Really poor play when it counted
Really poor play when it counted
The US has not played a player over 6-8 in the entire second half.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
18-5 closing run by France... so far.
“Coach said no 3s.” - Zion on The Block
By the way, Pops has served to greatly enhance Coach K's already sterling reputation. It is now abundantly clear that the best coach in pro or college basketball resides in Durham and it ain't even close.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
We were outrebounded by 16 and they only had 1 more turnover than us. That translated into so many more possessions and so many more easy buckets for France. It is unconscionable for Pops to not have even thought about playing a big man the entire second half. I saw Brook Lopez and Mason Plumlee hanging their heads on the bench... they played 5 total minutes. This is not their fault.
-Jason "Marvin Bagley would have be an absolute star for this team... pity" Evans
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Time to start a bring back Coach K movement?
It's not really a huge upset or surprise that Nicolas Batum, Frank Ntilikina, Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier beat Donovan Mitchell, Harrison Barnes, Marcus Smart, Kemba Walker and Khris Middleton, but USA did not play well, especially down the stretch--missed free throws, poor ball movement and panic in their eyes.
I wasn't as upset about the lack of a traditional big because the line-up that dominated the 3rd quarter had no big. When we were going with different combinations of Mitchell, Smart, Brown, Barnes, White and Middleton, we were killing them. To start the 4th, Pop went back with Walker, who was having a bad game, and the offense suddenly moved away from white-hot Mitchell to Kemba, Kemba, Kemba and the D fell apart. It was obvious that line-up was not working, but he stuck with Kemba the whole way. I don't get it. That "5 forwards" line-up was able to defend the pick and roll much better and their gang rebounding against Gobert was working. They were also providing tough pressure and deflecting a lot of balls that led to steals outside the paint. France looked lost...and we totally went away from it. Brown and Middleton sat until the game was in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Frankie Smokes, being guarded by Kemba, started to go off. Granted, we also missed to many FTs but Pop gakked this one. How the hell did the guys who ended the 3rd not stay on the court?
Ntilikina basket with the shot clock almost at zero was the killer. Reminds me of some Duke losses over the decades. Pops was not good in this game but K never had a roster this devoid of talent. Not sure comparisons are fair. And in K’s first international tourney a weak Greece pick and rolled a better USA out of the gym. Thank the lord social media didn’t exist then.
I guess I was as disengaged as most NBA players this go round. It was barely on my radar that they were playing today, and I don't have much reaction to the loss.
Seems most of my Team USA interest was K related.
Coach K is perhaps the greatest FIBA coach in history, so there's no shame in Pop being inferior to him. What Duke fans perceive as Duke peaking in November/December is what makes Coach K so great at FIBA. When you think about, the FIBA job *is* to take a collection of talent that's hardly ever played together and get them to play very well within a short period of time; you get some practices, a couple of exhibitions, and a handful of group stage games, and then the team better be playing well in order to medal, much less win it.
The French having several NBA players, too, interestingly makes this loss easier to get a grasp on and contextualize. I would say a 55+ win NBA team just lost to the worst team in the NBA today. (Which does happen every now and then, of course.) And you could argue that USA's depth would lead to 60+ wins. I don't think USA would be an NBA title team, though, because it lacks a superstar.
I mean, Coach K lost once in 10 years and won all gold and one bronze. Pop has lost twice in a couple of weeks, and the best he can do is finish 5th here. Also, Coach K and Colangelo rebuilt USA from the bottom into a dominant force before handing Pop the baton. This performance would be more excusable if it had happened following George Karl and Larry Brown's runs.
That said, as mentioned, I would rather prop up Coach K for being an amazing FIBA coach than to dump on Pop. Coach K is the better FIBA coach, and Pop is a legendary NBA coach and might still be the better basketball coach than Coach K, all things considered.
Just my opinion, but Coach K the great recruiter for Duke was also a great recruiter for the USA program. This was an off-year for interest in the FIBA tournament but somehow I think Coach K would have had more good players on this team.
For that matter, I think Coach K would have been a better game coach for this group; the 4th quarter performance of this US team today was not good.
I've primed a video of Stephen A Smith from last fall talking about Coach K's FIBA run here: https://youtu.be/bQm141JPudc?t=242
I link it because it's the typical take from your average sports fan. Coach K was in a "privileged position" as the Team USA coach (I agree) and never should've been allowed to coach the team as long as he did (I disagree). The underlying assumption of course was that Coach K was the only beneficiary of the relationship, that any good coach could've gotten the same results and therefore Coach K received an unfair recruiting advantage without really adding anything to the mix.
Hopefully these kinds of takes go away now (keeping in mind Calipari also failed with U19 team). Coach K is terrific at getting a team to play well together in a short period of time. He probably would've kept the offense simple from the very start of USA training camp; implementing an intricate scheme is actually a fool's errand given the timeframe of FIBA. He also would've helped the offense by having USA play at a faster pace than Pop did and by implementing a defensive scheme that tried to force turnovers leading to easy buckets. Those would be my 3 criticisms of Pop's run here.