Greece (V-Span) vs. United States (Battier), 6:30 a.m, Friday, Sept. 1

The US scouter is the Rockets scouter? That's interesting because my team's (Panathinaikos) scouter is also Greece's scouter and is considered one of the best in the world.

I don't doubt that the scouter may have made a very good job. What I doubt is how much of this scouting got into the players' brains. Thinking "we're the best in the world" isn't a bad thing, but thinking "we're the best in the world so we don't give a damn about how our opponents play" is a dangerous way of dealing with a game.

 

Wow! I'm glad you banned him. I'm glad you posted what he did. I feel dirty having read it, but that's what a nice shower is for. How can a guy be that stupid?? He was warned several times. Geez, what an idiot. I love the title, BTW. Hope he's enjoying his sheep in the hills around the Bay Area, ha ha!

BAAAAAA! BAAAAAANED!

 

It's not the Rockets scout, but it is Rudy Tomjanovich, coach of the 94 and 95 Rockets championship teams, as well as one of the great former Rockets players of the 1970's, and easily the greatest Rockets head coach ever.

 

Baffled to how he became a member in the first place? 50 odd posts (of which the ones I saw were just idiotic) and only registered for a couple of months.

 

Ah yeah, he actually knew the Greek players' names, I read an interview of him at a Greek site where he really seemed to know the way Greece plays. I just didn't see any of that knowledge at the court today.

 

Coach K didn't use their names for a reason. He's trying to teach the American team a lesson. And that is total selflessness. The thing with the Greeks is it did not make any difference who they played. They all came in and did the same things. They didn't have their own individual identities, their own individual games that the coach had to "manage" the team around. They all played like a team and were for one another and they all fit themselves into the system.

I would imagine Coach K has had a bellyfull of attitudes like Bosh's and Arenas' who are too worried about their minutes, and their place on the team, instead of playing and practicing as a member of the unit.

It's all in the numbers.

 

thanks clutch for kicking all the creepyfloyd clones off!

 

i just wish i can get the two hours back that i used watching the game but Vspan was great hope he bring more to the rockets and Battier also and i hope Greecce kill Spain so we can say we got beat by the world champos and for Vspans sake also goodnight or should i say goodmorning

 

Well, the team lost last night. So, in retrospect, you'd have to say, "What if Bowen was on the team...?" Well, the my have still lost, but what if.

I agree that his strength is being a great one on one defender...BUT, he also is hella-good at chasing people around screens - more in regards to off the ball screens, but nonetheless, he is better than pretty much every NBA player today at permiter defense - one on one, pick and roll, etc.

Of course, when the team is playing crappier opponents, he wouldn't be very useful given his specialty.

With the exception of the first 5 minutes of the game, you'd be heard pressed to find a less inspired defensive effort from players with so much talent. Part of it was scheme and a good opponent, but frankly, they just weren't trying that hard (Greece shot 14-18 during the third quarter...luck? partly, but not all). I think Bowen MAY have been able to disrupt the flow.

 

if if's and buts were candy and nuts...you know the rest.

Lets see if Bowen's there in 2008.

Ryan Bowen!!

 

We invented the game and can't even beat some other country! Hah!

 

V-Span will be a great addition to the Rockets(Nuff Said). I hope Greece goes on to beat Spain. I stayed up to watch this game and it was worth it. I will be watching it again tonight(replay).

 

Oh yeah!

 

Excuse me, who invented the game?

 

Excellent post, I was gonna say this exact thing, but you saved me all the typing....

 

Bowen wouldn't have made that much of a difference unless there were five of him to play. Besides, we lost the game partly because of our free throw shooting and we all know what a shotty free throw shooter Bowen is(US missed 14 of 34).

Besides, if we are sooo athletically superior to the international competition why do we need to bring along defensive specialists when we have guys like Lebron, Melo, and Wade - shouldn't they be able to at least guard guys smaller and slower than them?!?

....and I know Rudy T's name has been mentioned here since he was the US scout of Greece so I want to get something off my chest.

I'm about to say the unthinkable - I never was really that impressed with Rudy T as a coach. Love the guy as a person, great for the city and the team, just a heck of a character but as a basketball coach I felt like he had very few Xs & Os. I remember watching the Rockets struggle on the nights when Hakeem was off and getting beat by the same play over and over - or worse yet, running the same play offensively over and over regardless of whether it worked.

I don't know how he is as a scout but according to what I'm reading on ESPN, the Greek press aren't too impressed with him. From Sheridan's chat wrap today:

 

I hear you, I loved Rudy but I remember in the past calling play after play after play after play after play and I use to plead "Please do a differnet frucken play" and then he would do the same one and then I'd all be like "Watch its ganna go like this and this and this" and there ya go.

Then we got JVG and I feel he doesn't call plays as much as he should

 

I posted this in another forum, gonna paste it here, its kinda long, sorry:

The reason the US lost is because we didn't follow our own advice. The whole point to building this team was to not fill it with stars who dominate the ball and fill it with role players or players that can play off the ball. Initially we followed the gameplan, but slowly started to stray from it. Let's look at the minutes of play:

bosh: 5 min. for his strong play as of late this is shocking
battier: 12 min; same thing goes for this guy
brand: 12 min
howard: 13 min; not getting this one either
jamison: 0 min
miller: 0 min

-not only did we not use players who can play effectively off the ball, but we didn't abuse our biggest advantage. Our physicality and strength. Everyone in the world knows we have the best big men. There are a long list of elite power forwards in this era of basketball.

Here are how the rest of the minutes were dispersed:

lebron: 30 min
wade: 25 min
melo : 32 min
johnson: 26 min

our big 3 had great stats and couldn't pull the "W". This right here should show you why basketball is one of the greatest team sports. It takes a team to win. Jordan, Magic, Bird, Kareem, Hakeem, all won with a great supporting cast. As good as jordan and hakeem were early in their career, and they didn't start winning till the team concept came into play. The reason Magic and Birds showtime and celtics were so dominant for so long, the team concept was there from the start.

We haven't seen much team basketball since the 90's started. Once you even slightly start implementing this concept its easy to win. Detroit is the best example. Talent-wise they were pretty mediocre. No true superstar, but alot of good players and the keyword, team-work.

We are in an era where alot of players have the athleticism of jordan, maybe even more now, so we base our plays on the iso, since physically they really can take over a game. In the long run, you can win this way. Guys like Jordan and Hakeem realized this before it was too late and started their legacy. I use these two because single handedly they could take over at will, and they did during the 80s and early 90s. But they pick and choose their moments and utilized the players around them. pippen, grant, kukoc, paxson, luc longley, and etc. Horry, Elie, Bullard, Maxwell Cassell, Thorpe, and etc. There is a reason you still remember these names. Very few young players fully understand this concept. Really, the only one I have seen who does is Duncan, and everyone recognizes his dominance.

Another thing, with the bodies and jumping ability our perimeter players have, why are we still shooting more 3s. We don't have a pure three point shooter on this team yet we are just launching them behind the arc. Penetrate. We could have easily made any team look like a bunch of Frederic Weis' or Von Wafers, which bring both excitement and a guarenteed point some way or another, yet all i see are pullup 3s. Add to that to that, a lack of perimeter defense, which is what battier brings and why him and bowen were invited, and we should see why we lost. EDIT: oh yeh freethrows, how could i forget.

We can't keep calling ourselves the best and not have something to back it up, so congrats to greece. Sorry for the long rant, but I hate seeing us lose and had to vent.

 

Strange...either it's true or Rudy is really lucky. Aside from one player who's 2-3, the guy IS Greece's best 3 point shooter. He's 11-21 for the tournament...53%

 

He is a clutch shooter (after all he's the one that netted the winning 3-pointer in the semifinal with France last year) but he's definitely not the best shooter in the Greek team, not by a long shot. Maybe Rudy T was referring to his clutch ability.