Basketball Australia is confirming the Final 12 selected for the Emus for the upcoming FIBA U18 Asia Cup to be hosted in India from 13 – 23 August.
There’s an arsenal of talent at the disposal of incoming U19 Emus coach Luke Brennan who will be looking to make a statement against Asia’s best later this month.
A hyper-competitive camp has Brennan’s men ready to fire in Ahmedabad.
“One of the things that I asked of the group in camp was that they play the right way and compete in everything that they do,” said Brennan.
“My biggest take away after the four days in camp was we've got a super competitive bunch and the guys just went after it. It made selection really difficult because there were so many talented athletes who all played the right way,”
“My primary objective was to hold the players accountable to the things that we're expecting as a team and we deliberately leaned into athleticism and positional size and that's the modern game of basketball,”
“We wanted to imprint the non-negotiables on the defensive side. If we execute at a high standard, we will get stops which will allow us to get out and run and attack.”
2026 FIBA U18 Asia Cup
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13
Riak Akhuar Centre
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12
John Aryang Centre
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14
Yahya Basaran Forward
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9
Antonio Browne Gurad
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15
Harry Cook Forward
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10
Curtis Evic Guard
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15
Jai Fa'ale Guard
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11
William Hamilton Forward
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5
Bailey Hanson Forward
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6
Josh McCann Guard
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9
Isaac Riddle Forward
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1
Marley Sam Guard
The U19 pathway is important for development, but Brennan’s placement in the program will ultimately instil traits that are essential to the Australian style of basketball.
“Having exposure to the Boomers program I can start to incorporate some of the values and the things that Adam Caporn values up at the Boomers level to make the transition seamless if the players get the opportunity,” said Brennan.
“I think when you think of Australians in general, we're tough, we're hardworking. We really celebrate mateship and doing things as a collective rather than individually,”
“So when you look at that on a basketball court, we want teams and players that are unselfish, that do things together, whether it's offensively just sharing the ball, making the right play, defensively selling out for each other, competing and playing hard,” added Brennan.
“The task at hand is to get these guys in the right spots and then it's their job to use their natural talent to go and gain an advantage and make the right plays.”
The path to progression was announced by FIBA last week with Australia drawn in a group with Thailand, Philippines and Chinese Taipei.
It’s go-time for the Emus on Thursday, 13 August with the opener against Thailand.
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