Basketball On The Internet.

THE latest Australian Opals squad announced this week by Basketball Australia for the FIBA World Cup qualifiers in Serbia allegedly has been selected "on form" and so yes, it is great to see Anneli Maley there as we suggested here. But where is Lauren Scherf? And Kristy Wallace?

Scherf is positively killing it for Perth Lynx after growing in stature during her Opals stint at the Asia Cup. And Wallace has been a revelation off Southside's bench, making the most of the extra minutes she has been seeing due to COVID conditions wreaking havoc with their roster.

A 16-player squad, minus immediate past captain Jenna O'Hea who declared herself unavailable, means four cuts for coach Sandy Brondello. But who selected this squad?

Surely not disgraced Canberra Caps coach Paul Goriss, who has been an Opals assistant but now surely should no longer be anywhere near the program.

Obviously Brondello and members of BA's High Performance crew called the shots on this and, for the most part, got it right.

But Scherf, 25 and 196cm, is now starting to realise her potential, averaging 15.4 points per game at 52.5 per cent - second only to Ezi Magbegor's 55.6 among the "bigs" in the squad - 10.2 rebounds (fourth in the league and behind only Cayla George's 10.9 for "bigs" in the squad), and 1.6 assists.

She has scored in double figures in every Lynx fixture and enjoyed three double-doubles with points and rebounds out of their five games.

On top of that Asia Games performance where she led the Opals in rebounding and was second behind Sami Whitcomb for efficiency, what more could she be doing? Wasn't that the point of taking a youngish group to the Asia Cup, to see who may have what it takes? It worked for Jade Melbourne but for Scherf? Not so much, it seems.

Wallace was destined for stardom pre-knee injuries and has been showing her capabilities in the 22 minutes of action she now is seeing for the Flyers. Her 54 points (9.0ppg) have come at 47.6 per cent and she is a genuine spark.

Even comparing her to Flyers teammate and Opals squad member Maddison Rocci, the latter is playing 27.6 minutes and has scored 56 points (9.3ppg) at 39.6 per cent. 

Not saying scoring is the be-all and end-all at all, but Wallace is part of that Next Gen of Opals player so why she wasn't invited to this camp is a mystery.

The squad is Zitina Aokuso (Townsville Fire), Abby Bishop (Southside Flyers), Sara Blicavs  (Southside Flyers), Rebecca Cole (Southside Flyers), Darcee Garbin (Perth Lynx), Cayla George (Melbourne Boomers), Shyla Heal (Sydney Uni Flames), Tess Madgen  (Melbourne Boomers), Anneli Maley (Bendigo Spirit), Ezi Magbegor (Melbourne Boomers), Jade Melbourne (Uni of Canberra Capitals), Lauren Nicholson (Townsville Fire), Maddi Rocci (Southside Flyers), Alanna Smith (Adelaide Lightning), Steph Talbot (Adelaide Lightning), Sami Whitcomb (Perth Lynx).

These Opals will go into training camp in Sydney from January 31 to February 4, the 12 players to then be announced for the FIBA Women’s World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Serbia from February 10-13.

Australia has drawn Korea, Serbia and Brazil in its group, which should be a barrel of laughs given current Serbian sentiment toward all things Aussie.

If the obvious question hits you in the face - why is Australia even competing in a "qualifying tournament" when as the host nation for the 2022 FIBA World Cup it AUTOMATICALLY QUALIFIES? - then here's your answer. 

How the Opals fare will dictate their pool position for the Worlds. Obviously a good finish there will create a more preferable pool ranking here blah blah.

If that sounds somewhat lame and even borderline foolish - and I confess, I have my hand up in that querying camp - a better reason is the team could use all the international preparation it can get.

COVID interruptions previously severely curtailed Australia's preparations and it showed in Tokyo last year. But the addition of Russia's Olympic coach Olaf Lange to our coaching panel on the basis he is Sandy's husband didn't help much either.

Not sure being Sandy's hubby should be an important line on the resume but rest assured it was.

Now BA also has the Goriss dilemma because an integrity breach of the type he was found guilty of assuredly should permanently disqualify him from any involvement in a national program of any description, let alone the Opals.

If you are trying to rebuild a culture sabotaged ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, then surely anyone guilty of an integrity breach is definitely NOT someone who should be within a bull's roar of a national team working to salvage and re-start a reputation for focus, commitment and INTEGRITY.

But we are all well aware BA's High Performance crew has its favourites and Goriss is among them. It will be interesting to see how BA spins it, its recent record in such matters still far from exemplary or even satisfactory.

LAUREN SCHERF: She would be in my Opals 12, let alone a squad of 16.