USA Basketball in Rio...

[billyjack]

Hey guys, i thought this might deserve its own thread, seeing that it's hoops.

I've watched some of the USA men's hoops, probably a little bit of each game at least. They beat up on Nigeria and Venezuela, then struggled to put away Australia, Serbia and today France.

Of course this feeds into my regular criticism of Coach K. The offense for most of the game is that 4 guys stand around, watch 1 guy dribble up top until he takes his defender 1 on 1... then they bank on Cousins or Deandre Jordan to put back an offensive rebound... they rely on talent instead of running plays. Holy cow, it's painful to watch. People, it doesn't have to be this way, whether or not Lebron and Curry are on the team.

This is a lot like the Boeheim offense (JB is a bench coach)... Marquette fans must remember their NCAA win vs Syracuse in 2011, when in the last 5 minutes Scoop Jardine would dribble up top for 25 seconds with the other 4 standing motionless... holy cow. And i like to criticize whiny Coach K, and this reinforces it... again, rely on the talent disparity to roll teams at Duke.

Anyway, no way should the USA hoops team be struggling like this. Yeah, they're stuck on a ship and can't practice, but man they're tough to watch. I'd love to see Jay Wright with this team, or McDermott, or Shaka Smart, or Billy Donovan. Instead we have to watch this mess and look at basketball's two biggest whiny sourpusses coaching on the sidelines... yeesh!

And don't get me going on their weak defense! Now get off my lawn!!!

[stever20]

not directly about this but I love the one part of international ball that I would love to see put in college(and NBA). When you shoot and miss, the shot clock isn't reset fully to 24(for international) seconds- but to only 14. Makes a ton of sense quite frankly....

So interesting watching the quarters. I think we're going to be seeing the final year ever where college will be playing halves. Everything else is quarters now(to include the women's college game).

[billyjack]

not directly about this but I love the one part of international ball that I would love to see put in college(and NBA). When you shoot and miss, the shot clock isn't reset fully to 24(for international) seconds- but to only 14. Makes a ton of sense quite frankly....

So interesting watching the quarters. I think we're going to be seeing the final year ever where college will be playing halves. Everything else is quarters now(to include the women's college game).

Yeah, i really like the reset only being to 14 or whatever.

The quarters thing is unnecessary in my opinion... it's not an issue, i have no idea why it would be necessary except that "everyone else is doing it", which is among the worst reasons i can think of for making any decision, and it's a major thing I've tried to instill in my kids to avoid.. . for that reason alone i oppose it, not to mention i like 2 halves and 7 fouls for the bonus... it's perfect.

[stever20]

a big reason why you are going to hear is it'll make the games quicker....

you say how is that possible?
1- 1 fewer tv timeout per half. instead of timeouts at 16/12/8/4, you have timeouts 5 minutes into each quarter.
2- fouls. instead of a team who commits 9 fouls in 1st 10 minutes of game being in double bonus for rest of the half, fouls reset. So fewer free throws shot.

I just think it's pretty close to inevitable quite frankly.

[sciencejay]

Agree with the original post--watching Team USA doesn't make you feel like it's really a team game. I hate that the NBA and college to a large extent have gone this route. That's why I love the BEast with teams that run a system, and lots of times the best player for the system isn't a lottery pick (eg-Archidiacono).

With regard to changing the college game from halves to quarters, I don't like quarters because it essentially gives teams more team fouls, which cuts down on free throws (teams less likely to get into the bonus/double bonus). I think free throws are an important part of the game, and people who spend the overwhelming majority of their time playing/practicing the game should be able to hit a few free throws. If people don't like the Hack-a-Shaq/Deandre strategy, tough.

You see this in every sport--there's a move to specialization, but the best/most valued players are the ones who are good (if not great) at most of the skills required to play the game. KD is 6'11", but he can dribble, shoot, etc. And Curry isn't just a shooter--he can dribble penetrate, sees the floor well to find open teammates, etc. I'm not saying he's great defensively, but he's really not a huge liability on that end. The rules of the game shouldn't be changed to accommodate one-trick Charlies like Deandre Jordan just because we like to see them bring down the house with a follow-up dunk.

And I do get the pace of the game argument against free throws, but again, they are part of the game and have been forever. Teams that have several good FT shooters don't get fouled a ton late in games.

[stever20]

I guess the US did pretty darn well. defense wins championships and US did that. The players like they said acted like the last 3 pool play games were NBA regular season games. And the medal round games were the NBA playoffs.