Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="awhom111, post: 4025548, member: 8683"] I would have posted earlier, but today is the first day that I have been able to log in to this site in a while. Japan's league has no foreign players so national team play is the only chance for other players to play them, although Spain's head coach moved to one of their club teams recently. That is why teams tend to have a hard time adjusting to their offensive style at the beginning of games as it is unlike anything else in basketball. Their American head coach Tom Hovasse only coaches the national team unlike pretty much all other national team coaches so he has time to scout all of his options in the local league and come up with ways to make his offense even tougher to defend. He has managed to deal with injuries to key players and new players seem to be able to easily slot into their new roles, but at this tournament, Rui Machida has been a passing wizard. When Oceania was combined into Asia for competition, people thought that Australia would dominate, but Japan has won all of the continental tournaments since. Serbia is an experienced team with a number of players who have been stars in Europe with the momentum of just being crowned European champions. They are tough as they have adopted a big lineup and have a number of playmakers that make it harder to shut down their offense. Sonja Petrovic is their most important player and she is retiring after these two games so they have been rallying behind her all summer. She was useful off the bench in her two WNBA seasons, but she is at her best as a secondary playmaker from the 3 or the 4. Jelena Milovanovic also had one solid WNBA season and can also be a dangerous playmaker from the post as a 4 or 5. Tina Jovanovic is their center for defense, rebounding, and dirty work. They have started Aleksandra Crvendakic, who is more of a natural combo forward, at the 2. She attended a training camp with Seattle, but did not make the team as she does not really fit any one position in the WNBA. Ana Dabovic has been their starting point guard, but they do not rely on her to be a playmaker as she is more comfortable as a scorer off the bench, which was her WNBA role. Dragana Stankovic is a former WNBA draft pick who is their backup center. She was injured for EuroBasket, but looks like she is back as a solid role player. Nevena Jovanovic was impressive as a shooter off the bench at EuroBasket, but has not necessarily done that much in the Olympics. They naturalized Yvonne Anderson and have used her as a change of pace guard. I could see them using her more in a defensive role in the last two games. Sasa Cado, Dajana Butulija, and Maja Skoric are all solid European role players with plenty of experience even if they have not played much. Angela Dugalic was their only backup center at EuroBasket, but has not been needed in the Olympics and they probably wish that they had Nikolina Milic for a little more firepower. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach

Forum statistics

Threads: 164,446

Messages: 4,396,600

Members: 10,209

Latest member: gemini*trvl