US-Australia hoops

Team USA just went more than six minutes holding the Aussies without a field goal. Just a breathtaking exhibition of halfcourt team defense, the type of thing some of us doubted we'd ever see from a bunch of NBA stars.

They were down 15-14 midway through the first quarter; they're up 59-29 at the half.

 

I watched about five minutes of the first half and all I saw was Australia putting up 3s.

LeBron and Wade seem able to take over whenever they feel like it.

 

THIS is "The Right Way To Play."

A fact apparently lost on Fran "Fuckbrains" Fraschilla, who continues to harp on his idea that the US has to "be more patient," shorten the bench, drop the pressure defense, fall back in the lane, and "guard 22 feet in" like he's Hank Iba or something.

Yeah, sure, Fran. We do all that, and if everything works out right, if we're lucky, we win 67-63. (And in addition, the game is then also close enough for the Bizarro World/Keystone Kops referees' calls to fuck us out of the game. When you're up 40 with 2:00 to play, the refs' calls don't matter.)

 

Hey, that coach K guy is pretty good, huh? Seems to know what he's doing.

 

No joke, Joe. Krzyzewski is doing what Larry Brown couldn't do: Get a group of NBA talent to want to play as a team.

Once again, Duke tops Chapel Hill. Life is good. ;D

 

Yeah, I was going to say that it sounded like Fran Fraschilla was auditioning for a job he'll never have.

 

Yeah, he - and most of us - probably would be a lot better off if he had stayed at Manhattan.

 

He made a major coaching move from the beginning. He listened and observed rather than stuffing his style of coaching down these guys' throats. He has treated them like professionals and adjusted to their strengths rather than forcing them to adjust to his coaching.

 

That's coaching. Too many of those egomaniacs think their one system fits all.

 

B-I-N-G-O.

In addition, K has, for the last 20 years at least, based his philosophy on almost always having more talent than the opponent, then using that talent to dominate and crush them.

The risk-avoidance, walk-the-ball-down, milk-the-clock, isolation-game control-the-tempo sludgeball philosophy which has been in vogue in the NBA and major colleges for the last 10-15 years is based upon neutralizing talent differentials between teams -- the entire objective of that style of play is to go into the last 24 seconds of the game with the score tied at 63-63, three time-outs and the ball, so your wizard-genius coach can then diagram a play to win the game for you.

That'll win you 50-55 games in an 81-game schedule, in a reasonably evenly-matched league like the NBA. It will probably win you 4 out of 7 games in a playoff series, ohhh, maybe 11 times out of 19. When you are playing one-game-and-out knockout tournaments, you must set out to crush your opponents, destroy them, blow them off the court as decisively as possible.

113-73 final.

And yes, we were up 40 with 2:00 left in the game.

 

That they can do.

 

Pretty good in my mind he is the best coach in college hoops, and would make a great one at the pro level he would ever make the change.