I dont think we can beat Argentina or Spain, both play great as a team with a couple of great players(Ginobili, Gasol).
Ah I see. Your probably right. Though often in these kind of arguments the whole "the longer they've been gone the better they were affliction" kicks in. Though this case I trust your opinion and there is no doubt that the values have changed in the mind of the youth player. Whether bad or good the And1 revolution thing defiantly has made an impact. On the flip side I think American soccer suffers from the opposite. You get this whole one touch soccer thing drilled in you and taking guys on one on one or trying a long shot from outside the box is so often frowned upon in youth soccer in this country. I think it’s a real problem.
I very much agree with you here, Spence. The trick is teaching one-touch and two-touch passing to emphasize the team aspect while also encouraging the development of individual skills and rewarding improvisation. It's a tough way to coach. I know; I tried it for a number of years with limited success.
I think the youth soccer coaches overcoach and the kids are only tought a certain way of doing things on the field. We need to emphasize kids to go 1 on 1 like the way Dempsey and Mapp do.
So much for that, can't say that I am surprised. USA loses to Greece. It would feel better if we lost to Argentina or Spain in the final. I don't see us getting anything at this tournament now. :cry:
Can't say I'm surprised. We're going to have to start taking this seriously if we're going to keep our position in the world. James is incredible, Wade is amazing, but the rest of the squad is filled with players that have holes in their game. Anthony has not improved much over the first few months of his rookie season. As ChiTom said a few posts earlier, the last few years the NBA has been drafting on potential. The last polished player I saw leave college was Tim Duncan out of Wake Forest, and that was almost 10 years ago. The NBA is, without a doubt, the best league in the world, but -- like the EPL or Serie A -- all the players aren't native born. Most of the good teams have at least one foreign born starter. Time to break down our current "coaching regime" and teach the game again.
I think we did take this seriously Don that’s what has me depressed about it. I mean the team was training and playing together for a month before the tournament. With the NBA the way it is it’s hard to do any more than that. This was a damn good team I'm really convinced of that. I guess you could argue that we'd be a bit better if we had Hamilton or Garnet on the team. Kobe apparently wanted to play but had to have surgery this summer but is planning on playing in the Olympics. I really think this is close to the best team we could field. I don't want ego guys like Maurberry or Iverson, they’re what brought this team down in the past. As far as I know the players took this seriously, the coach certainly took it seriously and USA Basketball took it seriously. This was a good team they just beat us. No excuses. I guess the top four teams really our very good now. I didn't get to see the game but I hear we were just cold all day. That will happen. On the bright side this is all in preparation for the next Olympics, which shows that we are defiantly taking that seriously. Hopefully we can get all sorted by then. These players if they didn't before will now know they can be beaten which is good.
I obvously wanted the USA to win, but I think this is good for basketball. Greece has a good chance of winning it all with Gasol out of the final, with no NBA players on the roster thats impressive. How about Greece winning the European Championship in football and winning the World Championship in basketball.
There'll be a bunch of hairy guys dancing in a chorus line, waving handkercheifs and yelling "opa" and that's for sure! :banana:
This is from the San Antonio Excuse-Nuisance this morning. It gives a little insight into "Coach K's" preparation for the FIBA tourney. Sigh http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/colu ... ab2b9.html
