Andrew Bogut has proved himself this season with the Milwaukee Bucks as a solid professional NBA player and that was no surprise after his 2004 Olympic campaign with Australia.

Fellow Australian centre Luke Schenscher looks ready to secure his spot in the NBA, hooking up with the Chicago Bulls at the end of the season.

But those aren't the only two players from Down Under worth talking about. CSKA Moscow captured the Euroleague title despite not having the services of big man David Andersen. Baylor University sophomore Aaron Bruce has established himself as one of the best guards in the Big 12 Conference.

St Mary's California graduate Daniel Kickert is someone more and more people will hear of in the future, as well as Alex Loughton from Old Dominion University.

All six of those players went through the storied Australian Institute of Sport - an organisation which trains the best Australians in dozens of female and male sports.

The AIS also makes up most of the Australia's junior basketball teams. And Bogut and the boys were AIS students when they captured the 2003 FIBA World Championship for Junior Men in Greece.

Marty Clarke coached the Australian junior team which won the title. He's been at the AIS since 2000 and has had a major impact in developing most of the young basketball talent from Down Under.

Clarke also coached the Australian team at the recent Albert Schweitzer Tournament in Mannheim, Germany - an international U-18 tournament used by many as a top warm-up for the FIBA World Championship for Junior Men.

The coach talked to PA Sport's David Hein about Australia's chances at the 2007 FIBA U18 World Championship; what the senior Boomers teams needs to succeed at the FIBA World Championship in Japan; as well as the development of Bogut, Schenscher and the other top Australian talent.

Coach, the team finished ninth at the Mannheim tournament from 16 teams. What do you think about your team's performance?

It's been certainly solid. We've missed some opportunities certainly in the French game with some free throws. We missed 15 free throws and in a five-point game that really hurt. I think the Lithuanian game we played well enough to win. But we were missing the inside help. We really don't have a great inside player yet. And until we get one I don't think we're going to get too far.

What would you say are the strengths of this class of junior players?

Defensively we're really able to get out and pressure people. I think being a tight-knit group helps in situations like that - where they really rely on each other and trust each other. (Playmaker) Patrick (Mills) is certainly as good a point guard as there is going around. But we need to rebound and play offence from the paint to become a great team.

What about the bigs you have out there? It seems like Andrew Olgivy is getting close to being a factor?

Olgivy is not that far away. He just needs to get a hard edge to him. But we don't get this kind of competition at home. So if we could leave him here for a couple months I think he could be a really good player. We have another kid at home who will add some toughness to the group - a 6-7 forward. And for the others it's a learning curve, a steep one.

Has the Mannheim tournament served as a great warm-up for Australia's Junior World Championships qualifiers?

Yeah we have qualifiers in the first weekend in August. Australia play against New Zealand, which is a bit of an issue since we qualify against just one team. These guys play tough games probably every weekend so our qualifying series doesn't prepare us for World Championships very well. We only get three games and that's it.

So if Australia do qualify, you would probably be looking to play some friendly matches?

We're looking for games in November right now actually. Hopefully we've made some contacts, and we might be able to get some. We would also hope to come back some time just before Worlds. It's really, really expensive to do that. But if we're going to be good, we gotta make that sacrifice. So we're on the hunt for games right now.

Where do you see the team right now compared to the rest of the world?

I think the thing we're really missing right now is a dominant big. I think we have some decent ones. And we're two years behind these kids who obviously came through the cadets system. These guys have been together now for a month and that's it. We don't have the practice history or the team history. We came here four with a team that came ninth and ended up winning the World Championships. So there's hope for us, no doubt.

Looking at the senior group in Japan, the Boomers have an amazingly difficult group. What are your thoughts on Group C with Greece, Brazil, Lithuania, Turkey and Qatar - with only four going through?

Yeah it's going to be tough for them. They have a group of bigs who haven't been together that are coming back in Bogut, Schenscher, Kickert, (Matt) Nielsen (from Lithuanian side Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius) and Andersen. So the team that's preparing right now is going to be immensely different than from what shows up and plays. And really their key is going to be how quickly they can work out their roles and jell as a group. Because they have some very talented players. But unlike everyone else, they don't ever get to see each other.

Article courtesy of www.fiba.com