predictable pattern

The semi final game today between the US and Argentina has followed a predictable pattern.  The game was relatively close until two things occurred. (1) Lebron James demonstrated why he may be the best basketball player ever. (2) Players from the US hit, in rapid succession, three  point goals.

I did not like how this game started out. Manu Ginobli, a truly a great player, stole the tap and made a quick hoop. The US seemed to be caught off guard as if they had not thought how to play the tip.  Then the first half ended similarly. The US made a good play with 8 seconds remaining to score a basket, but seconds later they left Ginobli open at the buzzer for a three point shot.

The second half unravelled in a way that is very similar to how the preceding games, with the exception of Lithuania, played out.   The US opponents wore done some and then LeBron James made some moves to the basket which were nearly impossible to stop.  Doug Collins, the color man for the broadcast,  is now in his early 60s.  He opined that the Argentinian opponents had as much of a chance as he did of stopping Lebron James.

After LeBron James did what he does, then Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony went on a three point shooting burst.  Anthony--who did not have a good first half--hit three threes within a minute to put away the Argentinians.

The US played aggressive defense for the entire game, but still the opponents worked hard to get excellent looks and convert them.   Eventually, Argentinia succcumbed to greater talent.  I am not a big fan of hoisting up three point shots, but what do I know. The Americans have won using that approach throughout this tournament.  

Spain could be a different story. The two Gasols will provide an NBA level challenge. On the basis of what I have seen thus far, it is difficult to believe that the Americans will be cold for an entire game, but if they are--and the game comes down to an inside slow it down game, the Gold medal will be difficult to capture.

one on one

The United States, moments ago, defeated Australia in the quarterfinals of the Olympic basketball tournament. Next up is Argentina, a team the US defeated on Monday.

Still, despite the victory and as I have written before, I think the US could be in jeopardy and has been outcoached.  Australia was in the game until the fourth quarter.  At one point during the third quarter in the game against Argentina Kevin Durant got hot and started hitting one three after another. Today, against Australia, it was Kobe Bryant in the fourth quarter who hit three or four threes in a row during a stretch when the US created a lead that was insurmountable.

The Americans are playing one on one basketball. Their opponents, today Australia, are moving continuously in an attempt to free a player for a shot.  And they are often successful.  What happened today and what has happened throughout the tournament, is that the individual talent disparity between the US and the opponents is so glaring that eventually a scoring spree occurs from which the opponents cannot come back.

However, I do not like the way we are playing.  And against deeper teams like Russia or Spain and perhaps even Argentina despite Monday's game, I wonder if we will prevail.  So many open shots for the opponents. Each time the US comes down the court whoever has the ball goes one on one.  Eventually, that has to be a problem.

Even if we are to prevail in 2012, I think the US teams and coaches might benefit from seeing how these international opponents are moving the ball and freeing players for easy shots.

Also, it would be nice if a team composed of millionaires so enriched because of their basketball prowess, could make a free throw. The US missed ten of thirty two free throws today.  I know that when it really mattered I could hit mine. You're making a million dollars a year and playing for your country, make your free throws Messrs Love and Anthony and James.  I am inclined to give Lebron some slack as he has been the one consistent player in the tournament who has played big when the US needed it.

Next up, Argentina.  It would be sweet if we have an opportunity to play Russia in the Gold. Something attractive about having Doug Collins doing the play by play forty years after his team was robbed of Olympic Gold in 1972.

Argentina

Argentina, like Lithuania, played the United States intelligently and tenaciously in the first half. The US led by only one point going into the intermission.

If you look at the score today you will see that the United States won by nearly thirty points.  The final is misleading.  Except for the third period when Kevin Durant and LeBron James played brilliantly, the game was close.

I'll write what I did after the Lithuania game. Some of our opponents seem to be better coached.  Offensively, Argentina was cutting and picking like a continuous motion machine.  Some of their shooters are every bit as good as American sharpshooters so if they are sprung free because of strategic picks and screens they can score easily.

On offense the US played and plays a lot of one on one basketball. Fortunately for those cheering for America the individual talent of the US players is greater than the individual talent of the opponents, with the exception perhaps of Manu Ginobli who is as good as anyone on the court.

The US players were selected mostly because of their offensive prowess. So far offense in spurts has been sufficient to defeat opponents who have moved better and played more intelligently. Doug Collins made a comment in yesterday's game that I think is right on.  What will win the gold for America is not the offense, but defensive intensity.  If the Americans play defense aggressively it will make up for cold spurts and will force opponents to work their schemes harder to get open shots.

I have watched basketball Olympics since 1960 when Jerry West and Oscar Robertson destroyed all opponents.  Fifty plus years later it is clear that Olympic basketball has become very competitive.  It is no guarantee that the US will win the Gold medal in these games.  And in future Olympics I think that basketball gold for the men will be even more meaningfully contested.  America will no longer be able to cherry pick twelve NBA players and assume that the skill level will exceed those from other countries or that skill levels themselves will be enough to defeat well drilled opponents.

Charlie H

Outside my office, on my route to go most places is a tree that has a plaque beneath it.  It reads "In Memory of our father, Charles H".  I'll leave out Charlie's last name here.

The placement of the plaque and the tree is such that I see that sign almost every day as I go and come from where I sit when I am not coming and going.  I knew Charlie, not real well, but when I first arrived at Northeastern he was in charge of room scheduling.  I would go to see him if I needed a different classroom for one reason or another.  He was also a regular racquetball player and, at that time, I was as well so I would see him as we got ready for our noon "lunch" matches.  Affable, humble, a young guy--maybe early thirties when I met him.

A few years after our initial encounters, I ran into another acquaintance and asked if Charlie was still in charge of scheduling. This fellow somberly told me that Charlie was "very sick." The way he said it, I knew that whatever he had would end his life prematurely.   I was not surprised when I read a notice in the internal university newspaper about his passing.

I can still see the guy clearly and it is his image that flashes into my consciousness whenever my beat takes me by that tree.  Sometimes, irrationally, I say "Hi Charlie" when I pass by.  Most times seeing the sign is a sobering reminder as he was such a young man when he succumbed.

So I wonder what Charlie might say to me from the base of that tree where the sign from his daughter sits.  "Seize the day" would be the short version, I am sure.  But more specifically, what would he say?  Play more racquetball? Eat good food?  Root for the home team?  I don't think he would waste his time with such suggestions.  I think he would talk about love and friendship.

 Find your true love, never let your true love go.  Never. Rule number one.

Stay close to your family. Flood them with affection.

Find time to spend with the friends who you know you can depend on and make sure they know they can depend on you.

Remember, we are all connected.

As I got ready for work this morning I turned on the Olympic basketball channel 930 on your comcast system--a concept, 930 channels, that Charlie H, could not have comprehended.  I was watching Tunisia play Lithuania and Tunisia, inexplicably was winning.  Eventually, they succumbed but for most of the game Lithuania who played the United States evenly on Saturday almost lost to Tunisia a team that had lost to the US by about thirty points.

When Lithuania played the US they laid it all out on the line. They played with emotion, intelligence, as if the forty minutes of the game had to be realized because afterwards, there would be no other opportunity to play with emotion and use its collective intelligence.  It was a brilliant display of basketball. Today, playing Tunisia, they did not bring it--until the end when they began to play with energy.

If Charlie H could talk to me each time I walk by his tree, I think he might say:  Listen up, there is no tomorrow. Play like Lithuania played against the US on Saturday and you will die without the regrets of someone who provided themselves with rationalizations to not give it all.

In his poem, "If", Rudyard Kipling wrote:  "If you can fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run"

 I think Charlie H would never tire of reciting this line to every person who passed by his tree.

Coaching Lessons

The United States Olympic basketball team is coached by one of the greatest coaches of all time, Coach K.  His assistants are no slouches either.  Jim Boeheim who annually makes the Syracuse Orange contenders in the NCAA dance.  Mike D'Antonio who, despite his recent resignation from the Knicks, is a coach who made the Phoenix Suns winners and fun to watch for most of the preceding decade.

So, it was something to see today when Lithuania nearly beat a superior US team in "pool play."  As fond as I am of Coach K, Boeheim and D'Antonio, the Americans were outcoached.  Had it not been for LeBron James making superman shots at the end, our dream team would have succumbed to players who would not be able to start on any NBA team..

The Lithuanians played brilliantly. Packing the zone so tight that it was nearly impossible to drive, boxing out efficiently, running well, and probably most impressively, running an offense that often resulted in open looks which the players took advantage of.  The opponents shot over 50% for the game.  And I don't believe the US defense was bad as much as the Lithuanians played so cleverly.

The US did not come out asleep as they did against Tunisia.  Chris Paul was hustling as was Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, and the rest.  The big guy Tyson Chandler might have made some more foul shots and Love, an 82 per cent foul shooter, could not drop the ball in the ocean from the line.  However, the US came to play, but they were outplayed by a team that used its collective sechel better than the Americans. 

Very exciting basketball and fun to watch--if I had not been cheering for the home team.

Running it up

It seems as if Coach K is taking some heat for beating Nigeria by seventy points yesterday.

How to respond to such an accusation? What could the Americans have done to stop the differential from being so great? Should the Americans have done anything?

The answer is that the US could not have done anything more than what it did.

I watched the first quarter of the game when it seemed as if no player from the US could miss a three point shot.  The coach could not have put in weak benchwarmers, because on this team every player is an all star. Carmelo Anthony played less than 15 minutes and still scored thirty something points. 

Should the players have not played hard? If you have ever played the game you know that if you do not try hard you can, in fact, get injured when playing opponents who are working relentlessly regardless of their talent level.

Two things the Americans could have done were to stop pressing and not go for fast break baskets unless they really had no other choice.  I have not seen the whole game, but I understand that the Americans did in fact stop pressing and breaking after the first half. 

You can't tell players to miss shots.  If you don't take threes, then you are taking twos. Twos are easier to make than threes, so by driving to the hoop or pulling up for short shots you run the risk of being perceived as running it up.

Basketball does not have a mercy rule like little league baseball.  The US and Coach K could not bring people from the stands into play. The weakest player on the team was the first pick of the NBA draft.

It might be time to substitute for the pundits. Bring in some second string experts as the first team "experts" are not working hard enough at their craft.

basketball gold--Doug Collins

Doug Collins did the color on yesterday's United States--Tunisia Olympic basketball game broadcast.

If you are old enough to remember the travesty of the 1972 "loss" to the Soviet Union, you remember that Doug Collins,  well before he became an NBA coach, and prior to his stint as an NBA player, was the hero of that game.  Yet that well deserved accolade has been lost not because it is ancient history, but because what became the story was not the heroics, but that the game was stolen.

The US had a foolish game plan for that 1972 final.  You would not know it judging from how even a team like Tunisia plays, but basketball opponents in the Olympics prior to recent years played like robots. Very stiff and mechanical. The Americans had never lost a single game in basketball in the Olympics prior to 1972. We were more athletic, but that day the US played right into the hands of the Russians in that final.  Instead of racing up the court and pressing the opponents, we played just as stiffly and were in jeopardy of losing.  Down at the half and down by several points with six minutes to play.

The US started playing aggressively and came back.  With only a few seconds to go, the US was down by only one.  Then, Doug Collins, a college kid from Illinois State (all US players were amateurs before the 1992 dream team),  made a terrific steal.  He drove the length of the court for the go ahead layup and was taken down by an opponent who undercut him sending Collins smashing into a temporary wall.

Collins was unconscious for a few seconds.  He got up wobbly, but with all the pressure of the US never having lost a game, playing against a cold war rival, Collins hit two free throws--nothing but net--to put the US up by one with only three seconds left.

Then came something I will never forget. The Russians took the ball out of bounds chucked up a desperation heave and missed. Game over.

Not game over.  The officials said that the Russians had called a time out.  The Americans were stunned but hey three seconds left, it is only three seconds.  Again the Russians take it out, and again no basket. This time the Americans celebrate jubilantly. Game over.

Not game over. Again the officials came out and said that there were three seconds left. Apparently the clock had not been reset to three seconds before the prior play.

This time the Russians heave the ball the length of the court.  A big guy from Russia grabs it and puts in a layup.  Game over.

Game over. Yes. The game had been stolen from the Americans.  And Doug Collins whose head had been concussed yet made two free throws to win the game became only a footnote.

The US players refused to go to the medal ceremony and to this day have not received their silver medals, knowing that they had won the gold.  One player has put it in his will that no descendant shall ever pick up the silver medal.

Forty years since the Munich Olympics and Doug Collins is doing the broadcast in London. He should never be forgotten as the hero of the 1972 Olympics.