RIO DE JANEIRO -- At least one member of Australia's traveling party believes it would be a mistake to give the early darlings of the men's basketball tournament zero shot at an upset Wednesday night when the Boomers take on the highly favored United States.
"It's always possible, mate," Australia assistant coach and former NBA championship-winning center Luc Longley said Monday after an impressive 95-80 win over Serbia moved the Americans' next opponent to a surprising 2-0 in Group A.
"There are no impossibilities in basketball."
Yet it should be stressed that Longley, like all of Australia's players, is realistic about the challenge ahead, even after their stirring victories over a top medal contender in France and a Serbian squad that finished second to the United States in the 2014 FIBA World Cup.