Saturday, 02.09.2006	posted by Jeff Taylor 05:04 pm
Category: FIBA World Championship

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IT'S A NUMBERS GAME FOR TEAM USA

We thought the Americans knew what they were doing at the FIBA World Championship but in the end, they did not.

With their NBA players, and coaches from both the professional and collegiate ranks, Team USA crashed out of gold medal contention against a Greece team with no stars and no names.

And that second bit – no names – should be taken literally. They were just numbers to USA coach Mike Krzyzewski.

After the 101-95 defeat for the Americans, Coach K said: "I thought number four was spectacular in the first half, number seven was spectacular in the second half and number 15 hit huge shots for them at the end of the clock in the second half."

How many times do the United States have to lose in international tournaments before they truly know who they are up against?

The US team played with heart, and they were classy. They rarely complained about things on the court.

Number four has a name, though, and it's not difficult to say.

He is Theo Papaloukas, one of the Greek heroes on their European Championship winning side in Belgrade and the same man who led CSKA Moscow to the Euroleague title in 2006.

Doesn't Coach K, a legend at Duke University, know number seven, Vasilis Spanoulis, another EuroBasket star who was Panathinaikos' best player this year in the Euroleague?

Spanoulis has signed to play with the Houston Rockets for the forthcoming season.

Then there is number 15, Mihalis Kakiouzis, the Greek captain.

Kakiouzis is a big-time player in Europe with Winterthur Barcelona, a European champion with Greece.

If you don't know the enemy, how do you expect to beat the enemy?

That goes for the players, too.

Dwyane Wade, one of the team's three captains, had talked about Greece beforehand.

"We haven't seen them play yet," Wade said, "but I'm sure the coaches will do a great job in breaking down the game-plan."

Why had the USA team not seen them play? In Saitama, behind one of the baskets, seats are often occupied by other team's coaches and players watching games.

There was ample opportunity for Team USA to watch, if only for a quarter, the Greek team.

Even more mind-boggling was the Americans' lack of preparation for Sofoklis Schortsianitis, the 6ft 9in, 125-kilogram man mountain who came into the game and scored 14 points.

Howard did get burned by Schortsianitis as the big guy scored out of pick-and-rolls, but surely that could have been rectified at half-time.

Shane Battier, the Americans' top defensive player, spoke as if the USA had not watch big Sofo dominate Yao Ming of China in the last 16 and then France's Ronny Turiaf and Florent Pietrus in the quarter-finals.

"We didn't have any answers," Battier said.

Coach K also made a major blunder by hardly playing center Dwight Howard in the second half despite his dominating display in the first two quarters when he scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 13 minutes.

It was uncomfortable watching this Team USA lose. I love the Greeks, love the Spaniards and love the Argentinians, but I am American.

If we are going to lose, we need to lose while playing our best.

Why do we play China, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Korea in the build-up, and not Greece, Argentina or Spain?

Korea are not even at the FIBA World Championship.

Of the other three, only China advanced to the knockout stage.

Spain, meanwhile, played the Argentinians twice, and that clearly gave them a psychological boost after beating the South Americans each time.

Jerry Colangelo, Team USA's executive director, said: "I think we learned a great deal at this tournament, big time.

"There were a lot of good things, and there are some things we are going to have to do better. That is how good the competition is."

At least, Coach Mike Krzyzewski should learn the names and the players in the two years before the Olympics.

Know who the Greek players are.

Afterall, the two teams could end up meeting in the Beijing Olympics.

For now, he will return to Durham, North Carolina, thinking about numbers, and not just the two in the final score: 101-95.

Coach K said: "Number four was brilliant in the first half. Some of the plays he made … he was just terrific."