![In the upper left corner, white text in a red logo square says The IX Sports Podcast. The main image is split in three. At left, Australian Opal Isobel Borlace during her career game against Italy. In the miffle, Belgian Cat Emma Meesseman is guarded by German Frieda Buhner. At right, French national team coach Jean-Aimé Toupane, arms crossed, in white. At the bottom, a black rectangle runs across the length of the image. In white, all-caps text, it says "Talking 2026 FIBA [Earth emoji] Cup."](https://www.theixsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/The-IX-Sports-Podcast-Youtube-Template-45-780x439.jpg)
This week on The IX Sports Podcast, hosts Jackie Powell and Howard Megdal are joined by The IX Sports’, Lukas Petridis who is reporting on the FIBA women’s world cup from Berlin, Germany.
Team France has been absolutely dominating the competition — possibly to their detriment. It will face home team Germany in the semifinals Saturday. Germany pulled off an impressive upset over Belgium Thursday to advance.
“It just feels like France — and you know, maybe credit to them for just playing so well so far, but I just think now they’re through to a semi-final, it would be a really, really bad time to have your first challenge,” Petridis said.
“The thing that I think France does … their their coaching does poorly … instead of when they do get faced with the challenge, instead of going from Plan A to Plan B, they just try to get back to Plan A. But Plan A is what got beaten, and you might burn five minutes, or you might burn 10 minutes, and over the course of a season, that might not be a problem, but in a competition like this, that could be the game,” Petridis said.
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The trio also discussed the injuries that have plagued the Australian Opals this tournament: Ezi Magbegor, Alanna Smith and Sami Whitcomb are all unavailable to play. Two other Australian greats, Marianna Tolo and Cayla George, were both unable to compete this year due to pregnancy and childbirth.
But Australia still managed to pull off a win against a tough Italian team Wednesday, and will face Team Spain today.
Court Vision: Who will replace Cathy Engelbert?
After Petridis left the show, Powell and Megdal presented their own slates of potential candidates to replace WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. In case you missed it, she announced she will be stepping down from the role at the end of this calendar year.
Powell chose to highlight Kristyn Cook, the executive vice president and chief agency sales and marketing officer at State Farm. State Farm, notably, has made many high-profile brand deals with NBA and WNBA athletes that Cook was a big part of.
Cook also played Division I basketball for Syracuse University all four years in college.
“So this is someone who has a lot of the elements that it seems like are needed in this role,” Powell said.
Megdal chose to highlight the Minnesota Lynx’s head of business operation, Carley Knox. But to hear his favorite pick, you’ll have to tune in to this week’s episode.
Make sure to subscribe to The IX Sports Podcast for in-depth coverage of women’s soccer, hockey and basketball; and tune in each weekday morning for a quick overview of the biggest headlines on Women’s Sports Daily, like WNBA news and PWHL expansion updates.
