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US/Aussie Game Thread

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Sims and Stewart are on this team for the experience of being on the team and it really has almost nothing to do with whether they get 10 minutes, 2 minutes or zero minutes in the actual games. It is all about the practices and the experience of getting to know the other national team members and the atmosphere of an WC/Olympic competition and what a USA jersey on the National team means. No idea why Sims did not come in with Stewart for the last 50 seconds, but I suspect it had nothing to do with how she performed in the earlier walk through practice or Geno not appreciating her game. Sometimes s__t just happens.
I think USA is going to have an issue for the Olympics - mentioned above are the missing players: Parker, Fowles, Catch, and EDD - add in the age of Bird, Whalen, DT, Augustus and the pressure of rising talent on the team and waiting in the wings - Stewart Sims Diggins KML to name some and the committee is going to make some hard choices if everyone is healthy. I do believe they will want to keep some of the younger players on the team which means telling some of the older players 'thank you for your service' - the alternative is having a lot of new faces on the 2018 WC.

Of the current team 2018 certainties (health permitting and continued play assumed) are Charles, Griner, Moore, Nneka. And assuming they continue their current path - Stewart and Sims. Possible but less likely because of age/age and injury history are DT, Whalen, Dupree, Augustus, Fowles, Angel, and maybe Parker. Gone because of age - Bird, Catchings. By 2020 all of the 'possibles will be gone.
With a new coach taking over (because I am pretty sure that Geno was serious last time and was convinced otherwise, but will be firm this time) I don't think the committee will want to saddle the new coach with a team of possibly six rookies, which means some of the current team plus injured will be passed over for 2016.
The obvious ones are Angel and Dupree because of age and competition and Bird and Catchings who I suspect will still be playing good basketball but are the oldest at the positions of greatest age on the national team - Guard/Wing
This is not dissimilar to Lawson's being cut in 2010 - she was great in China on 2008 and was still playing very good basketball (and is still) but Whalen was a younger option that forced her way onto the team.
 
"You’re right. She’s been playing exceptionally well the entire tournament. But when Brittney Griner’s in the building, that’s where all the focus is going to be from everyone. Tonight we kind of had an idea of how physical Australia was going to be with Brittney, and this is her first time through g this. So, I’m not sure she’s had enough experience playing against these kinds of players on a regular basis, and Tina has. So, tonight you saw the experience that Tina has, and she played a lot of minutes, too. She played 31 minutes. Tina’s doing a lot of little things that maybe don’t even show on the boxscore. Some of the little things that she’s doing, whether it’s getting through a screen or making a pass to somebody, tipping the ball, kind of like Nneka (Ogwumike). Sometimes these guys do things that don’t end up big on the stat sheet, but they keep possessions alive, they get big buckets when the other guys are making a run. I’m not surprised, but I couldn’t be happier for Tina."

The question was to Geno, probably about Tina Charles and her performance tonight. I thought she was tremendous, and, despite the box score, I thought that Nneka played exceptionally well, and Geno appears to concur. It makes a difference, watching the game and seeing what players do off the ball and on defense. She got a lot of good minutes, even though she didn't score as some would expect, heck, as we have come to expect at this level. I believe that she has solidified her place on this tea, for 2016.

Brit has some good moments - loved her reverse layup, but as Geno again indicated, this is one of the first times she had to deal with such pressure from post players. They challenged her and took her out of her game a bit. Yet it has been said that she is smart and picks things up fast and she will learn. At the end of the game, you saw Dee having a little chat with her probably about the same thing. Brit will be fine.

Australia is a great team. there is no way that they were going to let USA have a blow-out win. USA won a great, physical game by double digits...and now we are on to the gold medal game - a game that, again, I am going to miss....dammit.
 
Rady - nice and I have to say my impression from watching was different - I thought Nneka did not have as good a game as you thought - I wonder if when he watches the tape (because a coaches view is actually pretty crappy) will feel she played quite as well as he obviously did after the game. This is of course against the backdrop of some really great play she has had in this tournament so I am not knocking her game - just that I thought she was not as strong today and made a number of mistakes including watching a wide open drive from a few feet away without making a move to provide help.
 
HuskyNan said:
She's a rookie - she'll learn and do better next time. BG will eventually be a key player for the US but she doesn't need to be just yet. It's all good.
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I would consider her stats as qualifying as a key player.
  • 1st in blocks
  • 1st in FT attempts (although she had a bad game from the FT line against France)
  • 1st in FTs made (tied with Nneka)
  • 2nd in FG % at 67.6% (behind only Sims)
  • 2nd in scoring at 12.6 (behind only Maya at 14.8)
  • 2nd rebounding (behind only Tina)
 
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Nneka was the first post player off the bench in the 2nd half, ahead of Dupree who played very little if at all in the 2nd half. Nneka brought great energy and made several hustle plays which Geno obviously loved since she played a lot in the 2nd half. As a USA fan sitting in the stands I was sure glad she was in the game doing her thing.
 
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UcMiami said:
Probably. I don't think it was an intentional diss, unless something happened in practice. In checking the number of games played by Bird I realized that she must have been held out of two of 2002 WC games so maybe it is a guard thing?!:rolleyes:
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Nothing intentional. I think Stewie replaced Tina and my sense at the game was that Geno wanted Tina to get some applause for a job well-done. Tina was terrific and Geno wanted to honor her efforts. Of all the things to be discussed about last night's game I did not expect we'd be talking about Odyssey somehow being dissed because Stewie played 39 secs and Odyssey didn't.
 
UcMiami said:
Rady - nice and I have to say my impression from watching was different - I thought Nneka did not have as good a game as you thought - I wonder if when he watches the tape (because a coaches view is actually pretty crappy) will feel she played quite as well as he obviously did after the game. This is of course against the backdrop of some really great play she has had in this tournament so I am not knocking her game - just that I thought she was not as strong today and made a number of mistakes including watching a wide open drive from a few feet away without making a move to provide help.
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Well it's a darn good thing I didn't say she was best ever :p
Yes I saw that error when she failed to cover her player who went up for that layup but I don't remember that happening all too often in this game. she made a mistake yes, and even the announcers made the observation that Geno was barking at her asking her why she didn't cover that player or why she was out of position. apparently she listened, and played really well the rest of the game.
 
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Gold medal game looks like it will start at 2 pm on ESPN2......:)

Go Team USA..!!
 
I have been annoyed that NBA TV has had the same halftime fill piece each game - the men's WC journey. Kept hoping they might have had some footage of the women at the naval academy. Glad they telecast the games, just was hoping for a little variety. Maybe ESPN has something different?!
 
I am watching the game (DVR) now; 3rd quarter. The 1st quarter was really sloppy. Australia was hitting some shots in that 1st quarter. Their post play was killing us. I am just amazed that moving screens are not called more. In high school basketball, those calls are automatic. In college and at the pro level, nothing. Oh well. I am just glad that DT went into attack mode and started to attack the basket to create contact.

Moving on, the 2nd quarter, we see the separation. USA starts to pull away.

3rd quarter, Australia makes a run to get the lead down to six but team USA is still solid.

What I love about coach Auriemma and his style of coaching is, the dude is always cool (at least on camera) during a timeout. You rarely see him with a drawing board and frantically drawing up a play. I mean we have seen him being intense during timeouts. But for the most part, he is cool.

I don't like how the officials call fouls on Brit. There were fouls called on her that were just crappy calls. The one where the player runs into Brits arm? Come on now. But the game is winding down and we are winning.

Team USA!!!
 
UcMiami said:
I have been annoyed that NBA TV has had the same halftime fill piece each game - the men's WC journey. Kept hoping they might have had some footage of the women at the naval academy. Glad they telecast the games, just was hoping for a little variety. Maybe ESPN has something different?!
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I agree. I am thankful that NBA TV is airing the games. However, I am annoyed with the men's WC journey during the halftime. I mean surely our girls were doing something during the lead up to the WC. I mean show a practice session, a meeting with wounded veterans, players talking about how much it means to play for team USA, or something where it is our women's USA team during their game. Jeez.
 
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Spain is a good team but team USA is a great team. That's a big difference. All 12 players could probably start on Spain's team. With team USA's depth and no one to control the inside and USA shooting the ball as well as they are from the outside I think the USA literally runs away with this one. GOLD for team USA.
 
JellyBean said:
I am watching the game (DVR) now; 3rd quarter. The 1st quarter was really sloppy. Australia was hitting some shots in that 1st quarter. Their post play was killing us. I am just amazed that moving screens are not called more. In high school basketball, those calls are automatic. In college and at the pro level, nothing. Oh well. I am just glad that DT went into attack mode and started to attack the basket to create contact.

Moving on, the 2nd quarter, we see the separation. USA starts to pull away.

3rd quarter, Australia makes a run to get the lead down to six but team USA is still solid.

What I love about coach Auriemma and his style of coaching is, the dude is always cool (at least on camera) during a timeout. You rarely see him with a drawing board and frantically drawing up a play. I mean we have seen him being intense during timeouts. But for the most part, he is cool.

I don't like how the officials call fouls on Brit. There were fouls called on her that were just crappy calls. The one where the player runs into Brits arm? Come on now. But the game is winding down and we are winning.

Team USA!!!
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Geno talks to these women like the professionals that they are, and they all pay attention to what he is saying. Geno knows how to coach this group. Say it once and let them go do it.

The refs were guilty of two bad calls on Brittney in the second half. As with all refs at first, they don't know quite how to officiate her. But I was disappointed that BG got frustrated and picked up that foul running down the court. She has to contain her emotions.
 
JellyBean said:
I am watching the game (DVR) now; 3rd quarter. The 1st quarter was really sloppy. Australia was hitting some shots in that 1st quarter. Their post play was killing us. I am just amazed that moving screens are not called more. In high school basketball, those calls are automatic. In college and at the pro level, nothing. Oh well. I am just glad that DT went into attack mode and started to attack the basket to create contact.

Moving on, the 2nd quarter, we see the separation. USA starts to pull away.

3rd quarter, Australia makes a run to get the lead down to six but team USA is still solid.

What I love about coach Auriemma and his style of coaching is, the dude is always cool (at least on camera) during a timeout. You rarely see him with a drawing board and frantically drawing up a play. I mean we have seen him being intense during timeouts. But for the most part, he is cool.

I don't like how the officials call fouls on Brit. There were fouls called on her that were just crappy calls. The one where the player runs into Brits arm? Come on now. But the game is winding down and we are winning.

Team USA!!!
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What I have noticed about all the refs in this tournament ,is the foreign players keeps their hands up straight but use their body to throw shooters off balance. I believe they are coached to do so.
 
phil sampieri said:
What I have noticed about all the refs in this tournament ,is the foreign players keeps their hands up straight but use their body to throw shooters off balance. I believe they are coached to do so.
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Good observation. And the refs are letting it go.
 
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phil sampieri said:
What I have noticed about all the refs in this tournament ,is the foreign players keeps their hands up straight but use their body to throw shooters off balance. I believe they are coached to do so.
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This has always been true of international play - they are very tight on arm and hand fouls and allow a lot of body contact - Moore is an example of a USA player who understands this very well - you often see her with both hands in the air as she squeezes between screener and screenee even when her body is making contact with the players to prove she is not holding and she seldom gets a foul called.
And it is a problem for a player like Griner transitioning to the international refs.
On the second half foul where the defender runs her neck into Griner's arm - you see that call a lot, especially with tall players being guarded by shorter players - Dolson had a number of those calls made against her. It is standard offensive position for posting players, but is not actually legal - just never called when the contact is below the neck unless it is really blatant - similar to the hook on a spin move in the post - everybody does it to some degree but it is only called when it is really blatant.
 
UcMiami said:
This has always been true of international play - they are very tight on arm and hand fouls and allow a lot of body contact - Moore is an example of a USA player who understands this very well - you often see her with both hands in the air as she squeezes between screener and screenee even when her body is making contact with the players to prove she is not holding and she seldom gets a foul called.
And it is a problem for a player like Griner transitioning to the international refs.
On the second half foul where the defender runs her neck into Griner's arm - you see that call a lot, especially with tall players being guarded by shorter players - Dolson had a number of those calls made against her. It is standard offensive position for posting players, but is not actually legal - just never called when the contact is below the neck unless it is really blatant - similar to the hook on a spin move in the post - everybody does it to some degree but it is only called when it is really blatant.
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Once again, good insight and analysis. This is the type of quality post I come to the BY to see.
 
Some arm calls are allowed-clear-outs by a post player with their offhand for example.
 
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