PAN shAM Team Thoughts
Posted by rtmsf on July 31st, 2007As we mentioned yesterday, Team USA’s Pan Am squad got off the plane in Rio and promptly found itself down 0-2 with losses to Uruguay and Panama, which effectively ended any chance for a medal at the tournament. Let’s say that again – Uruguay… and… Panama. If you thought losing to Serbia was bad… Uruguay? This small nation of 3.3M people stuck somewhere in South America between Brazil and Argentina is best known in hoops circles for putting only one player in its history, Ernesto Batista (Atlanta Hawks), into the NBA. As for losing to Panama, what else can be said? They’re known for a corrupt former dictator and an important canal – not exactly backdoor cuts and alley-oops.
This is All We Care to Know About Uruguay
At least Team USA rallied to win their next three games vs. Argentina, the US Virgin Islands and Panama (revenge is ours, Noriega!) to take 5th place at the tournament. (FYI – Brazil was the champion.) The more things change, the more they stay the same… Sigh… Doug Gottlieb writes today that “we stink” when it comes to international basketball, and he’s absolutely, positively, most definitely and completely right on that count:
We are Team USA, and we can not win the gold in any competition. The Pan Am team has not won gold since 1983. The Under-19 team has not won gold since 1991. The men’s national team has not won the world championship since 1994. The last Olympics gold came in 2000. We are the standard bearers for hoops across the globe, but in comparing our own image of how good we are to our overall performance, we stink.
He blames our international woes on the different styles of play and officiating, and no doubt that explains some of it. But from the non-player side of things, we still believe that our AAU-bred emphasis on 1-on-1 play over basic fundamentals such as passing, shooting and help defense is a more significant factor. When we were winning every international competition 20+ years ago, we were still more athletic than everyone else – that part hasn’t changed. What has changed is that the world has gotten significantly better (obviously), but more importantly, the US players have not. More athletic – definitely. More talented at one-and-one play – assuredly. More talented at team basketball – not even close. As Gottlieb suggests and we agree, this problem isn’t going away.
Gottlieb is a Doppelganger for an Intl. Hoopster
With that tirade over, we wanted to take a moment to look at the stats from the players on this Pan Am team to get some idea of whether any might have breakout seasons in college next year.
According to the numbers and coach Jay Wright:
- DJ White (Indiana) was the class of this team, nearly averaging a dub-dub, shooting 59% and leading the team in steals in only 24 minutes per game. If Eric Gordon is worth half of his hype next year, IU could really turn some heads in the Big Ten and nationally.
- Wright slurped Roy Hibbert (Georgetown) for his mobility, but we were a little surprised he only managed eight blocks in five games.
- And what the hell happened to Scottie Reynolds (Villanova)? We could be looking at a second coming of the Human Cannon (aka Dion Glover) here – 21% (8-37 FG; 4-19 3FG) shooting and a boatload of turnovers to boot. Memo to Reynolds – you had a nice freshman year, but just b/c the coach of your school coaches the team does not mean you have the green light on every possession.
- Speaking of shooting, Drew Neitzel (Michigan St.) and Shan Foster (Vanderbilt) both shot poorly in the tournament, which is unsurprising considering neither is a pure shooter.
- A pair of Pac-10 players, Derrick Low (Washington St.) and Maarty Leunen (Oregon) seemed to act as solid versatile “glue guys” that are so important for any team, according to Wright.
- Joey Dorsey (Memphis) made a name for himself when he called out a Uruguayan center named Gregorio Odento and was summarily dunked on (or maybe we’re getting that confused with something else).
- Guards Wayne Ellington (UNC) and Eric Maynor (VCU) both got hurt early, so we never really got to see what they could do.
DJ White Ponders His Senior Year
All in all, it sounds like another uninspiring performance from Team USA. We’re definitely going to be keeping a closer eye on DJ White this upcoming season, though.
Chupenme la pija…hijos de la gran puta…porque ustedes sean unos ignorantes de mierda no significa que Uruguay no existe…. 2 mundiales de futbol…Penarol Rey de Copas del Futbol mundial… Ustedes ganan en basket y se agrandan… vayanse a la concha de su hermana putos d mierda… son todos unos ignorantes de mierda……. te juro que agarro al que dejo eso y lo cago a trompadas…chupa vergas
taco enchilada burrito sombrero hombre
Por Dios..informate antes de decir tanta estupides junta.. media pila bo, si no tenes nada mejor q poner simplemente no escribas.
Bueno..espero q lo q voy a poner en ingles se entienda..
I can ‘t believe.. how can someone, put all this shit in a blog?
Please berfore write, read some real information, you can start reading something about Peñarol. But, I think that you only know about bask so.. you don’t will understand about a best sport like soccer.
Bye
Whoever wrote this article must and has to be the biggest looser on earth. Your fucking country sucks at sport and in what sense does that give you a right to speak about other countries like that, regardless of the size. you just gotta be some lowlife with no education at all not even enough to actually write about a game cuz, just look at the article and see how many lines are used to talk about the actual game that you losers lost. you can go fuck yourself and all then damn piece of shit motherfuckers that have the same ideals as you, you racist piece of shit. You bunch of idiots only win when you play a fucking world championship that only your teams are in and call it world series. go and try to learn something about sports before insulting yourself writing shit like this.
Vamo arriba che, no se dejen pisotear que tambien somos humanos.
you suck, stupid mother fucker, speaking about a country as if it was yourself, a non important thing!!! you think you are important because you were born in a country which is always bombarding other countrys and enriching itself doing that. Please, shut the f… up, you ignorant!!!!!
you are such an idiot!!!! you sucks, you are surely a fat cow that can´t even run before a ball, and you speak about sports!! apart from that you are an ignorant, because you obviously haven´t been outside your country, and that´s why you think is the best, hahahah, you are such a jerk! you make me laugh, you should be a comediant!!!!! hahahaha, fat cow!!