Australia stand in way of USA's bid to three-peat

DUBAI (FIBA U17 World Championship) - Australia represent the last hurdle standing in the way of the United States who will look to complete their third straight undefeated run when the two powers clash in the Final of the 2014 FIBA U17 World Championship.

Saturday's last game in Dubai is also a repeat of the 2012 U17 Worlds title game.

Two summers ago, the likes of Jabari Parker, Jahlil Okafor and Justise Winslow guided the Americans to their second title, knocking off Dante Exum, Ben Simmons and Australia 95-62.

Both countries have seen players introduce themselves to the basketball world in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the main question will be if Isaac Humphries, Dejan Vasiljevic and Harry Froling can do what Exum and Simmons couldn't - namely hand USA their first loss in U17 Worlds history.

Don’t be surprised if Mark Watkins and the rest of the Australia coaching staff look a bit tired as they likely stayed up late trying to come up with a game plan to knock off the Americans.

The basic idea will likely be to collectively crash the boards and race back in transition defense to keep the USA uber-athletes from running on the break. All the while hoping the likes of point guard Malik Newman doesn’t just break down the first line of defense while Diamond Stone and Caleb Swanigan clear space in the middle and Harry Giles, Josh Jackson and Henry Ellenson beat you in a number of ways in between.

Australia for their part must get superb performances from their guards, knowing that Humphries will get his and Frohling is growing with more and more confidence. The versatility of Kyle Clark could be an important weapon for the Australians.

But Tom Wilson, Vasiljevic and Matt Owies need to handle that suffocating USA pressure defense. And Australia cannot afford to get down by 22 points against USA like they did against Spain. Otherwise, it’s put out the lights, story over, USA gets the three-peat.

FIBA