USA hoops: what do we think of this?

IIRC, I think the University of Kentucky served as the US Olympic Team -- or at least the bulk of it -- in 1948.

 

http://www.usabasketball.com/history/moly_1948.html

That's kind of how it used to be. Seven KU players teamed up with five from the AAU champion Peoria Caterpillars and two others from the Phillips 66ers to form the 1952 team.

That 1948 team featured five Kentucky players, the Phillips 66ers (the AAU champs who came from Bartlesville, Okla., which apparently beat the Wildcats somewhere) and a few random guys.

In both cases, the AAU coach was the head coach while the college coaches -- Adolph Rupp and Phog Allen -- served as assistant coach.

 

During the games, the teams used to substitute en masse. When the AAU players were in, the AAU coach ran the show. When the college players were in, the college coach was in charge. I've read stories about how if somebody got hurt or into foul trouble, and a player from the opposite "squad" had to go in the game, they had absolutely no clue how to run the plays (in some cases).

Must have been those nuclear-physics offenses and defenses they were running back in the 1940s and 1950s. Oh well, at least we had that "all-for-one" Olympic Spirit, and we weren't contaminating the purity of the competition by sending heathen professionals.

I believe 1956 was the first Olympics when the U.S. sent what amounted to a college All-Star team. (The games were held in Melbourne in December, meaning the Olympic players missed half their college seasons -- and in the case of Bill Russell, his rookie NBA season).

 

Well, I concede to the doubters...

http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/stories/080707aae.html

 

And, if you check the scores, you'll find they blew everyone out...except one game.
Considering what we found out later about those boys, it makes you wonder.

 

All is proceeding as I have foreseen.

But at least we're not hurting anybody's feelings.

 

Check that. We may have hurt Angola's feelings.

http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/stories/081007aac.html

 

i'm always amazed at what people can get worked up about

 

No, I think Angola is fine as long as the Yankees are winning.

 

Well, the experiment may not have been a "success," but it certainly was not the embarrassment some of you predicted either. UNI won its last 5 after getting smoked in the opener, and in fact, would have been in the medal round had the team scored one more basket against either Lithuania or Turkey. As it was, they came up on the short end of a 3-way tie-break.

http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/stories/081707aaa.html

I'm more convinced than ever that this idea of sending an existing team has merit. USA Basketball just has to send a better team than UNI.

 

Ninth place. Whoop dee fucking doo.

If we're not going to try to win, just fucking forget it.

 

FACT.