Post-Olympic Basketball Thoughts

I’m a couple days late in recapping the medal rounds of Team USA’s brilliant gold medal performance in London. Kim and I had a baby girl on Friday and I’ve been wrapped up with my family for a few days. But I did have a chance to watch the gold-medal game from the hospital room on Sunday.

I’m going to keep this blog simple and use a few of the quotes I liked when recapping Team USA’s performance. I will say that what Jerry Colangelo, Mike Krzyzewski, and USA Basketball have done to get our national team back to, and remaining at, the top has been significant. One could argue that it should have never gotten to the point where the Americans were winning bronze medals – and probably been correct – but it is a great story of dealing with challenge and adversity.

Personally, I came away with a few story lines from London:

1)      LeBron James is the best player in the world. And it’s not even close. His ability to do everything on the floor well, and his adaptability to those he plays with, is spectacular. And I wasn’t saying this a year ago.

2)      Mike Krzyzewski is in the conversation with John Wooden as the greatest coach of all time. His ability to lead and motivate people of all ages and abilities is astounding. It is a true gift and, we as Americans should be proud he used it in guiding Team USA.

3)      Kevin Love is an elite-level glue guy. I marvel at his ability to rebound the ball without the athletic ability that most other NBA-caliber players have. His effort should be used as a lesson to all players. His defense on Pau Gasol (who was tremendous in the gold medal game) late in the game enabled Team USA to finally get the stops they needed.

4)      These guys loved playing together. After reading The Dream Team, by Jack McCallum, and observing these guys, there is a common thread: The best players love playing with each other.

Here are my favorite quotes from Team USA on their accomplishments:

Jerry Colangelo
(On he and Coach K overcoming adversity)
We both come from ethnic backgrounds, Chicago; have a feel of coming from literally nothing and accomplishing and achieving a lot of things; and we are both appreciative, respect everything we’ve been able to do in our lifetimes.

Mike Krzyzewski
(On having to be excellent to defeat Spain for the gold medal)
I would think that basketball people in our country realize that this was a great win for us. I think we should expect excellence. And if you have excellence you have a greater chance of winning. But the other person can be excellent too…we are not going to win all of them. Just because people are too good…As long as in USA Basketball we respect the world and prepare that way, then we will have a greater chance to win.

(On Team USA’s chemistry)
We have as good a bond and camaraderie as any team that is in the tournament.

(On evaluating the USA Basketball program after the Olympics)
In the military we call it an after action report. And we have done that all the time. What we did, what we could have changed. How we could have gotten better and in moving forward what is the next step in moving forward.

Jim Boeheim
(On winning the gold medal)
The work they put in, the effort they put in, it means a lot. I think people should really be appreciative of what these players have done and how much pride that we all take in bringing our basketball program back up to where we think it should be. It’s not that easy.

Nate McMillan
(On winning the gold medal)
It’s just a great feeling because at the beginning I feel Mr. Colangelo and Coach K give this team a vision and, of course, a goal, which is to win the gold. But they do such a great job of presenting the vision and the roadmap to accomplishing what the team did tonight, which is win the gold medal.

Chris Paul
(On the importance of defense)
At halftime before we ran out, what we talked about amongst ourselves was the reason we had been so successful is because of our defense; it wasn’t because of the flurry of threes that we would make from game to game. It was because of our defense. As you saw late in the game, that’s where we really broke away, we got stops, we got in transition and when you’ve got guys like Melo, KD, and Kobe trailing the play, that’s the way we can find those open shots.

USA Basketball’s system that has been put in place will continue to be used and tweaked so our country can remain at the top of the basketball world. If the 23-year-old age limit is implemented it will be tweaked a lot. But so will everyone else’s systems. I think the developmental system of basketball in our country – or lack thereof – could use its own organization. But that will take collaboration from many, especially USA Basketball.  

In future blogs, I will continue to provide thoughts and recaps about leadership and basketball from books, articles, etc. I thought I would have a little fun with the Olympics this summer. Thanks for reading!

Team USA Pulls Away from Australia

Team USA gave their country some tense moments but a big fourth quarter allowed them to pull away for a 119-86 win over Australia, advancing them to the Olympics semifinals against Argentina.

LeBron James was outstanding again, earning what is believed to be the second triple-double in Olympics history (11 points, 14 rebounds, and 12 assists).

I though Kevin Love was outstanding again. Fran Fraschilla said in the pre-Olympic television coverage that Love was a perfect fit for the international game. Coach Fraschilla was absolutely correct. I continue to be amazed at Love's rebounding. His effort and footwork are off the charts. He had eleven rebounds in twenty minutes on Wednesday, eight of them offensive and several of those were converted into second-chance points for Team USA.

I had been extremely disappointed in Kobe Bryant's play in the Olympics, in particular the first half on Wednesday. But Kobe responded with a couple steals and went on a Carmelo Anthony-like shooting binge in the second half, scoring twenty points in the game.

Team USA was particularly aggressive at the offensive end. Rather than settling for jump shots they attacked the basket as well as they have while in London.This was evident in the thirty fouls called on Australia and 32 free throws attempted by USA.

The Americans were better on the defensive end but still not great. They have particularly struggled with on-ball screens in transition, or dribble-drag screens. I think Coach K even used a timeout after they were scored on one of those. Those are a matter of getting back in transition defense faster and having some defensive rotations ready sooner.

Also, the Americans switched most every screen against the Aussies. But they seem content on switching to switch and not switching to get steals or to be aggressive. Look for the Argentines on Friday to slip some screens and exploit some mismatches to create scoring opportunities if the Americans switch at the defensive end.

Friday should be fun. The fire was lit in the Argentina game on Monday. I think we'll see a very motivated Team USA in the semifinals. Team USA has defeated Argentina in both the preliminary round and in the exhibition tour. The 29-point win on Monday in the preliminary round may be misleading as it was just a one-point game at the half. But the depth of Team USA wore down Argentina in both games. I would expect that to be the case again on Friday.

I'm hoping to get to see the game. My wife and I are expecting to welcome our daaughter into the world on Friday. If not, I'll be okay.

Should We Worry About Team USA

Well, Team USA survived. Their 99-94 victory over Lithuania was less than stellar but I don't think we should really be that surprised. Consider that Team USA was coming off two victories over inferior opponents in Nigeria and Tunisia and they play Argentina, the third-ranked team in the country, today. The fact is that Team USA isn't nearly as good as the 156-73 win over Nigeria and they aren't as bad as their performance over Lithuania showed.

Nigeria played into Team USA's hands in every possible way on Thursday. It was like their coaching staff didn't scout Team USA. They sent four players to the offensive boards, allowing Team USA to get countless transition opportunities. They did not rotate well at all on Team USA's on-ball screens. And while Carmelo Anthony's second half scoring binge was a sight to behold, Nigeria's interest in challenging his jump shots was negligent.

And Lithuania played extremely well against Team USA on Saturday. They shot well (38-65 from the field). They competed at a high level. Team USA did not play well. The Americans did not shoot well. They were 35-79 from the field, 10-33 from three-point range. And when they are not shooting well, and they won't shoot as well as they did against Nigeria, they need to be able to throw the ball inside. Carmelo Anthony is the only option.

In fact, if it wasn't for how well Anthony played again and LeBron's 4th quarter push (It is time to embrace LeBron as being clutch.), Team USA probably would have lost. Lithuania was particularly effective using on-ball screens to attack the basket. This is an area Team USA will need to improve. Chris Paul, in particular, had a difficult time keeping the ball in front of him.

I tweeted during the game Saturday that Team USA was not playing well defensively, but basketball fans need to keep this in perspective. Good defensive teams in the NBA have played together for seven, eight months when they are playing in the playoffs. That gives them a lot of opportunities to develop as a team. The Olympic team has been together for all of a month. We cannot expect them to be an outstanding defensive team in a month. I think the average fan thinks because they are the best players they should play at an other-worldly level. It just can't happen. The Olympic game is so much different than the professional game and teams need more time to improve.

I'll be interested to see how Team USA adjusts their defense in pick-and-roll situations against Argentina. The Argentines pose one of the best pick-and-roll players in the world in Manu Ginobili. Luis Scola is averaging 21 points in the Olympics, as well. The Americans will have to defend much better if they are going to be successful against Argentina.

The Argentines have been somewhat up and down in the Olympics. After starting the Olympics with a 22-point win over Lithuania they dropped their second against France. Incidentally, France's only loss was their first game to Team USA. But Argentina is the third-ranked team in the world and expect them to play at their highest level against Team USA. I would never count out a team with Manu Ginobili, especially if Team USA duplicates their Saturday performance.

The quarterfinals will begin on Wednesday. The brackets for the tournament will be available after Monday's games.

USA Basketball vs. Tunisia Recap

Well, there's not a lot you can take from Team USA's win over Tunisia on Tuesday. Tunisia competed for the U.S. were overwhelmingly more talented. It was disappointing that they got off to such a lackluster start. And I loved what Coach K did by putting five subs in (Kevin Love, Carmelo Anthony, Andre Iguodala, Russell Westbrook, Deron Williams), and keeping them in when they stretched the lead in the second quarter.

The difference in the game again was the depth for Team USA. The reserves were outstanding, shooting a combined 31-44 from the field, including a perfect 5-5 for Anthony Davis and 6-6 for Anthony.

I'll go back to shot selection. Against Tunisia's zone early, they failed to attack the interior and settled for jump shots that weren't going down. The second half was much improved as they outscored Tunisia by 25 points in the third quarter.

Here is the bi-daily LeBron highlight, this off a nice Kevin Durant pass on a 2-on-1 fast break: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwXmDtT8C1s

Up next is a matchup with Nigeria at 5:15 EDT today. Nigeria is 1-1 at the Olympics, beating Tunisia and falling to Lithuania. They reached the Olympics by winning a qualifying tournament, including a championship victory over the John Calipari-coached Dominican Republic team.

The Nigerians have a lot of familiar names. Their leading scorer is former Pac-10 Player of the Year Ike Diogu (Arizona State). Diogu has played for several NBA teams and spent some time overseas last year.  Al Farouq-Aminu was a standout at Wake Forest and will be a teammate of Anthony Davis with the New Orleans Hornets this year.

You may also remember Tony Skinn, who was one of the George Mason stars that led them to the 2006 Final Four. Other Nigerians who played collegiately in the U.S. include Alade Aminu (Georgia Tech), Koko Archibong (Penn), Derrick Obasohan (Texas-Arlington), and Chamberlain Oguchi (Oregon).