials, the Australian Boomers 2010 World Championships team has been named. And it's mostly as expected. Let's take a look...