Comments on: World Championship knockout rounds set, USA has a tough road ahead

By: Truth

Truth — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:23:57 +0000

No arrogance…just execution. USA didn’t start taking any international BBall competition seriously until 2006. And USA has been the class of international basketball both on and off the court since then. No country has a resume anywhere close to this:
1) Our A-Team cruised to the gold the last global competition (’08 Olympics): USA went undefeated, won by an average of 28ppg, beat every major “world power” by 20+, beat the 2nd best team in the world at the time (Spain) TWICE (once by 11 and once by 37) and never even trailed in the 2nd half of a game the ENTIRE TOURNAMENT.
2) Our U16, U17, U18 AND U19 USA teams are all undefeated over the last two years and have won their respective FIBA World Championships
3) Team USA hasn’t lost a game in four years and has only trailed in the 2nd half of a game ONCE during that time (and that one time was with our B Team).
4) Our B Team just cruised to 5-0 in what was dubbed the ‘toughest group’ of the World Championships (and by B-Team I mean a team made up of ZERO players from our A-team…not A-team minus a few players)
5) The world still knows USA is the best. They have our “B Team” ranked ahead of the rest of the world: (See this blog from ballineurope.com)
http://www.ballineu rope.com/national-te ams/fiba-world-champ ionship-power-rankin gs-tournament-6116/# more-7419

By: Cody

Cody — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:13:51 +0000

This writer has zero clue about international basketball. Lol. Croatia and Serbia is one of the top two games of the 1st round??? Over Argentina vs. Brazil?? 2 seed vs a 3 seed and continental rivals. Serbia (who won Group A) is head and shoulders above Croatia who finished 4th in group B (last team in). Croatia is very young and inexperienced and doesn’t have near the depth that Serbia has. Serbia and Turkey are the two best teams on that side of the bracket. Turkey has SIX players who are 6’10″ or taller, have NBA talent, depth and the home crowd. Spain in the final??? Lol. Spain lost depth and leadership with the absense of Pau Gasol and Calderon. Please watch the games before writing a story…and don’t base your picks off of a tournament that happened two years ago. These teams are all very different.
But I can’t wait until the first round starts because there are a ton of great games (Spain vs Greece, Argentina vs Brazil, and Slovenia vs Australia will all be pretty evenly matched…and there are always the unexpected close games so we’re in for a great first round!).

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:02:30 +0000

I disagree. This is the easier side of the bracket. We should have no trouble with Russia because of out guard play. Brazil will be out first test.