Basketball On The Internet.

WE’VE become almost blasé about our Opals claiming medals at major international events such as FIBA World Championships and the Olympic Games, but Australia is in real danger ahead of Rio.

Losses to Italy, Canada and France on the Opals squad’s recent European tour reinforces Brendan Joyce and his coaching team cannot mess around with the final 12 players for the Games.

To content ourselves by saying “there was a huge free throw disparity” in one of those losses or that “we didn’t have our WNBA stars on tour” runs the risk of letting hubris rule decision-making.

Case in point right now is we all know Penny Taylor and Erin Phillips – stars of our 2014 World Champs campaign but currently playing in the WNBA – have their tickets punched to go to Rio, injury notwithstanding.

So too, Lizzie Cambage (below).

With Lauren Jackson out of the equation, Liz is going to need help and the fact is, Joyce clearly has pencilled in Perth Lynx pivot Natalie Burton for a trip to Brazil.

Burton is the unspoken “elephant in the room” regarding Rio selection and, sorry, but there’s not a statistical fact that justifies her being on that plane.

The other candidates for roles in Joyce’s frontcourt have much better credentials despite his ardent protestations Burton “is an international-quality defender” who runs the floor well.

Apologies to Burton, who is in no way responsible for how others view her, but she is not an international-quality women's basketball player.

If so, she would be dominating our homegrown competition, surely.

In our domestic WNBL, Burton finished 50th – that is 50TH – in the league in scoring, averaging 5.96ppg for Perth.

How that rates against just power forwards and centres, she was 10th for those eligible to represent Australia, in other words, excluding import bigs.

Suzy Batkovic led the WNBL with 20.8ppg, Gabe Richards 10th on 15.5ppg, Abby Bishop 14th on 14.6, Cayla George 21st with 13.6, Elyse Penaluna 24th with 13.3, Carley Mijovic 28th on 11.6, Nadeen Payne 36th with 10.2, Louella Tomlinson 41st delivering 8.9ppg, Alex Bunton 49th with 6.3ppg. Then comes Natalie.

If not a quality scorer, let’s go to rebounding where she was the 26th best boards-banger in a season where her team reached the Grand Final Series.

Again, among relevant “bigs” who could suit for Australia in Rio, Burton was seventh.

THE BEST: Lauren Jackson, would have been an automatic selection, if fit.

Cayla George led the league with 11.9 caroms per outing, Gabe Richards fourth with 9.1, Suzy Batkovic fifth with 8.8, Abby Bishop ninth with 7.7, Elyse Penaluna 10th with 7.2 and Louella Tomlinson 24th on 5.4rpg. Then comes Natalie with 5.2rpg.

Finally, shot-blocking is another relevant stat for big-time defenders and Burton ranks 10th in a field reduced only to Aussie “bigs” who could go to Rio – so no imports, guards or small forwards were included in this list.

The stats – that is, the FACTS – have Louella Tomlinson with 1.74bpg, Suzy Batkovic with 1.25, Gabe Richards 1.08, Abby Bishop 1.08, Cayla George 1.07, Elyse Penaluna 0.96, Lauren Scherf 0.60, Nadeen Payne 0.423, Carley Mijovic 0.407. Then comes Natalie with 0.33.

In the big matches, and none were bigger than the two Grand Final playoffs, as Townsville beat Perth 73-57 in Game 1 in Perth, Burton had three points and one rebound. Opponents Suzy Batkovic (25 and 9) and Cayla George (8 and 12) performed substantially better.

In the do-or-die Game 2, Burton scored six points and had three rebounds. Batkovic went 16 and 16, George 13 and three.

Marianna Tolo stepped up hugely for the Opals at the 2014 Worlds in Turkey but suffered an ACL tear in the 2015 WNBA season with Los Angeles Sparks.

Tolo, 26 and 196cm, travelled with the touring Opals and hit the court for their last three European games in France.

In the 90-69 win over China, Tolo was reintroduced to the lineup and looked the goods in 10:30, with four points and a couple of boards.

BIG RETURN: Marianna Tolo, left, back with the Opals on tour.

She added a fifth “possible” to the list of Burton, Batkovic, George and Bishop (away with Seattle Storm in the WNBA) to play alongside Cambage.

But in those key three games, the stats again were stark. After beating China, Australia lost 60-72 to Canada, then 50-58 to France.

Over those three games, Burton started in each and averaged 20:54 minutes for 2.7ppg, 3.3rpg, 3.0apg, 0.3 blocks and 1.0 turnovers. She certainly was given her opportunities and ahead of other Opals with much better numbers and results in head-to-head battles.

Tolo averaged 12:36 on court for 4.3ppg, 1.7rpg, 0.67apg, 0.67bpg and 1.0 turnovers.

Batkovic played 8:51 and had 5.7ppg, 3.0rpg, 0.3apg, 0.67bpg and 0.67 turnovers.

George saw 5:52 of action for 1.7ppg, 1.7rpg and 0.67tpg.

It is clear who Joyce favours and hats off to him for giving a number of players opportunities they otherwise may never have received.

Along with Burton, he also identified guard Tessa Lavey at a time when she was warming the bench at Bendigo. Lavey has kicked on and veterans, such as Kristen Veal and Kelly Wilson also justified faith he put in them on previous campaigns.

But he has Burton 100 percent wrong and it is as if everyone in Australian basketball knows it but doesn’t want to say it aloud.

This is nothing personal against Burton. The first time I saw her playing for West Coast in a WNBL preseason tournament at Dandenong Stadium, I thought she had promise too, and great energy and enthusiasm.

But, other than someone's belief, there’s not a single stat that warrants starting her or even including her amid Australia’s best bigs. Alongside Louella Tomlinson, she arguably may not even be Perth’s best big!

Instead we hear unofficial misgivings around the traps such as Batkovic’s “inability to defend at international level” or Bishop’s game “not translating internationally”.

That’s bunkum.

Batkovic has won four of the past five MVPs and Bishop the other one. (That's in the same league Burton plays in). Both have represented Australia internationally and also won championships in the WNBA. (Yes, in the WNBA, not just in the WNBL.)

If you’re starting a roster from scratch and you can select any “B” you want, it would be Batkovic or Bishop well before Burton.

At 27, it is not as if she is a prodigy either. George and Bishop are the same age, Tolo younger and Batkovic just happens to be the best player running around in this country.

Our last team with unfortunate selections and notable omissions in 2010 finished fifth. Our London Olympic team omitted Erin Phillips.

Blind faith can only go so far. At the moment, it appears to be going all the way to Rio and with Australian Government funding now contingent on medalling, indulgence and oversight are very risky commodities.