Puerto Rico 92 US 73
\nEven Basketball Genius Larry Brown may not be able to overcome this. (Roy Williams is on the bench; let\u2019s blame him!) It\u2019s one thing to get beat badly in a game that means nothing. It\u2019s another thing to lay an egg like this in Olympic competition. This was a travesty of epic proportions. No defense, the complete inability to hit wide-open shots, very little heart, too much complaining. Puerto Rico was watching the US shooters from the lane because they knew we couldn\u2019t hit a shot to save our lives from beyond the arc. The Puertoriquenos were woofing at our players not out of fear or machismo, but because they knew they were better.
\nIt\u2019s reached the point where I almost hope the US continues to get smacked around by everyone so we can end the Dream Team concept once and for all. If we\u2019re going to lose, at least throw college players out there who will play with pride. Using Andy Katz\u2019 preseason top 50, here\u2019s a quick run down of college players that could have filled this year\u2019s team:
\nChris Paul, PG Wake Forest
\nSean May, PF, North Carolina
\nWayne Simien, PF, Kansas
\nJR Giddens, SF, Kansas
\nJarrett Jack, G, Georgia Tech
\nGerry McNamara, SG, Syracuse
\nHakim Warrick, PF, Syracuse
\nChanning Frye, PF, Arizona
\nHassan Adams, SF, Arizona
\nDeron Williams, SG, Illinois
\nJJ Redick, SG, Duke
\nLawrence Roberts, PF, Mississippi State
\nChris Thomas, PG, Notre Dame
\nTravis Diener, PG, Marquette
\nRyan Gomes, SF, Providence
\nBracey Wright, SG, Indiana (Bonus non-top 50 pick)<\/p>\n
That\u2019s just a quick look at \u201cname\u201d players. Go back to the old days when 50 college kids and a couple high schoolers were invited to camp in June. They try out for two weeks. We pick a team. They practice and play exhibition games for six weeks. I\u2019m telling you, they\u2019d be competitive. We\u2019d lose our inside dominance, but Tim Duncan ain\u2019t exactly scoring at will is he? Think Redick, McNamara, and Wright wouldn\u2019t knock down every wide-open shot they got? Use wiry guys like Warrik out top, then beefy guys like Simien and Roberts down low and you could slice up the zones NBA players can\u2019t seem to figure out. They might still lose games by 20, but at least it would be interesting instead of embarrassing.<\/p>\n
Michael Phelps\u2019 eight gold medal dream is over. The US men\u2019s gymnastic team looked rather poor Saturday. The men\u2019s beach volleyball teams look uninspired. Australia, a country of 19 million, looks like an athletic super power. I\u2019m telling you, if the games go poorly, John Kerry can promise to increase funding for the US Olympic program and that might help him win a couple more battleground states. \u201cUnder George W. Bush\u2019s watch, we went from easily winning the medal count in Sydney to struggling to remain competitive in sports we\u2019ve long dominated.\u201d It just might work. You read it here first!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Puerto Rico 92 US 73 Even Basketball Genius Larry Brown may not be able to overcome this. (Roy Williams is on the bench; let\u2019s blame him!) It\u2019s one thing to get beat badly in a game that means nothing. It\u2019s another thing to lay an egg like this in Olympic competition. This was a travesty of epic proportions. No defense, the complete inability to hit wide-open shots, very little heart, too much complaining. Puerto Rico was watching the US shooters from the lane because they knew we couldn\u2019t hit a shot to save our lives from beyond the arc. The Puertoriquenos were woofing at our players not out of fear or machismo, but because they knew they were better. It\u2019s reached the point where I almost hope the US continues to get smacked around by everyone so we can end the Dream Team concept once and for all. If we\u2019re going to lose, at least throw college players out there who will play with pride. Using Andy Katz\u2019 preseason top 50, here\u2019s a quick run down of college players that could have filled this year\u2019s team: Chris Paul, PG Wake Forest Sean May, PF, North Carolina Wayne Simien, PF, Kansas JR Giddens, SF, Kansas Jarrett Jack, G, Georgia Tech Gerry McNamara, SG, Syracuse Hakim Warrick, PF, Syracuse Channing Frye, PF, Arizona Hassan Adams, SF, Arizona Deron Williams, SG, Illinois JJ Redick, SG, Duke Lawrence Roberts, PF, Mississippi State Chris Thomas, PG, Notre Dame Travis Diener, PG, Marquette Ryan Gomes, SF, Providence Bracey Wright, SG, Indiana (Bonus non-top 50 pick) That\u2019s just a quick look at \u201cname\u201d players. Go back to the old days when 50 college kids and a couple high schoolers were invited to camp in June. They try out for two weeks. We pick a team. They practice and play exhibition games for six weeks. I\u2019m telling you, they\u2019d be competitive. We\u2019d lose our inside dominance, but Tim Duncan ain\u2019t exactly scoring at will is he? Think Redick, McNamara, and Wright wouldn\u2019t knock down every wide-open shot they got? Use wiry guys like Warrik out top, then beefy guys like Simien and Roberts down low and you could slice up the zones NBA players can\u2019t seem to figure out. They might still lose games by 20, but at least it would be interesting instead of embarrassing. Michael Phelps\u2019 eight gold medal dream is over. The US men\u2019s gymnastic team looked rather poor Saturday. The men\u2019s beach volleyball teams look uninspired. Australia, a country of 19 million, looks like an athletic super power. I\u2019m telling you, if the games go poorly, John Kerry can promise to increase funding for the US Olympic program and that might help him win a couple more battleground states. \u201cUnder George W. Bush\u2019s watch, we went from easily winning the medal count in Sydney to struggling to remain competitive in sports we\u2019ve long dominated.\u201d It just might work. You read it here first! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,23],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-basketball","tag-olympics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15633,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions\/15633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}