Coach K pleased with young US team
September 5, 2010
ISTANBUL (AP)—Those predicting that the United States will fall short of aworld championship are focusing on the back of the jerseys.
They no longer include names such as BRYANT or JAMES.
Those expecting the Americans to win anyway do so because of what’s still onthe front.
“I think there is a certain element that does persist that because we haveUSA on our jersey, that’s good enough,” USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelosaid. “And as the world competition has improved, it gets very challenging,especially with a young, inexperienced group of guys, regardless of how muchtalent we have.
“Personally, I’d rather be hunted like that than the opposite.”
Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski say they are satisfied with what they’veseen from the undefeated Americans, who face Angola in an elimination gameMonday in the round of 16.
But fans and media in Turkey seem to expect a higher level, one reachable bythe star-studded Olympic gold medalists of two years ago but maybe not by ayoung team that hasn’t been together nearly as long.
They expect the U.S. not only to win the tournament, but also every game andperhaps even every quarter along the way. Krzyzewski always faces similarexpectations at Duke, where he says “people think we should win every game andnot let anyone score.”
“I don’t want that to be what this team feels,” he said, allowing he’d beOK with any criticisms if he’d brought back the team from Beijing.
“If we had all the main guys here, you should nitpick anything, becausethat’s the world they live in. They always have to (play well),” Krzyzewskisaid. “We have a young group. I think our guys have done great and part of it,this is the first experience.
“I think they’ve been terrific and now they get a chance to do somethingthat will be a momentous thing in their careers if they can, in the next eightdays, if they can get it done. I would like for them to be youthfullyenthusiastic and try to accomplish something instead of trying to be perfect orwhatever. Being perfect is about those other guys.”
The Americans blew out their first two opponents, then needed a miss at thebuzzer by Brazil’s Leandro Barbosa(notes) to eke out a 70-68 victory. They closed groupplay with easy wins over Iran and Tunisia, but neither was a start-to-finishrout. The U.S. led the winless African champions by just four points early inthe third quarter.
The U.S. ended up winning 92-57, but center Lamar Odom(notes) was pressed about whyit took so long to break away from what seemed such an overmatched opponent.
“You can’t win by 40 in the first three minutes of a game if you reallythink about how the game is played,” Odom said. “That means you stop them andthen you score every time. No mistakes. You’re human, you’re going to have humanerrors. You’re going to bounce the ball off a leg, three seconds, missed layup,a missed jumper. That’s just the way the game goes.”
Odom was in the U.S. team that lost three times in the 2004 Olympics beforeleaving with a bronze medal. The Americans finished sixth two years earlier inIndianapolis in the worlds, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that victory isn’tguaranteed just by sending five players on the floor wearing red, white andblue. The U.S. hasn’t even won a world title since 1994.
Yet that hasn’t seemed to way the international basketball community, wheremany—such as Iran’s coach—still call the U.S. a Dream Team. Never mind thatthe people who assembled it certainly wouldn’t.
“People don’t understand, that’s what sometimes frustrates me,” forwardKevin Durant(notes) said. “Fans don’t understand that this is a hard game to play,especially international basketball. It’s a lot different from the NBA game andthe players are a lot different.
“Everybody can shoot, from the 4 to the 5, and that right there putspressure on your defense, because you can’t help as much. We’re not going to winevery game by 30 or 20, or maybe even 10. As long as we go out there and get thejob done, at the end of the day, it’s all about wins.”
The U.S. needs four more to claim the gold medal. Noting that world recordsin track events aren’t usually set during the qualifying rounds, whencompetitors just want to advance and peak later, Krzyzewski isn’t concerned withalways looking good along the way.
But the Americans know they will hear about it whenever they don’t.
“I think it’s a good expectation to have and we have to live up to that,”guard Stephen Curry(notes) said. “I don’t think it puts any extra pressure on us.”
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