2023 Basketball World Cup

[awhom111]

Wojo makes his return to coaching as an assistant for the United States at the upcoming AmeriCup:
https://www.usab.com/news-events/new...p-coaches.aspx

[awhom111]

Qualifiers resume this week, but there are not a lot of direct ties. Michael Gbinije figures to make Nigeria's roster, which will be missing most of the biggest names. Patrick Tapé is probably not going to make it to the lineup for any games for the Ivory Coast.

[awhom111]

It turns out that Tape did make his Ivory Coast debut and had 2 points in 11 minutes in their 78-66 win over Nigeria, which got 3 points in 21 minutes from Michael Gbinije:
https://www.fiba.basketball/basketba...a#tab=boxscore

Here are the standings in Africa with the top two in each group making it and then the top third place team once the results are equalized:
Group E: Ivory Coast 5-0, Cape Verde 4-1, Angola 3-2, Nigeria 2-3, Uganda 1-4, Guinea 0-5
Group F: Egypt 6-1, South Sudan 6-1, Democratic Republic of Congo 4-3, Senegal 4-3, Tunisia 4-3, Cameroon 2-5

The United States won over Uruguay with minimal fuss yesterday. Here are the standings now with the top three teams in each group qualifying along with the fourth place team that has the better record:
Group E: Canada 7-0, Venezuela 6-1, Dominican Republic 5-2, Argentina 5-2, Panama 2-5, Bahamas 2-5
Group F: United States 6-1, Brazil 5-2, Puerto Rico 4-3, Mexico 4-3, Uruguay 4-3, Colombia 3-4

Asia's standings with the top three teams in each group other than Japan and the Philippines qualifying:
Group E: New Zealand 5-0, Lebanon 4-1, Jordan 3-2, Philippines 2-3, Saudi Arabia 1-4, India 0-5
Group F: Australia 7-0, Kazakhstan 5-2, China 5-2, Iran 5-2, Japan 2-5, Bahrain 2-5

Europe's standings with the top three teams in each group qualifying:
Group I: Latvia 4-1, Greece 3-2, Belgium 3-2, Serbia 2-3, Turkey 2-3, Great Britain 1-4
Group J: Germany 6-1, Finland 6-1, Slovenia 5-2, Israel 3-4, Sweden 2-5, Estonia 2-5
Group K: France 6-1, Lithuania 6-1, Montenegro 5-2, Czech Republic 3-4, Bosnia and Herzegovina 3-4, Hungary 3-4
Group L: Spain 4-1, Italy 4-1, Georgia 3-2, Iceland 3-2, Ukraine 1-4, Netherlands 0-5

[JasonEvans]

I saw that Jokic and Giannis went at each other in the Greece-Serbia game the other day. They each put up absurd stat lines. I think one of them scored 40+ points or something like that.

Just checked the latest Canada boxscore and saw SGA, Niki Alexander-Walker, Kelly Olynyk, Dwight Powell, Corey Joseph and several other NBA stars playing for them. Sure, a few of the top Canadians are sitting it out, but this is an impressive bunch.

And then there is team USA which has... uhhh... barely anyone I have heard of before and not a single guy who has even sniffed the NBA. Sigh. Half the guys on the team don't even play in the G-League. So sad that USA Basketball cannot convince even third tier Americans to play for their country.
https://www.fiba.basketball/basketba...SA#|tab=roster

[tommy]

I saw that Jokic and Giannis went at each other in the Greece-Serbia game the other day. They each put up absurd stat lines. I think one of them scored 40+ points or something like that.

Just checked the latest Canada boxscore and saw SGA, Niki Alexander-Walker, Kelly Olynyk, Dwight Powell, Corey Joseph and several other NBA stars playing for them. Sure, a few of the top Canadians are sitting it out, but this is an impressive bunch.

And then there is team USA which has... uhhh... barely anyone I have heard of before and not a single guy who has even sniffed the NBA. Sigh. Half the guys on the team don't even play in the G-League. So sad that USA Basketball cannot convince even third tier Americans to play for their country.
https://www.fiba.basketball/basketba...SA#|tab=roster

Pathetic on the part of the US. I know under K the Olympic teams got buy in from almost all the top
players. I don’t know whether this level of team did too at that time, but I’d be surprised to learn if during his tenure there was any American team full of nobodies like this.

[JasonEvans]

Pathetic on the part of the US. I know under K the Olympic teams got buy in from almost all the top
players. I don’t know whether this level of team did too at that time, but I’d be surprised to learn if during his tenure there was any American team full of nobodies like this.

World cup qualifying is far from glamorous. I mean, there is an argument that the World Cup itself is behind even Olympic qualifying in terms of the importance USA Basketball places upon it. So, World Cup qualifying is perhaps the 4th most important activity for the Men's National Team.

Still, it is unfathomable that we could not get a better team. I mean, I have to think there are some 9th-12th men on NBA squads who would be eager to represent our nation.

Did we get turned down by Frank Kaminsky, Aaron Holiday, Grant Williams, Cody and Caleb Martin, Derrick Jones Jr., Moses Brown, Ed Davis, Brandin Goodwin, and 60 other guys who are career NBA backups... but are at least legit NBA players?

I swear, USA Basketball just doesn't care about international competitions in the sport, IMO. Sorta like how we don't even send G-League level players to compete in the 3v3 tournament.

[sagegrouse]

Odd. Aren't Duke icons Grant Hill and Gen. Martin Dempsey running the show at USA Basketball?

[awhom111]

Michael Gbinije had 6 points in 18 minutes in Nigeria's 89-70 win over Guinea:
https://www.fiba.basketball/basketba...a#tab=boxscore

Patrick Tape had 2 points in 3 minutes in the Ivory Coast's 91-80 win over Uganda:
https://www.fiba.basketball/basketba...e#tab=boxscore

South Sudan is close to qualifying with Luol Deng working hard to recruit more players as the standings are now:
Group E: Ivory Coast 6-0, Angola 4-2, Cape Verde 4-2, Nigeria 3-3, Uganda 1-5, Guinea 0-6
Group F: Egypt 7-1, South Sudan 7-1, Senegal 5-3, Tunisia 4-4, Democratic Republic of Congo 4-4, Cameroon 2-6

[MarkD83]

World cup qualifying is far from glamorous. I mean, there is an argument that the World Cup itself is behind even Olympic qualifying in terms of the importance USA Basketball places upon it. So, World Cup qualifying is perhaps the 4th most important activity for the Men's National Team.

Still, it is unfathomable that we could not get a better team. I mean, I have to think there are some 9th-12th men on NBA squads who would be eager to represent our nation.

Did we get turned down by Frank Kaminsky, Aaron Holiday, Grant Williams, Cody and Caleb Martin, Derrick Jones Jr., Moses Brown, Ed Davis, Brandin Goodwin, and 60 other guys who are career NBA backups... but are at least legit NBA players?

I swear, USA Basketball just doesn't care about international competitions in the sport, IMO. Sorta like how we don't even send G-League level players to compete in the 3v3 tournament.

I dug into the website and the games in this round have been spread out over ~1 year. The US team is 6-1 with a loss to Mexico about 1 year ago. The team has since beaten Mexico. If I read the site correctly the US is already into the next round. My guess is at some point you need to develop players for future years. The roster may look unrecognizable because right now the games are meaningless in terms of the teams that advance, so play the players that need some development and want to be part of USA basketball.

[JasonEvans]

I dug into the website and the games in this round have been spread out over ~1 year. The US team is 6-1 with a loss to Mexico about 1 year ago. The team has since beaten Mexico. If I read the site correctly the US is already into the next round. My guess is at some point you need to develop players for future years. The roster may look unrecognizable because right now the games are meaningless in terms of the teams that advance, so play the players that need some development and want to be part of USA basketball.

Yeah, but the team that played in those earlier round games was also full of mid G-League level players, at best. I don't get why USA Basketball can't crack the code on getting NBA buy in on this stuff. Here is how it should work:

World Cup Qualifying - NBA rotation players
Olympic Qualifying - NBA starters
World Cup Play - NBA significant starters, including some All-Stars -- largely younger players hoping to rise up to be All-NBA level stars
Olympics - All-NBA level players

And this really shouldn't be that difficult to achieve. The international teams have buy ins from their best players. As I said earlier, arguably the two best players on the planet right now -- Jokic and Freak -- were playing this week for Greece and Serbia in World Cup qualifying. And the US can't get end-of-bench NBA players to play for us. It is just sad.

-Jason "and if better players, players with some name recognition, played in these games then I bet you could get a bit more media/TV attention for the games and generate some revenue that way" Evans

[MarkD83]

Yeah, but the team that played in those earlier round games was also full of mid G-League level players, at best. I don't get why USA Basketball can't crack the code on getting NBA buy in on this stuff. Here is how it should work:

World Cup Qualifying - NBA rotation players
Olympic Qualifying - NBA starters
World Cup Play - NBA significant starters, including some All-Stars -- largely younger players hoping to rise up to be All-NBA level stars
Olympics - All-NBA level players

And this really shouldn't be that difficult to achieve. The international teams have buy ins from their best players. As I said earlier, arguably the two best players on the planet right now -- Jokic and Freak -- were playing this week for Greece and Serbia in World Cup qualifying. And the US can't get end-of-bench NBA players to play for us. It is just sad.

-Jason "and if better players, players with some name recognition, played in these games then I bet you could get a bit more media/TV attention for the games and generate some revenue that way" Evans

Point taken. There is a roster with about 30 names on it and you are right none of them are recognizable to me except Isaiah Thomas (but I am not a big NBA fan).

Perhaps the issue lies in the coaching leadership and having someone who could convince the NBA players to play for USA basketball. This may be another case where we see Coach K's greatness once he steps away.

[sagegrouse]

The Chair of USA Basketball is the aforementioned Gen. Martin Dempsey -- Duke M.A., ex-chairman of the JCS, K buddy. Based on a few talks with him, he's a heck of a guy.

Grant Hill is the managing director of the US Men's National Team, as of last Nov.

[JasonEvans]

Point taken. There is a roster with about 30 names on it and you are right none of them are recognizable to me except Isaiah Thomas (but I am not a big NBA fan).

Perhaps the issue lies in the coaching leadership and having someone who could convince the NBA players to play for USA basketball. This may be another case where we see Coach K's greatness once he steps away.

I love Grant Hill but this falls to him at least a little bit. He is respected around the league and if he went to second/third tier NBA players and asked them to do this, I can't imagine they wouldn't.

I am clear though that this is just a matter of USA Basketball not putting a priority on this competition. They think that by running low-level G-Leaguers (and worse) out there that they can still qualify, so why bother with the hassle that comes from recruiting guys who make millions per year (as even deep bench NBAers do). But, at some point we will be surprised and we won't qualify. What's more, by sending out no-name players they show that the US doesn't really care about this competition. Why expect fans to care if it is clear that the organization tasked with winning does not care?

USA Basketball treats the sport like it is a US birthright and no one will ever dare challenge us. That complacency is shameful and a great way to let other nations** pass us.

-Jason "**- USA vs. Europe would be a really interesting match. Giannis, Jokic, Doncic, Gobert, and Sabonis, with a few shooters surrounding them would be really tough to beat" Evans

[awhom111]

5 points and 8 rebounds for Gbinije in a rough outing for Nigeria in their 70-67 loss to Angola:
https://www.fiba.basketball/basketba...a#tab=boxscore

At least he showed up, which absolves him from some of the ire that their fans are directing at players who were not involved. In just over a year, we went from Nigeria beating the United States in an exhibition game to a complete meltdown.

Tape had 4 rebounds in 7 minutes as the Ivory Coast gets closer to qualification after a 77-69 win over Cape Verde:
https://www.fiba.basketball/basketba...e#tab=boxscore

Standings:
Group E: Ivory Coast 7-0, Angola 5-2, Cape Verde 4-3, Nigeria 3-4, Guinea 1-6, Uganda 1-6
Group F: South Sudan 8-1, Egypt 7-2, Senegal 6-3, Tunisia 5-4, Democratic Republic of Congo 4-5, Cameroon 2-7

I am not sure who had Finland being the first qualifier on their bingo card, but here we are. These are the European standings after this window:
Group I: Latvia 5-1, Greece 4-2, Belgium 3-3, Serbia 3-3, Turkey 2-4, Great Britain 1-5
Group J: Germany 7-1, Finland 7-1, Slovenia 5-3, Sweden 3-5, Israel 3-5, Estonia 2-6
Group K: Lithuania 7-1, France 6-2, Montenegro 5-3, Bosnia and Herzegovina 4-4, Hungary 4-4, Czech Republic 3-5
Group L: Spain 5-1, Italy 5-1, Iceland 4-2, Georgia 3-3, Ukraine 1-5, Netherlands 0-6

[awhom111]

Not much drama for the United States, but the Americas groups will have plenty up for grabs in November and February:
Group E: Canada 8-0, Venezuela 7-1, Argentina 6-2, Dominican Republic 5-3, Panama 2-6, Bahamas 2-6
Group F: United State 7-1, Brazil 5-3, Mexico 5-3, Uruguay 5-3, Puerto Rico 4-4, Colombia 3-5

[JasonEvans]

Not much drama for the United States, but the Americas groups will have plenty up for grabs in November and February:
Group E: Canada 8-0, Venezuela 7-1, Argentina 6-2, Dominican Republic 5-3, Panama 2-6, Bahamas 2-6
Group F: United State 7-1, Brazil 5-3, Mexico 5-3, Uruguay 5-3, Puerto Rico 4-4, Colombia 3-5

In their latest win, Team USA was led by basketball mega-star John Jenkins, who was en fuego from long range with 26 points on 8-14 from 3.

Wait a second? Are you telling me you don't recall the legend that is John Jenkins? He was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in 2012 and played for 5 different NBA teams over 7 seasons, mostly on a series of 10-day, non-guaranteed contracts. He is currently playing for BCM Gravelines-Dunkerque in the French league. I think he is probably one of the 1000 best American basketball players on the planet right now... maybe. It may depends on how much some high schoolers and freshmen have matured over the summer.

Great job by USA basketball getting the cream of the crop to represent our nation! Woo hoo!! USA USA USA!!

[scottdude8]

In their latest win, Team USA was led by basketball mega-star John Jenkins, who was en fuego from long range with 26 points on 8-14 from 3.

Wait a second? Are you telling me you don't recall the legend that is John Jenkins? He was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in 2012 and played for 5 different NBA teams over 7 seasons, mostly on a series of 10-day, non-guaranteed contracts. He is currently playing for BCM Gravelines-Dunkerque in the French league. I think he is probably one of the 1000 best American basketball players on the planet right now... maybe. It may depends on how much some high schoolers and freshmen have matured over the summer.

Great job by USA basketball getting the cream of the crop to represent our nation! Woo hoo!! USA USA USA!!

I was channel surfing last night at the Canada v. Portugal game was on... despite the wealth of Canadian talent, the only guy I recognized was, of all people, Purdue's Zack Edey. Have to feel for the guys from these smaller, non-basketball countries who have to destroy their bodies guarding that behemoth of a man for 40 minutes.

[dukelifer]

In their latest win, Team USA was led by basketball mega-star John Jenkins, who was en fuego from long range with 26 points on 8-14 from 3.

Wait a second? Are you telling me you don't recall the legend that is John Jenkins? He was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in 2012 and played for 5 different NBA teams over 7 seasons, mostly on a series of 10-day, non-guaranteed contracts. He is currently playing for BCM Gravelines-Dunkerque in the French league. I think he is probably one of the 1000 best American basketball players on the planet right now... maybe. It may depends on how much some high schoolers and freshmen have matured over the summer.

Great job by USA basketball getting the cream of the crop to represent our nation! Woo hoo!! USA USA USA!!

Jenkins was a really good college player averaging close to 20 a game two years in a row at Vandy and was a first round draft pick. A back injury and surgery likely derailed his career. I agree we are not putting close to the best out there but Jenkins had a lot of promise once.

[JasonEvans]

I was channel surfing last night at the Canada v. Portugal game was on... despite the wealth of Canadian talent, the only guy I recognized was, of all people, Purdue's Zack Edey. Have to feel for the guys from these smaller, non-basketball countries who have to destroy their bodies guarding that behemoth of a man for 40 minutes.

One of the crazy things about these qualifiers is that the players on each team seem to literally switch from game to game. In their previous game, Canada brought Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Cory Joseph to the table. In this game they had NBAers Kelly Olynyk and Dwight Powell but the others were not there any more. So strange.

[awhom111]

Here are the Asia standings as New Zealand and Lebanon secured qualification in this window:
Group E: New Zealand 6-0, Lebanon 5-1, Philippines 3-3, Jordan 3-3, Saudi Arabia 1-5, India 0-6
Group F: Australia 8-0, China 6-2, Kazakhstan 5-3, Iran 5-3, Japan 3-5, Bahrain 2-6

Along with New Zealand and Lebanon, Japan and the Philippines have qualified as hosts and Finland and Ivory Coast grabbed their spots in this window.

One of the crazy things about these qualifiers is that the players on each team seem to literally switch from game to game. In their previous game, Canada brought Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Cory Joseph to the table. In this game they had NBAers Kelly Olynyk and Dwight Powell but the others were not there any more. So strange.

Apparently a bunch of NBA teams freaked out after the Chet injury and put pressure on their players to not play in the second games of the windows. Canada wants to maintain positive relationships with NBA teams so they figured that some alternates would get the job done for this one. In other parts of the world, angry fans keep the players in the fold. It is hard to say how much Jokic would have to win for Serbia to get all of the fans back on his side after he sat out a summer.