The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

[url=http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/wbc2006/news/story?id=2568543]ESPN.com - OLY/WBC2006 - Upset special: Greece stuns U.S. in FIBA semis[/url]

Everyone said it would happen but I didn't believe it, especially against a team like Greece. Good job Coach K, go back to freaking out little kids with your tiny mouth. And nice shooting guys, you've done the U.S.ofA. proud.

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

Not hugely surprised they lost. International Basketball is very very good. But I thought it'd be to Spain or Argentina. Not Greece

Oh well, they should have never let Arenas go

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

Exactly, if they had lost to Argentina I would have expected it. But it seemed like the red carpet was laid out for them to walk right into the championship game. Hell, maybe that's why they didn't play well, they just expected to beat them.

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

It totally screwed us up here at ESPN. We have to move all these programs around to get this bronze medal game on

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

nba players the biggest babies in the world. Too many egos on one team....I tell you what I think Gilbert had the last laugh on this one.

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

[quote=ArtMonkDrillz;210724][URL="http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/wbc2006/news/story?id=2568543"]ESPN.com - OLY/WBC2006 - Upset special: Greece stuns U.S. in FIBA semis[/URL]

Everyone said it would happen but I didn't believe it, especially against a team like Greece. Good job Coach K, go back to freaking out little kids with your tiny mouth. And nice shooting guys, you've done the U.S.ofA. proud.[/quote]

What pisses me off the most is that other countries have a huge, quivering orgasm every time the USA loses in something. We're the New York Yankees of the world. :doh:

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

It's just the World Championships, not the Olympics. They played their guts out but didn't want to show too much. They only used 2% of their playbook. They wanted to practice executing specific plays. Really it's just a matter of getting their mental reps down.

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

So they're trying to lull the world into a false sense of security?

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

[quote=TAFKAS;210737]It totally screwed us up here at ESPN. We have to move all these programs around to get this bronze medal game on[/quote]
I'm suprised the world wide leader didn't already plan on the US playing in the lesser-medal game

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

[QUOTE=ArtMonkDrillz;210750]I'm suprised the world wide leader didn't already plan on the US playing in the lesser-medal game[/QUOTE]

Well we had a plan in place. It's just that the gold medal game would have been much easier because it would mean less movement of other programs.

The bronze medal game was just a bit harder to schedule

Don't miss the Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 live from Chicagoland Speedway, Sunday Sept. 10 at 1:30pm only on ABC!!

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

[QUOTE=TheMalcolmConnection;210749]So they're trying to lull the world into a false sense of security?[/QUOTE]

Exactly! Shane Battier is like their Todd Collins. He's no superstar but he knows the system

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

So when do you think the powers that be in American basketball will finally realize that there has to be something wrong with their system when the team that is undoubtedly 2x more talented than all the others always loses? The problem with NBA basketball is that it focuses on individual play. We baby these guys throughout their lives and when they get to the NBA everything runs through them. It has become and individual game and these guys can't even play a team game. What is scary is that I think this team is as good as we can do based on the current attitudes of our players and the environment in which they learn and play the game. By the way...this is the same reason why basketball falls well short of football in popularity. You can't really root for a team since the team is usually one or two guys and a bunch of nothings.

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

we had a lack of 3 point shooters.

gil could have helped, or chancey (sp?) or kobe (!). a guy like barkley to rough things up a bit (ie shaq or ron a) would have helped too.

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

[quote=TAFKAS;210748]It's just the World Championships, not the Olympics. They played their guts out but didn't want to show too much. They only used 2% of their playbook. They wanted to practice executing specific plays. Really it's just a matter of getting their mental reps down.[/quote]


Yeah they actually worked on the game plan with Al Saunders, and they decided not to reveil their playbook. But do not worry, they will show the full book when it counts. They cannot wait till the media sees they are the real deal. I mean usually it takes a team long to adopt to a new policy, I mean they only ran two plays, called "Mello shoot" and "LeBron (not even close to Jordan) James shoot".

Re: The Other Shoe Drops for USA Basketball
 

[quote=That Guy;210913]we had a lack of 3 point shooters.
[/quote]

Yeah even with shorter 3pt lines.