NEWCASTLE (Paul Nilsen's Women's Basketball Worldwide) - It's time for the second part of my appraisal of the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women in Turkey. If you missed part one from last week, read it here.

Ups
4. Exactly two weeks ago, I said Spain could beat USA. While I still do believe that, you have to give maximum credit to the champions. They were absolutely terrific as a team in the Final - team being the key element. Even more impressive when you look at the missing players such as Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne and Tamika Catchings. It further underlined their talent pool and dominance. The champions showed their class and quality after an arguably sluggish start and considering they were integrating several new faces.

5. Canada were arguably the story of Turkey 2014. From the plain vanilla flavour of the last decade, they found some much needed spice with an array of emerging talent alongside the steady hands of players like Kim Gaucher, Miranda Ayim and Shona Thorburn. I loved seeing new UConn recruit Kia Nurse, but Nirra Fields was also great - as was Miah-Marie Langlois, arguably the find of the tournament.

Coaching in her first major tournament on the global stage, Lisa Thomaidis did well. It is just a pity they played their worst game in the Quarter-Finals. However, there's a huge wealth of competition underpinning this senior team and pushing for inclusion in coming years. Why be vanilla and be 8-12 in the world, when you could be a podium challenger in the future - even if you might get the occasional bloody nose getting there - something which is the price on the ticket of having an injection of dynamic young players.

6. Mozambique lost all three games but proudly flew the African flag with a great opening effort against Canada and although Turkey played their bench players - it was a wholly impressive way to sign off. Even when being soundly beaten by France, Leia Dongue hustled back in the closing stages for a spectacular block which was one of my highlights of the tournament. It was an act that epitomised Mozambique women's basketball.

Well coached by Nasir Sale - who is a hard worker and proof that coaching talent exists in Africa - they showed improvement from two years ago at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Women. Dongue is another hard worker and a gem that nobody in Europe or America have picked up -but she deserves to be on talent and application. Mozambique were everything to African basketball which Angola sadly weren't.

Downs
4. To say Brazil are in crisis might be overstating the case, but they have serious problems ahead of Rio 2016. They were so far off the pace, disjointed, unable to play with any kind of coherent strategy and suffered a downright failure to utilise the size of their frontcourt. The alarm bells should be ringing. However I do think in Patricia 'Patty' Teixera, they have at least found a streaky shooter who could prove a difference-maker in years to come with added experience.

5. The All-Star Five is all about an opinion and very, very subjective. So from a very personal standpoint, I thought it was an inaccurate reflection of what actually happened. Penny Taylor did a veteran job as you would expect from a legendary player, but was surely outshone by two of her own Opals' team-mates in Marianna Tolo and Erin Phillips. I also think Tina Charles deserved to be on there instead of Brittney Griner (who was still very impressive).

6. I continually put up with jibes about missed lay-ups from those who hate on the women's game. It hurts and frustrates, but has become almost impossible to defend. After a year when youth basketball suffered from an extraordinarily high number of missed lay-ups and general poor quality, I thought senior players added to the problem with more sloppy finishing. Missed lay-ups will always happen, but there is no excuse for the number of them this year.

I'm not convinced it is all down to technique - only an abject failure of concentration and execution in key moments. I am not an expert to say if it is deep-rooted and a gender thing.

Athleticism is fine and a welcome evolution, but good old-fashioned fundamentals are in danger of letting the women's game down. More worrying was the quality of the passing and the continual failure to get the ball inside from the appropriate angles. Far too many weak passes were lobbed from the wing into the post and deservedly turned over.

Apologies for excluding history making Spain (but I gave them plenty of credit in my column two weeks ago). Next week, I will look at some of the young or new stars who made a splash across the competition.

Paul Nilsen

FIBA

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