Nine NBL Players to Represent Boomers

Saturday, February 18, 2023

Basketball Australia has announced the Boomers team for the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers to be held at the State Basketball Centre next week in Melbourne.

Nine players from the 12-man squad come from the NBL, as the league maintains a strong presence in the national program.

Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medallists Nathan Sobey (Brisbane Bullets) and Nick Kay will reunite for the first time since their historic place on the podium in Japan, while Isaac Humphries (Melbourne United) returns to the team following his last appearance in 2019.

The youngest member of the team, 19-year-old Centre of Excellence graduate, Alex Toohey, is ready to suit up in the green and gold alongside Boomer debutants Mason Peatling (United) and Nick Marshall (Adelaide 36ers).

Mitch McCarron (36ers), Mitch Norton (Perth Wildcats), Daniel Grida (Illawarra Hawks), Todd Blanchfield (Wildcats) and Kyle Adnam (South East Melbourne Phoenix) will all come into the team following their NBL seasons.

Emerging talents Rocco Zikarsky, Alex Condon and Ben Henshall from the Centre of Excellence will join the team as training players.

Jason Smith, former Boomers Captain and Director, Senior National Teams, knows the importance of giving young athletes experience training alongside some of Australia’s best basketball talent.

“These young athletes have been identified as potential Boomers of the future, we want to immerse them in our culture and give them access to our most experienced players,” Smith said.

“Developing our next generation of players is key to the ongoing success of our national teams.”

Head Coach, Dean Vickerman, is pleased with the balance of experience in the team.

“We have a lot of seasoned campaigners with McCarron, Sobey, Vague and Kay. We have a great group of talented guys coming out of the NBL and this is a great step for them,” Vickerman said.

Australia has already qualified for the World Cup which begins in August.

The Boomers will head to Melbourne to commence training on Sunday.

Event Dates
Thursday 23 February, 7pm AEDT – Australia v Bahrain
Sunday 26 February, 3pm AEDT – Australia v Kazakstan

Location

State Basketball Centre

Wantirna South, VIC

Australian Boomers Team:

Mitch McCarron

Mitch Norton

Nathan Sobey

Kyle Adnam

Nick Marshall