Bolden invited to tryout for U-19 team.

[rasputin]

Does K have a lower right leg injury?

Is it over?

It is not over until (a) Carlos breaks his foot, or (b), we say it is.

[NSDukeFan]

It is not over until (a) Carlos breaks his foot, or (b), we say it is.

What about when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour?

[awhom111]

I don't think there is such a thing as bad optics when it comes to recruiting. The ONLY reason Cal is coaching the USA team is for recruiting. While I think he genuinely loves his players and wants them to be successful in the NBA, a primary reason he was at the draft is recruiting. ESPN gave him a 5 minute infomercial in the middle of the draft when he sat down for an interview with their panel and Jalen Rose (who he tried to hire as an assistant) t'ed up the question, "Is it more important for you to win games at Kentucky or help these young men make their NBA dreams come true?" and he essentially answered the later. A look at twitter during this interview was full of pundits saying, "Cal wins again!", "Cal so far ahead of the recruiting curve it's not even funny!", "Cal a genius at leveraging ESPN to help his recruiting"...which was buffered by the ESPN 30 for 30 which also essentially played as a 60 minute recruiting tool. The guy is working it big time.

I meant an optics perspective for USA Basketball and not for Calipari himself.

I said that I would wait for the tournament to pronounce any judgment and now that it's over, it is time to talk about the situation. This is not just a matter of Calipari, but USA Basketball as a whole.

This is the second recent "failure" for USA Basketball and it will be interesting to see what is done. In the last case, the U16 Girls' coaching staff was retained, but 11 of the 12 players did not make the U17 roster. The new roster actually played well leading up to the final, but Australia smoked them. USA Basketball opted to completely change coaching approaches for this new U16 cycle, picking a DIII coach and not a high school coach. We should expect changes for this next cycle, but how far they reach will be interesting.

A lot of questions should be asked about the coach selection process. USA Basketball had seemed to create a conveyor belt of coaches where experience as a court coach led to experience as an assistant coach, which would then lead to prioritization for a head coaching position when it came available. This process seems to not have been followed for this appointment. It was also not followed in the Popovich appointment, but is Calipari on that level where having him cut other coaches in line was worth it? One of the questions that I asked when he was hired that has not been answered is how USA Basketball felt about Shaka Smart's work last summer and why he was not the coach of this team. He had a much more talented team at his disposal that struggled with, but ultimately beat a Canada team that did not have Barrett, but was much deeper than this summer's version. Whether this was Smart's choice or whether it was decided that he should not be retained is important in this conversation because three of the veterans from last summer that were eligible for this team were Texas guys (a fourth, Jarrett Allen would not be available thanks to the NBA). None of them tried out and it would be nice for the public to have better insight into the reasons because veteran presence is always welcome in this format.

Player availability will be brought up as an explanation and it is obviously something that is not completely in USA Basketball's control because most of the best age-eligible players declared for the draft. It is worth noting that the U18 team from last summer was relatively young already and only Allen and Markelle Fultz were in the draft. There were a couple of injuries, which I am sure could have changed the picture a bit, but the important thing to realize is that the United States was far from the only team negatively affected by player unavailability. Canada actually has a major ongoing political battle between factions of their basketball administration and they actually could have fielded a roster of only unavailable players that was stronger than their actual roster as hard as that might be to believe. Late injuries also hurt a few medal contenders. Additionally, quirks in the qualifying process made this probably the weakest overall U19 field in a while as Australia was upset by New Zealand with both teams unable to call on some American-based players due to the timing of the process. This also ended up being a rather underwhelming group of European teams.

Some player absences can be excused and are nobody's fault. The draft and legitimate academic reasons are certainly understandable. It would be nice to know the scale of any actual security concerns. It was reported that there was unusually light NBA representation at the event due to advice from the league to not send personnel. Presumably USA Basketball itself took measures to ensure the safety of players and coaches and hopefully any family members that traveled to watch the team. If there were players who did not want to participate unless they got assurances and USA Basketball failed to provide them enough assurances, then that is a federation issue. As far as I know, there were no players from other countries who gave security as an excuse for not playing. After that, it all boils down to whether there were roster issues due to Calipari himself. Among other college coaches, some are actually more strongly disliked by their peers than others with plenty of rival coaches still being on friendly terms. If Calipari's relationships with other coaches is sufficiently poor enough that they dissuaded players from joining, then it was USA Basketball's issue in appointing him in the first place. It would also be their issue if perception existed among non-Kentucky players and those not actively being recruited by Calipari that the process would in any way be biased against them. If nothing else, Calipari is pretty open and transparent about his goals so it would be understandable that other players might not feel like they would get a fair shake unless potential bias was openly addressed. It is worth noting that perceived bias is an issue on other teams as people often complained about Auriemma stacking the end of his bench with UConn players and there are massive ongoing conflicts between various AAU barons for the U16/U17 Girls' teams.

As for oncourt play, a loss would not really be all that unexpected in this tournament, where the United States has had far less success than at any other age group, but again, this was a relatively weak field compared to other years. Given that multiple games are going to be cakewalks, it is always difficult to keep the team in the right mindset for the games that are close, but the right motivation is important. I suspect some looks will be taken at how to improve preparation in the future, whether it's tougher practices, more exhibition games, perhaps against the U20 teams of European countries not in the tournament, or tweaking the coaching mix. Anytime the United States does not roll through international competition, questions get raised. It was no shame to lose when a deserved MVP like RJ Barrett has such a good game, but the inability of the team to make a dent after he left the game will certainly raise questions given the high profile of the coaches involved.

[Troublemaker]

A lot of questions should be asked about the coach selection process. USA Basketball had seemed to create a conveyor belt of coaches where experience as a court coach led to experience as an assistant coach, which would then lead to prioritization for a head coaching position when it came available. This process seems to not have been followed for this appointment. It was also not followed in the Popovich appointment, but is Calipari on that level where having him cut other coaches in line was worth it? One of the questions that I asked when he was hired that has not been answered is how USA Basketball felt about Shaka Smart's work last summer and why he was not the coach of this team. He had a much more talented team at his disposal that struggled with, but ultimately beat a Canada team that did not have Barrett, but was much deeper than this summer's version.

Yeah, Calipari's selection puzzled me, too. Hopefully it wasn't the case of Colangelo / USA Basketball wanting to go back to a college coach for the senior national team after Popovich's 4 years are up, and giving Calipari U19 was USA Basketball grooming him for the senior job. I mean, if it was, then eggs on faces everywhere, and hopefully they re-consider.

If it must go to a college coach, then choose Miller or Smart who have put in the work. But I'd prefer Popovich to hand it off to another NBA coach, maybe Brad Stevens or Eric Spoelstra, when Pop is done.

[Billy Dat]

Yeah, Calipari's selection puzzled me, too. Hopefully it wasn't the case of Colangelo / USA Basketball wanting to go back to a college coach for the senior national team after Popovich's 4 years are up, and giving Calipari U19 was USA Basketball grooming him for the senior job. I mean, if it was, then eggs on faces everywhere, and hopefully they re-consider.

If it must go to a college coach, then choose Miller or Smart who have put in the work. But I'd prefer Popovich to hand it off to another NBA coach, maybe Brad Stevens or Eric Spoelstra, when Pop is done.

Great write-up, awhom111.

Reading your response and Troublemaker's, I had a thought...what if USA Basketball sensed that this would be a bad year for turnout among the elite and thought having Cal would be a lure for the high school kids?

[BD80]

Great write-up, awhom111.

Reading your response and Troublemaker's, I had a thought...what if USA Basketball sensed that this would be a bad year for turnout among the elite and thought having Cal would be a lure for the high school kids?

Or even better, they knew there would likely be a let down, and didn't want one of the promising coaches take the fall. Let calipari, after all of his whining, have his shot. If he loses, don't have to listen to the whining any more.

[lotusland]

Cal had one shot at redemption and fumbled it by losing to UNCheat and allowing them to make a mockery of the NCAA. Let the scorn pile upon him.