# Some thoughts on the win over Italy



## Perfectflaw (Aug 20, 2006)

*It's not a story unless the U.S is losing..* 
As I expected, Italy was able to make a game of it with a better shooting performance from yesterday and decent first half D. This was only my second time seeing Belinelli and he has a nice offensive game. However, it's funny how all through the U.S exitbitions and prelims all we heard was Italy,Italy,Italy,and when we finally get to the game all Fran can talk about is how Italy is rebuilding this,or how Italy doesn't return that ect..In fact,one theme I see throughout these games is that when a team is getting defeated,the announcers always talk about who they don't have there,which is nothing but a glorifed excuse.

I know everybody wants to look at the big picture which is Beijing,but they are failing to judge these countries' teams for this tournament alone. Furthermore,lots of people have already seemed to forget that the team in this tourney that has done the most overhauling is none other than the United States. They restructered the whole program with a new system and leadership. Sure,some of the international teams like Lit,Italy and France are missing key guys(which is really a sorry excuse anyway because do we even have to go over the guys the U.S is missing?), but for the most part those players have been playing in the same program for years under the same experienced coaches.

It's also important to remember that this is still a young United States squad that will make some mistakes in this process of adaptation. This is the first time that Dwight,Brad,Bosh,Kirk,Shane,Paul and Johnson have played in an international setting like this. And the three captains,who are still young themsevles have only played in one other int tournament so they are still learning and growing as a team. This game with Italy,like the friendly with Brazil was good for the squad. They got a heavy dose of chippiness and horrible calls and were still able to smack em in the mouth. 

This all goes back to my first statement in bold,and how it's never a story unless the U.S is losing or loses. You could tell by how they were calling the game,all week they play up Italy but when the U.S is down at the half stupid Jim Durham acts as if Cuba is beating the 92 Dream Team. It's ridiculous how U.S b-ball gets covered in this country. God help us if they would have lost to Brazil or Italy,it would have been front page news for everyone to see. But I bet these last couple of wins get little mention among the "experts".


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## Magyarn (Mar 27, 2005)

Why would the US announcers make excuses for other counties? They are making the valid point that Argentina and Spain are far better teans than Italy.


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## Perfectflaw (Aug 20, 2006)

Magyarn said:


> Why would the US announcers make excuses for other counties? They are making the valid point that Argentina and Spain are far better teans than Italy.


I don't know,thats a very good question because they are making those excuses.Slovenia played dumb,Italy is young blah blah,they just weren't good enough. And even the constant mentions of big bad Argentina and Spain are getting old because every basketball fan knows deep down,(even the international fans),that if the U.S plays the way they are capable of playing the tournament is theirs.


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## Sir Patchwork (Jan 12, 2005)

You know USA is the heavy favorite when a 9 point victory is a supposed cause for concern. Who cares if Argentina and Spain are better than Italy. Are they better than the USA? If they played Italy today and beat them by 50, it doesn't matter. These indirect matchups using margin of victory is such a horrible measure.


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## Sad Mafioso (Nov 7, 2004)

Italy at the moment is a borderline Top 10 Euro team. They failed to qualify to the WC and their play was so poor that they were even blown out by Russia.

That they're going through a youth movement isn't really a mystery and not much of an excuse.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Sir Patchwork said:


> You know USA is the heavy favorite when a 9 point victory is a supposed cause for concern. Who cares if Argentina and Spain are better than Italy. Are they better than the USA? If they played Italy today and beat them by 50, it doesn't matter. These indirect matchups using margin of victory is such a horrible measure.


Argentina beat France (2-2 record without Tony Parker) by 10pts and you don't hear a peep. 

US beats a 3-0 Italy team by 9 and all the sudden we can't win Gold  Even more stupid this same Italy squad beat Slovenia by 4pts who we trounced by 19, yet people want to use the spread in their arguments against the US.


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

Yeah I wish they'd replace Fran with Bill Walton. Fran is getting on my last nerve. Stop panicking dude. And the whole " if the US didn't have Melo and Wade with the hot hand where would they be" tangent is stupid. Melo, Wade, Lebron--these are superstars. The reason we have them is because on any given night one of them can get hot and be unbeatable. So long as they are healthy, we are almost always going to have one of Wade, Bron, or Melo playing well in a game. Usually two. Today Bron was off, but Melo and Wade were going nuts.

And I'm sorry, but Italy is going to be a good team in this tournament no matter how much they get underplayed. Nobody gave them a shot when they won the frickin' silver medal either. This team plays an excellent disciplined system, they work hard, and they have some amazing shooters. Bellilli or whatever will probably be in the NBA in a year or two. Italian basketball seems to be improving every time we see them. I think Bargani is just the tip of the iceburg. The Italian players are a lot(not coincidentally) like the "Argentina" players. Similiar skill sets and attributes.

But once Team USA adjusted the game was pretty much over. At half time Coach K obviously told them to pull back on their pressure a little bit, and deny penetration, and rebound. Start running off the rebounds instead of just the steals. And once we did that, we locked Italy up and the game was basically over. The score is closer than it felt in the second half IMO.

I just wish all the dissing that Team USA gets, where people say they aren't the favorite would actually be reflected in the coverage. If we aren't the favorite, then I'd like to be able to slip into the underdog role, but everyone is playing us on both sides. We're not expected to win, and we're not expected to lose. The coverage of Team USA on all fronts is just bad. This is the first team in a long while we can all be proud of. And too many people are just re-running the old Team USA articles.


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## italianBBlover (Mar 5, 2003)

Sad Mafioso said:


> Italy at the moment is a borderline Top 10 Euro team. They failed to qualify to the WC and their play was so poor that they were even blown out by Russia.
> 
> That they're going through a youth movement isn't really a mystery and not much of an excuse.



Don't exagerate, Serbia2005 has been a case (and right now there are just 4 or 5 players from the last year).

Euro 1997 -> silver
Euro 1999 -> gold
Olympics 2000 -> 5th
Euro 2003 -> bronze
Olympics 2004 -> silver

Borderline Top10 Euro team is way too much


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

And I also agree with the point that teams being on the rebuild isn't an excuse. Team USA is the team who has had the most change since their bronze medal, and have had the least amount of time playing together.


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## Diable (Apr 26, 2005)

Italy is always going to be one of the better European squads.You have to count the Turks if you want to pretend it's a very large number.Spain and France obviously,Greece not so obviously better.Slovenija is about the same.Maybe the Lithuanians are as good,but I don't think so...Who else?The Serbians...Not right now...The Germans?They aren't very good at all.If Italy isn't Top Five in Europe I would be surprised,but then I wouldn't be surprised if we got some mindless hyperbole that's supposed to belittle the accomplishments of the USA.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Spain just beat Angola but it was only by 10pts. Looks like they aren't favorites for the Gold anymore


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## Darman (Jun 29, 2006)

Perfectflaw said:


> I don't know,thats a very good question because they are making those excuses.Slovenia played dumb,Italy is young blah blah,they just weren't good enough. And even the constant mentions of big bad Argentina and Spain are getting old because every basketball fan knows deep down,(even the international fans),that if the U.S plays the way they are capable of playing the tournament is theirs.


It's called respect; everytime Team USA should win easily but look what's happened in the last years.

The announcer did well to keep US fans with their feet on the ground. You should understand that if Team US score less than 100 point isn't only because they shooted bad, but there was a squad on the other side who played good defense.


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## The Mad Viking (Jun 12, 2003)

I'm not sure what the complaining is about.

You take a team of NBA all-stars, and play against a bunch of guys who aren't good enough to be drafted in the second round, let alone get to the end of the bench for a bad NBA team. (With the lone exception only of Bellinelli, who is just 20 years old).

If you are losing by 9 at the half, that is a story.

If you win, it's not.

What is so hard to understand about that?


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

The Mad Viking said:


> I'm not sure what the complaining is about.
> 
> You take a team of NBA all-stars, and play against a bunch of guys who aren't good enough to be drafted in the second round, let alone get to the end of the bench for a bad NBA team. (With the lone exception only of Bellinelli, who is just 20 years old).
> 
> ...


 Which ignores the fact that the US team has really no player in there prime: all there stars are 24 years or younger. Half the team is playing in international competition for the first time and the other half only played in one international tournament.


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## Sir Patchwork (Jan 12, 2005)

The Mad Viking said:


> What is so hard to understand about that?


That's all fine, but the problem is when people try to play both sides, like they should be beating teams by 40 because they have a roster of NBA stars, then in the same sentence have the nerve to act like it's out of line to call them the favorites.


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## mook (Dec 31, 2002)

Pioneer10 said:


> Which ignores the fact that the US team has really no player in there prime: all there stars are 24 years or younger. Half the team is playing in international competition for the first time and the other half only played in one international tournament.


It's funny, in 1990 guys like LeBron, Carmello, Bosh, Howard and Wade would still be in college or just graduated. Had the NBA not gone with drafting 18 year olds, and had the USA team not gone with playing pros, the current USA team might still look very similar to how it does now.


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