USA Basketball Post-Exhibition/ Pre-Olympic Thread

[Indoor66]

Watched on EuroSport Channel with British commentators -- they were awful -- kept mixing up Carmelo, Kobe, and Lebron. Come on...

Do they even understand basketball?

[Edouble]

LeBron is our best overall player

Not to argue to emphatically, but this could change when we play a team with a star guard that we need to shut down. Kobe's D may come up bigger in a future game, leading to him being our best overall player. Kobe was pretty effective this morning and we didn't even need him to lock anybody down.

[DevilDan]

We'll take the win. We played well enough, but it was our transition game that made the difference. We looked very ordinary in half court sets. Yao had some good moments, and the China team worked hard all 40 minutes. It was good to see us go on the third quarter spurts in this "road game".

There are a couple of teams that will challenge us down the line athletically. They will attempt to come after us on "D", and rain down 3's. I hope our passing game gives us open shots and we hit them. Otherwise, if our transition game is shut down, we'll really have to fight for the GOLD.

I'm cautiously confident...

[ice-9]

Just a minor quibble - I think the huge emphasis on fast break points owes even more to Mike D'Antoni from the Phoenix Suns than to K. The Phoenix players were told under him that the goal was to take a shot in the first 7 seconds of each possession.

D'Antoni's fingerprints are definitely all over this team. But I do see aggressive perimeter defense, overplaying the lanes, forcing turnovers to create easy baskets, and making it difficult for opposing guards to initiate any offense to be a Coach K staple.

[Edouble]

D'Antoni's fingerprints are definitely all over this team. But I do see aggressive perimeter defense, overplaying the lanes, forcing turnovers to create easy baskets, and making it difficult for opposing guards to initiate any offense to be a Coach K staple.

Yeah, no kidding, we were really overplaying the lanes, which led to some sweet steals. It was nice to see the huge areas that can be covered by our guys in the full court, which led to some sick dunks in the third quarter. Not sure about some of the defensive switches when we doubled Yao and left little guys wide open for threes... needs work!

[Indoor66]

Yeah, no kidding, we were really overplaying the lanes, which led to some sweet steals. It was nice to see the huge areas that can be covered by our guys in the full court, which led to some sick dunks in the third quarter. Not sure about some of the defensive switches when we doubled Yao and left little guys wide open for threes... needs work!

You can't take away everything all the time.

[A-Tex Devil]

Yeah, no kidding, we were really overplaying the lanes, which led to some sweet steals. It was nice to see the huge areas that can be covered by our guys in the full court, which led to some sick dunks in the third quarter. Not sure about some of the defensive switches when we doubled Yao and left little guys wide open for threes... needs work!

I love the Duke defense of getting in the passing lanes. But against a team with good guards like Spain, if we over play the lanes like we did today, we'll give up 100 points, mostly on easy baskets. That's not to say we won't score 110, but I'm just saying.

Also, as great as Paul and Wade have been on offense and Paul on pressure D, I worry about the high pick and roll against Greece when Chris Paul is in the game. Wade had some steals today, but he is constantly leaving his man. SOmething else that will hurt us against a good shooting team.

Like others, I'm cautiously optimistic...

[snowdenscold]

I find it interesting the AP recap article was of decent length and didn't mention Krzyzewski's name once.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...x.html?cnn=yes

[Atlanta Duke]

I find it interesting the AP recap article was of decent length and didn't mention Krzyzewski's name once.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...x.html?cnn=yes

Not to worry - the ESPN.com article did

The night ended with Mike Krzyzewski being asked by a foreign journalist what he did "to get your players to kill their own superego."...

Krzyzewski's cute response to that one: "I didn't have to destroy or kill anything."


There was a question to the Chinese about whether the Americans were guilty of excessive celebration at the expense of an outclassed opponent with all the dunking: "Do you think the U.S. team was showing off a bit too much? About because trying to show the numbers of circus?"...

Even though it was directed at the Chinese, Krzyzewski later made sure to register his response: "There was no showing off. I don't know what your definition is of showing off. Maybe it's a language thing. That's hard basketball. & Don't confuse hard with show off."

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer...ory?id=3528438

So far so good (except for the abysaml three point shooting)... I am happy that K is a part of a U.S. Olympic team and Games which in retrospect may be regarded as having taken basketball to the next level as an international game - my bet is so are David Stern and the NBA

[roywhite]

So far so good (except for the abysaml three point shooting)... I am happy that K is a part of a U.S. Olympic team and Games which in retrospect may be regarded as having taken basketball to the next level as an international game - my bet is so are David Stern and the NBA

Seems likely the US team will get favorable crowd treatment in its remaining games. The Chinese are huge fans of Kobe and LeBron and very appreciative of the USA athletic ability, especially the high-flying dunks. The US players and staff have acknowledged the crowd and displayed good sportsmanship.

Looks like a different rooting environment than the Athens Olympics in 2004, for example.

[CrazyCat]

I have really enjoyed watching the games thus far. Take the USA vs China game today for instance, the sportsmanship was a wonderful sight to see. You could really see both teams being very supportive of each other. The people in the stands were also very supportive of the players. China really played a hard game, and deserve a lot of credit. Can't wait for tuesday.

[BCGroup]

http://time-blog.com/china_blog/2008...e_chinese.html

[roywhite]

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2...-china/?sports

Nice piece by Bill Plaschke of the LA Times on the USA--China game. Some very favorable mentions of the teamwork displayed and the influence of Coach K. Quote:

"It has been tagged as the most selfish basketball nation on earth, but the Americans showed teamwork intensity normally not seen at any place other than, say, Duke University."

[dw0827]

Here's a very negative piece on Coach K:

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/story/742543.html

I watched the game and I didn't get the feeling that we were trying to diss the Chinese. Yea, some of the dunks were nothing but showtime . . . but I don't think it was mean-spirited.

Thoughts, anyone?

[DevilDan]

I read the KC story ... if this account truly describes Coach K's response to the question on the dunks, I can see how it was taken as a negative. The game was filled with so many positives (the Chinese Team's effort, the very supportive crowd, the sportsmanship during and after the game, and YAO's THREE -- wow), this little item sticks out.

I'd like to see the press conference, and the exchange--I hope there was a "context" issue, or some tongue-in-cheek that came into play. If anyone saw the PC, please chime in. It's a rare situation when Coach K fires back in the fashion that has been described in this article.

From this point forward, the Chinese fans will be rooting hard for their NBA heroes. I don't want to see anything get in the way of that--they could give us the boost that can make our guys feel like we are playing HOME GAMES the rest of the way.

[ice-9]

Assuming the exchange was depicted accurately, it sounds like Coach K might have overreacted to the question. It happens. He'll probably admit he could have answered the question more diplomatically -- though he does have a point about playing hard. So he gets criticized for answering the question in an abrasive manner. So what? The show goes on.

[Billy Dat]

This shows me that K is locked and loaded for bear! One of the things he was brought in to change was the very type of behavior that the reporter's question was hinting toward. I do think his reaction was a bit over the top, but I like the intensity that it displayed. The guy is passionate and fully committed to the task at hand. He probably felt like his players were being attacked and drew the spotlight to himself.

As for the game...I don't think there is much to say. We scored off of our defense and our shooting still hasn't shown up. I don't think we'll really know how we stack up until we play Greece, but there's nothing to do right now but play Angola.