Olympics Women's Basketball, Expected Outcomes and Surprises

[Blond D.]

While I agree on the description of Gabby's play, I challenge the Canadian Goose comparison. That is the least likely waterfowl that would allow anything through without a fight .

Crossing paths with them is, as Deion Sanders would say, a "business decision". There's a reason why they're called cobra chickens.

Gabby wasnt going thru GEESE, the sweet corn was.

 

[Geew1992]

Might as well put it here. ESPN is really promoting Aja Wilson by highlighting her every chance they get. I suppose they are trying to defend and further sell their notion that Aja Wilson deserves to be in their list of Top 100 athletes in the 21st Century and Breanna does not. Boo ESPN! Again.

Stop.... please

 

[cancontent]

Gabby wasnt going thru GEESE, the sweet corn was.

Trust me, I got the analogy. Corn ain't going through Canadian Geese that easy, trust me. If you've seen what happens when they bite, you'd understand my point

 

[FridaFriend]

Hooray for Tiffany

 

[BlueSkyGLW]

Didnt quite realize how many Americans are playing for other countries beyond Gabby and Tiffany.....Gustafson for Spain, Anderson for Serbia, etc., etc.

Tiffany/Azerbajian probably didn't recover quickly from their euphoria in beating the USA 3x3.

Gustafson fueled Spain, Y Anderson Serbia.

Finding ways to have the Olympics experience.....

 

[darkstar1]

Tiffany was the best player on the court vs USA today.

 

[YKCornelius]

Well, I guess I have a different perspective of Japan's team than other posters. Scrappy - yes; fast - yes; good three point shooters - yes; in sync with each other as a team - yes. But also allowed to get away with a lot of grabbing, whacking, hip-checking and hands-on-opposing-players defense that I believe took the refs by surprise. If these FIBA refs called the game they way they normally call Eurobasket games involving top teams across Europe, Japan would have been out of the game by the first quarter.

So far the refereeing has been very good from my perspective, and I am not complaining about the way the US-Japan game was called. The refs maintained a consistency throughout the game that was laudable. I think they were simply taken a bit off guard from the start.

I will be very interested to see how much the FIBA refs let Japan get away with playing against Germany and Belgium in pool play. I think the opposing coaches will be quite a bit more vocal than Cheryl Reeve and her US coaching staff were (which I think was a very classy and strategic posture for the US to take).

 

[JellyBean]

Congrats to TIffany and her squad. Team USA, not sure what is going on. I will have to watch the replay to see how that 3-point loss looked.

 

[nwhoopfan]

. France features great talent in Marine Johannes, who decided not to play in the WNBA, though she was drafted.

She has played several seasons for the Liberty, although not this year.

 

[David54]

A bit off topic but do ya think NBC could actually show the name of the countries for those of us who missed the lesson on flags of the world

 

[Blueballer]

I don't know what kind of a pool the USA had to choose from but IMO Howard is not a great choice for a 3 on 3 player. She just wants to shoot and not do the little things like Dolson did to make the team better.

 

[Happydad745]

Our 3 x 3 team doesn't seem to have nearly the talent of last Olympics team.

 

[BlueSkyGLW]

Hmmmm.....just watch and enjoy is how I take in the Gabby Williams experience these days: 6 more steals, 7 assists to go along with points and rebounds.....

France did a number on Nigeria in the 2nd half. Is France really that deep that they are taking their time putting Marine Johannes in the starting lineup while giving other guards/players more time in the crucible during group play? She'll take more of those minutes in the medal round for sure.

I didn't think Germany would do double digits winning margin on Japan....maybe they are even better than I thought. Maybe it was just S. Sabally simply being too much!....from everywhere!

Was that Australia's defense or both Kia and Aaliyah just could find the basket? They weren't the only ones but what happened to them? And with Alana Smith and Lauren Jackson with zero points in the game, a total of 3 more buckets from these two would have won the game.

 

[uconnfan68]

I don't know what kind of a pool the USA had to choose from but IMO Howard is not a great choice for a 3 on 3 player. She just wants to shoot and not do the little things like Dolson did to make the team better.

Apparently you need to have 3x3 experience in FIBA to be allowed to play (for both men and women).

 

[Blueballer]

Apparently you need to have 3x3 experience in FIBA to be allowed to play (for both men and women).

Yeah I had heard that too but just how many women does that include? Is there a list somewhere? And then I suppose they have to want to commit to doing it even if they are on the list. Seems like a strange setup. Really limits the options. It seems to me that how they play together would be a bigger factor than just bottom line individual ability.

 

[Scud49]

Gabby - doing Gabby things again in 23 minutes, France is now 2-0.

14 points
7-10 FG
5 rebounds
7 assists
6 steals

 

[BillRME0920]

Stewie doing Stewie things vs Belgium - 15 points with 3 minutes left in half

 

[topogigio]

Don't know if I'm late to the party on this one, but... while watching the USA v Belgium game today, I noted that Kierth Burke, is doing the commentary. She covered UConn women on SNY a while back. Kudos to her!

 

[Husky fanatic]

Who selected the 3 x 3 team? 0-3 so far

 

[Dillon77]

Stewie and Wilson doing their things on offense. Thought Reeve made excellent defensive substitutions in 2nd quarter with Thomas, as well as Loyd chasing Vonloo around the court and not allowing her to get her jumper off.
Looking at the 3rd quarter, it ight be time to get some of that 2nd quarter group back in....

 

[EricLA]

I thought Gray was ineffective - flustered by the physicality maybe? She clearly got annoyed, tried the "bull in a china shop drive" instead of passing (ended in a TO), was yanked and never came back into the game. Dee didn't do much either. But the other guards were solid and all had some nice moments - Ionescu and Loyd mainly. Young had some moments on defense, but didn't do much I could see... And not much from Plum either...

I thought Thomas was great in the 2nd quarter. What a bruiser she is. Griner was OK, but this was not a good matchup for her. Collier played really well on both ends (stuff that didn't show up in the box score even tho she had some nice stats), and of course, the best duo in the world - Stewie and Wilson. Belgium had no answers.

I thought Belgium was way too physical. Caught up to them in the 2nd half as calls went against them. USA didn't match the physicality which led to open looks for Belgium (IMHO). Still, USA battled HARD. Credit to them. And loved the bomb at the end by Sabrina and the "shh" to the crowd. Classic!

 

[cancontent]

Who selected the 3 x 3 team? 0-3 so far

This has been discussed so many times. There's a specific process that includes a points system, a requirement to play the FIBA 3x3 circuit, etc. The selections aren't aribratry.

 

[uconnfan68]

This has been discussed so many times. There's a specific process that includes a points system, a requirement to play the FIBA 3x3 circuit, etc. The selections aren't aribratry.

Just poor.