MELBOURNE (Paulo Kennedy's View from Downunder) - From the U16s to the men and women, it was one of the more memorable international seasons in Oceania.

The games were fierce but played in great spirit, and you could say the same about the press conferences. Here are some of the best.

Boomers and Tall Blacks
"Who could that be?" - Paul Henare with a smile when told an NBA-level seven-footer would take the Tall Blacks to the next level.

"He will play for us one day, we've just got to keep going through the process, keep communicating with each other, and when it happens it will happen." - Henare again on Steve Adams.

"Really? A surprise? I don't think so. Bogut's a competitor, the fact that he's even here straight after the [NBA] Finals shows the class of the guy… he bleeds that gold colour.” - Mika Vukona when asked if Andrew Bogut's appearance in Game 2 was a surprise.

"They do a very good job of it, and they're very passionate about it. It's always a sign of respect for us to make sure we don't show we're intimidated by it first and foremost because it is a battle call." - Bogut on the Boomers standing at half-way to face the Haka.

"The bugger can go left now. He's really improved." - Andrej Lemanis on the impressive form of young Kiwi Reuben Te Rangi.

"Mika is just the ultimate competitor, and when you have a guy like him leading your team they're just going to keep battling for 40 minutes." - Matthew Dellavedova on Vukona.

"I'm glad I played a lot better in this series than I did it Europe because I was pretty rusty over there." - Delly on his own form.

"You can't take a second off with him, and a couple of times we got caught being late, going under or being clipped on a pick a little bit, and that’s all the time he needs." - Lemanis on Corey Webster.

"He's a hell of a player, I hadn't seen too much of him because I've been overseas, but he's impressive to me." - Brad Newley on Webster.

"He gets a little bit of curry from the fans but I think he showed in his home town what he can do and I'm pretty proud for him." - Newley on oft-maligned big man David Andersen.

"He played how he plays." - Henare when asked about Patty Mills' performance in Game 1.

"They are a phenomenal offensive rebounding team, Fotu and Mika crash the boards as well as anybody I've seen in international basketball." - Lemanis on Vukona and Isaac Fotu.

"One of the advantages they have is because so many of them play together at the Breakers, they have a synergy and a morphic resonance about them that is hard to get in international teams." - Lemanis on the Tall Blacks.

"Beating Australia is definitely tough, especially when they roll out teams like we saw in this series." - Henare on the Boomers.

Opals and Tall Ferns
"All of 12 players are defensive players and that's what Choc [Brendan Joyce] wants from us. We have to be defenders or else we’re probably not going to be part of an Opals side." - Laura Hodges on her defensive motivation.

"It makes us that little bit better every day at practice. We have to compete with people on the other side of the world, but we have to compete with ourselves as well. It's lifting the bar of the WNBL." - Hodges on the Opals' depth.

"I don't think anyone was scared to shoot, that was probably the problem, they'd keep getting open after eight seconds and I'd be thinking ball reversal but they were like, 'Don't worry about that coach'." - Joyce on his team's Game 1 shot selection.

"I just wanted to leave it all on the floor, we didn't have a good offensive game as a team in the first game and we didn't want to let that happen again." - Micaela Cocks on her incredible Game 2 offensive outburst.

"I said in the time-out, do you think everything is just going to be easy? This is a good test for us, a good challenge, you have to be able to play through the physicality." - Joyce on the Tall Ferns' strong Game 2 challenge.

"I think that's the right direction for us, I guess i's taken this long to figure out the way we defend,  for us to get this far is a bit frustrating, I wish we knew the magic potion three years ago." - Kennedy Kereama on his team's disruptive defense.

"Chevannah was exceptional, did a great job, got on the rim, she's a great athlete, a very good defender and that is her role in the team, and if she continues to play that role that well she'll continue to get minutes." - Kereama on young gun Chevannah Paalvast's Game 1 effort.

"It's really exciting for us because of the young group we have, and they're quite talented. After another season at their colleges or overseas programs they're going to be better again." - Natalie Taylor on the Tall Ferns' young brigade.

"It''s a great relationship between Australia and New Zealand that goes back more than a century. My grandfather was in two world wars and he told me a lot about New Zealanders, they're respectful people and people with big hearts, they're not just going to lie down." - Joyce on the New Zealand-Australia relationship.

The U16s
"I think she's got an unbelievably bright future, super athlete, she's got really good touch and I think she's going to get better and better." - Sapphires coach Shannon Seebohm on imposing young centre Eziyoda Magbegor.

"We talked about that the last two days, what it means to play for Australia, how the kangaroo and emu don't take a backward step," Australian men's U16 coach Mark Watkins on how his team rebounded from their 19-point loss to New Zealand in the pool games.

Paulo Kennedy

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