Winner of B-ball Gold in Beijing?

[PurpleHaze]

Is USA a lock cinch to capture Gold just as predicted last Olympics when they ended up with Bronze? Who grabs Silver, Bronze this time around? (opps, forgot to make public poll but that's cool)

Manu Ginobili announces joining his Argentine teammates for Olympics - Pop mad?

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/olybb/news/story?id=3496913

Power rankings heading into 2008 Olympic games:

1. USA
2. Spain
3. Argentina (listed before Manu confirmed playing; won Gold last games)
4. Russia
5. Lithuania
6. Greece (won Silver last games)
7. Italy
8. China
9. Croatia
10.Slovenia (Beno Udrih playing?)

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

With one-and-a-half bigs? Of course they're not a "lock." Having said that, though, I think that this group understands that they can't just step on the court and beat a team that may not be as good on paper but has practiced together longer and is more familiar with FIBA rules. I think that this group will have better outside shooting than the last few to be sent out by the United States, will play better defense, will play a more fluid team game on offense, and will probably not be hurt all that much by the lack of big men, given the dearth of true big men in the international game. But I sure would feel better if we had someone to go to in the post besides Howard...

 

[PurpleHaze]

With one-and-a-half bigs? Of course they're not a "lock." Having said that, though, I think that this group understands that they can't just step on the court and beat a team that may not be as good on paper but has practiced together longer and is more familiar with FIBA rules. I think that this group will have better outside shooting than the last few to be sent out by the United States, will play better defense, will play a more fluid team game on offense, and will probably not be hurt all that much by the lack of big men, given the dearth of true big men in the international game. But I sure would feel better if we had someone to go to in the post besides Howard...

I agree USA weak point is in the post. When Howard is out of the game or certainly if he gets injured the team may be staring at Silver or Bronze. Russia is quite big and China has a load of 7 footers. Italy is a sleeper for Silver or Bronze (even Gold if USA falters for whatever reason) as they have a bunch of sensational NBA talent that's been sitting in Europe, maybe most coming stateside one day). I'll predict:

Gold - USA
Silver - Italy
Bronze - Spain

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

China has a lot of seven-footers, but they don't appear to "play" big. I'm totally unconcerned with a seven-foot small forward.

There's a reason why players like Bruce Bowen and Trenton Hassell tend to be able to shut down players like Stojakovic and Nowitzki, and that reason is because those guys tend not to realize that their ****ing huge.

 

[LPKingsFan]

Are the rosters for all the teams finalized yet? I know there was still debate for some guys like Ginobili and Koufus recently...

 

[Sac.1989]

basically a good 3/4 of turkeys team is 6-10 + so they are a fair few "big" teams competing

 

[Gary]

OK, sorry but my thread is officially better than this one because you forgot to put Germany in here!!! ARGH!!!


I pick Germany because Kaman, and Dirk are gonna rule the court

Gold - Germany
Silver - Argentina
Bronze - USA
4th place - Spain

 

[PurpleHaze]

In power rankings leading up to the Beijing games Germany was not ranked in top 10 (probably should have been) but, I left selection "other" for them, etc.

Some of the top players here in their national unis:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mu...07/olympics.basketball.players/content.1.html

 

[PurpleHaze]

ESPN-2 @ 5AM PT:

Watching USA-Turkey (non-Olympic qualifier) in Macao right now and USA sluggish early on as were in first practice game against Canada - until huge second half blowout. USA as expected not much inside, but with numerous transition hoops. Quick Turkish guards penetrating on offense and causing turnovers on D. Very tight throughout, but now 54-37 USA at the half with late run. Next two games for USA against qualifiers Lithuania and Russia could be bigger tests. Russians recently won Euro championship over Spain on last second buzzer beater.

 

[Mad D]

Watching Russia vs USA right now. Russia uglied up the second quarter and US came into the third quarter making a few too many dumb mistakes. Kobe missed an easy dunk that turned into a finger roll that sat in from of the rim and kind threw him out of the game mentally for a second and kind of just stood there while everyone else ran by. US just went on a scoring run pretty much in the time it took me to type this and are up by 19. Now Lebron trips over his own feet running down the court, must be the jet lag. I'm sure they'll win this game.

 

[Andre87]

1st US
2nd Argentina
3rd Russia
4th Spain