In a recent post I wrote about how the US under performs in a lot of international events. I've seen it time and time again at the youth levels with certain coaches. It happened last night in a game against Australia (94-98) with our men National Team in an exhibition game leading up to the 2019 World Cup next month.
This is not the US best version of a National Team. but it should be enough to get the job done if they play up to par and are coached well. Australia had never beaten us and we hadn't lost a game in 13 years. HC Paul Popovich, said we had to lose sometime and gave a lot of credit to the Boomers. they came from behind for the win, out rebounding us 41 to 35 and doubling us in assists 22 to 11, while shooting 50% to our 44%. On the other hand, Patty Mills, had a game high 30 points, scoring the last 10 points to put his team over the top. Popovich said he was a better person off the court than on the court and was a great human being and a beautiful guy. He also said that they were very physical, it's in the water there.
Sounds like poor excuses for an unexpected loss. The Boomers are a veteran, big, physical team so we should be prepared for that, or not? Maybe we just got out coached and out performed. How come? We have better players. It's like "Deja Vu" for other US losses I've seen recently. Did we have someone who could stop Patty Mills or not? Or maybe that was a gift to him while performing in front of over 52,000 fans? Let's play hard-nosed US basketball. You have to up the ante, Mr. Popovich. You might get surprised by other National Teams. Maybe Mr. Popovich and Mr. Kerr were discussing politics and let the game pass them by.
With an 8th place finish at the World Cup in China, the US coached by Paul Popovich and assisted by Steve Kerr had their worst finish ever. All players performed below expectations and there were some games when we were out coached, especially the game against France. This was a remarkably bad tournament for all involved.
No comments:
Post a Comment