There seems to be a little bit of a trend lately. Inspiring videos are popping up on youtube and in news bulletins, showing high school teams giving opportunities to disadvantaged team mates and team managers. Often they are someone who has loyally served the team and shown support, and the team decides to reward that by getting the player a basket at the end of a game.

This video is a little different, in that the basket comes at the start of the game, and it's a dunk. 

From the youtube video description (by Sean Mullaney):

Joey Mullaney, a senior manager for Lawrence Academy's Men's Basketball Team, dunks the ball to start the game on senior day. Joey suffers from Friedreich's Ataxia, a rare, neurological disorder that has sidelined him from playing and forced him into a managerial role. However, Joey suited up for his final game on senior day and starts the game with a dunk.

Australian Rules Football club, the North Melbourne Kangaroos, has signed Eric Wallace, an American College basketball player, to a two year contract after he impressed in a 10 day trial and the AFL Draft Combine in October.

Wallace is described as a 196cm (6'5"), 102kg (224lb) big man in this article, however his profile at Seattle University lists him as 6'7" and 233lb. It wouldn't be the first known case of "Pacific Shrinkage" however -- just ask all of the NBL teams that have brought out imports over the years!

Wallace, who also attended Ohio State and DePaul, appears to have been an imposing rebounder and scorer in his collegiate career, playing as a forward.

If the North Carolina native makes the senior roster, he will be just the third American to do so. Conversely, a number of Australians have made the leap to America's NFL -- with Darren Bennett being the most successful.

He has been signed as an international rookie list player.

Coach Brad Scott said Wallace's work ethic and athletic ability suggested he was worth taking a chance on.

'Eric has worked extremely hard and proved to us he's willing to do whatever it takes to play AFL football,' Scott said.

'The ovation he received from the playing group when we announced his signing was evidence of how highly regarded Eric already is at our club and the way he has fitted in so easily.

'He still has a lot to learn about the game but his passion for Aussie rules is already very strong and his athletic ability is outstanding.'

Jack Taylor, a 5'10" sophomore, has scored a ridiculous 138 points for Grinnell College in their Division III NCAA game against Faith Baptist Bible College. The points total is an NCAA record at all division levels and shattered the previous NCAA record, set at 113 points by Clarence "Bevo" Francis of Rio Grande in 1954.

The previous Div III record was set by Taylor's teammate, Griffin Lentsch last year, with 89 points.

Taylor had already amassed 58 points by half time in this defensive slugfest, with the final score of the game being 179-104. He jacked up a crazy 108 shots, making 52 (.481) of them. 71 of those shots were from long range, with him connecting on 27 of them for a 38% clip.

Unsurprisingly, he contributed zero assists to go along with his three steals, six turnovers and three rebounds in 36 minutes of game action. For those of you counting at home, he put up an average of three shots a minute -- or one every 20 seconds. That type of rate is difficult on many levels... time simply doesn't allow for that much possession in a game typically, nor does an opposing defence. And then there is the fatigue in that shooting arm that sets in too.

Watch the video of part of his performance and you'll see that the opposition did start to double and triple team him at some points, to little avail.

It's worth noting that no fewer than 20 players saw courttime for Grinnell in this game -- is this a common occurrence in NCAA Div III games? I have to admit my ignorance here. The only other player on his team to hit double figures was Aaron Levin with 13, followed by previous record holder (and possibly sulking) Lentsch with seven points.

As defence was clearly not a priority in this game, David Larson of Faith Baptist top-scored for the other team with 70 points. Two of his teammates had 16 and 15 turnovers respectively -- that says plenty right there.

Box score

Patty Mills has certainly turned on the inspired play for the Australian Boomers at an optimal time of the Olympic Basketball tournament. After pouring in 39 points against host nation Great Britain, Mills hit a buzzer-beating three point shot to give Australia a two point victory over previously undefeated Russia.

After two losses to Spain and Brazil to start the tournament, the Boomers convincingly took down China to stem the bleeding. Entering the game against Team GB, they needed victory to ensure their presence in the medal knockout rounds, however things did not start out well. The Boomers were down by 15 points in the third quarter, before turning things around to surprisingly finish with a 31 point victory. 

Mills put up 39 points on 5/7 three point shooting and 64% from the field to lead the Boomers. That points total represented the highest by any player in the tournament during the 2012 Games and capped a 70-29 second half by Australia. 

Coming into the Russia game, Australia had already ensured a crossover match with the might of Team USA, but were looking to ensure momentum. And no better momentum could be guaranteed than the thrill of a last second three by Mills to pull Australia through to a 3-2 record with a win over Russia. 

As you can see from the above shaky video footage, Mills received a perfect pass at the top of the key and drilled the three to put the Boomers ahead by two as time expired. Brett Brown drew the play up impeccably and plenty of credit must go to Matthew Dellavedova for a solid screen to get Mills open.

(I had uploaded the final minute of the game to YouTube, but a little thing called Copyright restrictions meant that I had to delete that.)

Next up for Australia is Team USA on Wednesday. The Aussies will be hoping to use their quickness and the physical toughness of their experienced bigs to keep the USA in check for at least three quarters. If they can stay in touch until the fourth quarter, anything can happen. Of course, no one is expecting the game to be remotely close, which gives Australia the 'nothing-to-lose' mentality that can cause upsets.

Things have been a little quiet lately here at A Stern Warning with the Olympics in full swing. You may wonder why... well, I've been writing over at the Olympic Basketball Blog for the duration of the London Games. Check it out, as there is some really good coverage of the Games coming from a range of writers, covering things from multiple angles with numerous articles per day. 

Liz Cambage of the Australian Opals today threw down what is believed to be the first dunk in Women's Olympics Basketball history against Russia. Watch it from about seven different camera angles below, as she carves up the matador-esque defence.

ASDASD by dm_5016b225ee5bc 

Australian womens basketball superstar Lauren Jackson has been rightly accorded the honour of being flag bearer for Australia at the 2012 London Olympic Games. The announcement was made earlier this morning (Australian EST) by Chef de Mission of the Australian Olympic Team, Nick Green.

Jackson has helped the Australian Opals to three straight silver medals at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games, with the USA being the only thing that has blocked their path to gold. On three occasions she has been named the Australian International Player of the Year (1999, 2000, 2002). Her WNBA and WNBL performances have seen her win 3 WNBA and 4 WNBL MVP awards along with numerous championships in both leagues.

“I congratulate the Australian Olympic Committee on their selection of Lauren as the flag bearer for London, not just because she is one of our own basketballers, but because she embodies what is great about Australia and the Olympic ideal,” said Basketball Australia Interim CEO Scott Derwin from London. “She strives for excellence every single day and has achieved success at every level. Lauren is the ultimate competitor who won’t back down from any challenge. I think she is the perfect choice to carry the flag.”

Incoming CEO of BA, Kristina Keneally, also was full of praise for Jackson.

“Lauren will be the ideal representative for all Australians in London, including the over one million people around the country who play basketball,” said Keneally. “She is an outstanding athlete, an exceptional leader and a terrific role model who has inspired so many young Australians with her amazing performances.

“Our best ever men’s basketballer carried the flag in Sydney in Andrew Gaze.  Lauren is quite clearly our best ever female basketballer, and quite possibly the greatest female player of all time.  I can’t think of a better choice as flag bearer.”

The Olympic Village is traditionally a place where world class athletes come together and share a common admiration for each other and their exploits. As athletes arrived in the United Kingdom for the fast-approaching start to the 2012 Games, it turns out that both the Australian swimming team and the Team USA basketball squad are sharing the same Manchester hotel. 

A show of mutual fandom was shown when NBA star Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers) visited the pool where the Aussies were swimming. The swimmers took turns greeting Kobe and sharing the love. Of course, Aussie swim hearththrob Stephanie Rice took centre stage when she presented the Black Mamba with a Team AUS swimming costume -- which Kobe apparently questioned the size of (watch video here, courtesy of Australia's Nine News).

Rice took to her instagram account to post the photo above with Bryant. I just love the big wet handprint on Kobe's chest, not to mention the goofy grins of shared Olympic joy.

News broke yesterday by Fairfax newspapers indicated that there was a discrepancy between the London Olympic travel arrangements of Australian male and female athletes, including basketball representatives the Boomers and Opals. According to Samantha Lane of The Age:

Australia's women basketballers have confirmed they also had different travel arrangements to the men's squad for the journey to London. While the Boomers flew in business class, the Opals made the long-haul trip in premium economy - and that was an upgrade.

The Opals have never protested publicly about this longstanding treatment of national teams and players would not comment on the record today, but they do not like it and say such inequality has been a long-standing source of contention.

The Opals have won silver medals at the last three Olympics, bronze in 1996, and are hell-bent on gold in London. The Boomers, by comparison, have never won a Olympics medal, although they have come close three times, finishing fourth in 1988 and 2000 and sixth in 1992.

A Basketball Australia spokeswoman said the women's and men's teams each had a budget, which they helped decide how to spend.

When asked for comment, a Basketball Australia spokeswoman said that many factors were taken into account when booking travel, including height and size.

"For example, the average height of our male basketball players is 200.2cm. The average height of our female basketball players is 183cm."

But Basketball Australia was unable to confirm if flight arrangements had ever been based on individuals' heights given Opals rising star Liz Cambage is 203 cm tall, while Boomers players Adam Gisbon and Patrick Mills stand 188 cm and 183cm respectively.

Lane goes on to add in a subsequent article:

Further investigation reveals the Opals are not alone in being treated as second-class  citizens.  National women's soccer and cricket teams are flown economy,  while their male counterparts' teams travel in business. This is despite the fact that, in basketball and soccer, the women's teams have much higher international rankings.

Of course, I'd venture that most people would agree with me that our Olympic athletes should all be flying in the best comfort possible in order to pull off the best performances that they can in London. After all, there will be a whole nation of people watching them perform, expecting success. With all of the money spent on sport development in Australia, flight arrangements on 24 hour flights are pretty important and relatively low in cost -- particularly when you're talking about over-sized, above-average height athletes like our basketball stars. 

That said, the Opals themselves have not openly complained of the premium economy treatment themselves. It still doesn't make it the right decision. Do people make mistakes sometimes? Of course they do.

According to a statement from Basketball Australia Acting CEO Scott Derwin this morning, BA needs to review the process.

"Travel arrangements fall under a longstanding policy put in place some time ago. It sits at an operational level, and the development of the policy is not something the board would have contributed to.

"The policy around budgets for each national team gives the leadership group of those teams some discretion over how their funds are spent - and that includes travel arrangements.

"We should bear in mind that in fact, historically, more funding has been directed towards the Opals.

"But the simple fact is when a policy results in gender inequality, it's very clearly not the right policy going forward.

"I am putting in place a review of our Olympic travel policy with the goal of ensuring there is equity between travel arrangements for the men's and women's teams attending future Olympics.

"Part of this review will include consultations with the Opals, the Boomers, and the Australian Olympic Committee."

Incoming Chief Executive Officer Kristina Keneally will start in the role on the 4th of August. Ms Keneally welcomed Mr Derwin's decision to hold a review.

"In this day and age, there's just no excuse for men's and women's sporting teams to be treated differently when they both compete at the same world class level," Ms Keneally said.

"In fact, in this circumstance, the disparity is even more glaring when you consider that our women's basketball team is one of the best in the world - enjoying the number 2 spot in international rankings."

Ms Keneally said the review would be completed within three months.

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Ben Coupet (Simeon) is a 6'7" eighth grader from Chicago. Check out this dunk he throws down during the 2012 Fab Frosh Camp in Atlanta. Just remember, this kid doesn't graduate from high school until 2016.

We're currently in the early stages of the 2012 NBA Playoffs but for many domestic leagues around the world where the season is over, the focus right now has shifted to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

With that in mind, let's take a brief overview of what is to come in the mens tournament. Since the team rosters -- and even some of the competing teams themselves -- are yet to be finalised, this will be a high level preview of what is to come. As the Olympics approach, we'll get into more detail with predictions and in-depth comparisons.

Format

Firstly, let's examine the format that will be taken on by the tournament. There will be 12 teams involved in the Olympic tournament, with them being split into two groups of six teams.

A round-robin is played in each group initially (ie each team plays each other once), before going on to the knock-out round where the four highest placed teams from each group go on to battle for the medals. In other words, the two worst teams from each group are knocked out, effectively eliminating those teams that are not up to the same standard, but got through due to the nature of the qualification tournaments and regions.

Competing nations

Of the twelve competing nations, only nine have been decided to-date.

• Great Britain will feature in the Olympics, as the host nation, after a long absence from impact in international basketball. With the likes of forwards Luol Deng (Chicago Bulls), Joel Freeland (Unicaja Malaga) and head coach Chris Finch (Houston Rockets), Team GB may surprise some on their home court.
• United States are the clear favourites, as always. Whilst markets for basketball betting at the Olympics are not yet open, as far as I'm aware, there is every likelihood that Team USA will be unbackable. USA qualified for the Olympics via winning the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey. Their team will likely be largely similar to that which won Gold in Turkey and Beijing, with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade (both Miami Heat), Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers), Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder), Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls) and Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves) making for a formiddable core.
• Tunisia make their way into the Olympics as the winners of the 2011 FIBA Africa Championship after beating traditional African heavyweights Angola in their first ever Championship victory. Whilst Tunisia will likely be present at the Olympics just to make up the numbers, the experience for the likes of 25-year old 7'1" captain Salah Mejri (Antwerp Diamond Giants, Belgium) will be invaluable. 
• Argentina and Brazil are the two entrants to come out of the 2011 FIBA Americas Tournament (held in Argentina in September 2011). Both are stacked with NBA talent and are traditionally strong competitors right down to the medal stages. Argentina in particular won the 2004 Gold Medal, along with the 2008 Bronze and have a very strong history in basketball. Key players for Argentina include Manu Ginobili (San Antonio Spurs), Carlos Delfino (Milwaukee Bucks), Andres Nocioni (Philadelphia 76ers) and Luis Scola (Houston Rockets). Whilst Brazil's success in Olympic and World Championship medals came during the 1940s - 1970s, they do boast Tiago Splitter (San Antonio Spurs), Nene Hilario (Washington Wizards), Leandro Barbosa (Indiana Pacers), Anderson Varejao (Cleveland Cavaliers) in their ranks. However it is uncertain how many of those NBA-experienced players will represent at the Olympics.
• Australia are the representatives from the 2011 FIBA Oceania Championship, after sweeping the three-game series against New Zealand. The disastrous news for the Boomers is that they will be without NBA centre Andrew Bogut, who will be recovering from ankle surgery, however the fine play of San Antonio Spurs guard Patty Mills is very heartening. Australia is led by San Antonio Spurs assistant coach, Brett Brown and boast a fine array of internationally experienced big men and wing players.
• Spain and France are the two representatives to fight their way out of the 2011 FIBA Europe Championship, in what is always a tough tournament. Spain of course are the main competitors to the USA in recent years, after winning the Gold at the 2006 World Championships and taking out Silver at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Pau Gasol (Los Angeles Lakers), Rudy Fernandez (Denver Nuggets), Juan Carlos Navarro (Barcelona), Jose Calderon (Toronto Raptors), Marc Gasol (Memphis Grizzlies) and Congo-born Serge Ibaka (Oklahoma City Thunder) will form the core of the Spanish team, whilst star youngster Ricky Rubio (Minnesota Timberwolves) will miss through injury sustained in NBA play against Team USA's Kobe Bryant. France are led by Joakim Noah (Chicago Bulls), Tony Parker (San Antonio Spurs), Nicolas Batum (Portland Trail Blazers) and Boris Diaw (Spurs). Whilst they are stacked with talent, they have yet to win an international major tournament.
• China enter the tournament as the winners of the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship. Whilst they are the power of Asia, they are unlikely to make much noise in London. China is in the unfortunate situation where they have lost superstar Yao Ming to injury, whilst team stars Wang Zhizhi and Liu Wei are aging. They will rely largely on the talents of Yi Jianlian (Dallas Mavericks) and "the Chinese Magic Johnson" Sun Yue (Beijing) for any and all success.
• The three final competing teams in the Olympics will be decided via a qualifying tournament.

Qualifying Tournament

The 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament will be held in Caracas, Venezuela from 2-8 July, 2012. The teams that will compete for the three positions in the Olympics will be:

There are more quality teams in this qualifying tournament than there are available qualifying positions. Russia, basketball-crazy Lithuania, Greece, Puerto Rico and New Zealand are the best shots at progressing.

More previews and analysis to come as the Olympic Games approach. The games will be played from 28 July to 12 August, 2012.