International sports in Oceania are weird, bizarre, silly, and incredible in all the best ways. Currently the FIBA U17 Basketball Championships are happening in Guam, and the tournament, particularly on the womens side, has devolved into Australia, New Zealand, and Samoa beating up on everyone else. <\/p>\n
This culminated on Tuesday when Australia beat the Marshall Islands, 166-3. The box score is pretty incredible. <\/p>\n
However, the beauty of tournaments like this is giving tiny nations, like the Marshall Islands (population 28,000) or Palau (21,000), an opportunity to play in a major tournament. Its exposure and experience they wouldnt get any other way, and these countries LOVE basketball. Over 1,000 people turned up to a tournament in the Marshall Islands last year, which might not sound like much until you appreciate that its 20 percent of their population. <\/p>\n
On some level it feels wrong to laugh at whats happened in this tournament. These counties are doing their best, but we that feeling cant be mutually exclusive from appreciating whats happening at a large-scale, international tourney. <\/p>\n
As of Tuesday morning a total of eight games have been played in the womens tournament. These are the scores: <\/p>\n
Its just a whole bunch of islands, big and small, playing each other in games with an average margin of victory of 104.75 points. FIBA knows the field of play problem, every sport does. The disparity between nations is such that winning Oceania doesnt give you an automatic bid into larger international tournaments, both in basketball and soccer. <\/p>\n
This tournament will end with Australia playing New Zealand, just like it always does and we can appreciate the simple things ... like a 110-31 win. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The rest is here:<\/p>\n
Australia beat Marshall Islands, 166-3, which is normal in this bizarre tournament - SB Nation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" International sports in Oceania are weird, bizarre, silly, and incredible in all the best ways. Currently the FIBA U17 Basketball Championships are happening in Guam, and the tournament, particularly on the womens side, has devolved into Australia, New Zealand, and Samoa beating up on everyone else. This culminated on Tuesday when Australia beat the Marshall Islands, 166-3 Continue reading