Team USA Women 2010 FIBA Worlds-Belarus Blown Out 107-61

Team USA has had a maddening tendency in this 2010 FIBA Worlds tournament of getting off to slow shooting game starts, then kicking it into high gear and burying their opponents with waves of superior athletes coming off the bench

They flipped that script in today's Group E matchup with Belarus.

Team USA was wide awake and on fire from the opening tipoff.  They shot a blistering 68.3% for the game and 55.6% from three point range as they rolled over Belarus 107-61.   Once again 11 out of the twelve Team USA lady ballers scored with five USA players in double figures.

Team USA jumped out to a 37-11 opening quarter thanks to a 17-0 run triggered by back to back Candace Dupree buckets and a trey from Diana Taurasi.   The lead grew to a 30 point 58-28 bulge by halftime.
The double figure club members for this beatdown were led by Sylvia Fowles 15 points and six rebounds.   Diana Taurasi scored 14 points in just 15 minutes of work,  Candice Dupree with 12 points, and Swin Cash and Maya Moore tossing in 11 points each.   Angel McCoughtry and Lindsay Whalen both had 9 points as they moved to 5-0 in Group play and clinched a spot in the quarterfinals.

Playtime is over for 5-0 Team USA.  They have a showdown with 5-0 Australia tomorrow to see who will emerge as the winner of Group E and take the top seed.

Australia and Team USA have been battling each other for women's basketball supremacy since 1996, and the Opals are tired of living in our large international basketball shadow.   Both have exhibition wins over each other, and this time they will be playing each other with their full international squads.    

You can bet this probably won't be the last confrontation between the FIBA women's basketball superpowers unless one or both get upset in the quarters.

After a day off, the tournament shifts to Karlovy Vary for the knockout round.    The winner of the USA-Australia showdown clinches Group E and gets to start off the Quarterfinal knockout round  playing the 4th place team in Group F.  Loser gets to play the 3rd place team in Group F.

Team USA Women 2010 FIBA Worlds- Aussies Flip B-ball Script

Last Friday when Team USA took on defending FIBA world champion Australia, they administered an 89-56 beatdown in Hartford.

This time Team USA was on the other side of the Pond in Salamanca, Spain facing an Opals team with Penny Taylor in the lineup. We also didn't have Maya Moore playing due to FIBA regulations that only allow 12 active players on a team and right now the USA roster stands at 14.

Based on today's results, if I were coach Geno, I'd put Maya Moore back on the active squad.

If Team USA was going to play a bad game, glad they got it out of their system now in exhibition play. They shot 48.4% (30-62) for the game but an abysmal 1-11 from 3 point range, turned the ball over 22 times, and got outrebounded by the Opals 43-38 (20 of them were offensive rebounds) as they dropped their opener in the Spain International Tournament 83-77.

Tina Charles led the Team USA scoring with 18 points and seven rebounds, and Lindsay Whalen contributed 13 points on 6-7 shooting. Diana Taurasi had 13 points and Tamika Catchings scored 12 for Team USA.

The Opals were paced by Jenna O’Hea's game high 24 points. Penny Taylor tossed in 18 with Liz Cambage chipping in 17 points. Hollie Grima grabbed a game high 13 rebounds to go with her five points.

The Aussies only shot 38.0% from the field, but lit it up at a 50% clip from three point range on 8-16 shooting. In addition the Opals were 21-25 from the free throw line for the game.

“I thought our defense was nowhere near as good as it was when we played (Australia) in Hartford,” said USA head coach Geno Auriemma. “I thought our energy level was way below where it needed to be, and I was really disappointed in our rebounding and how many times we would get a stop and they were able to continue the possession by getting an offensive rebound.

They are an excellent free-throw shooting team, and we put them on the free-throw line. So, we gave up threes, we put them on the free-throw line and we gave them second shots. Anytime you do that against a team, especially a good team, you’re not going to win the game.”

Well ladies, shake it off, because help is on the way. Sue Bird, Swin Cash and Angel McCoughtry are winging their way across The Pond to you. You have a practice and tomorrow's consolation game against the Spain-Senegal loser and a September 20 game against the Czech Republic to fix whatever is broken.

Shut Up Fool! Awards- Go Team USA Women Ballers Edition

The Team USA women ballers are now in Europe gearing up to play in the FIBA Women's World Championships which start in the Czech Republic September 23-October 3. Bad news for FIBA women's basketball world, Team USA hasn't forgotten what happened in the 2006 FIBA worlds in Brazil.

Since the WNBA Finals are over, Angel McCoughtry, one of the best women ballers on the planet, is about to join the FIBA world number one ranked USA womens team along with Sue Bird and Swin Cash. Maya Moore is already on it and lighting people up and she's just a college senior.

Be afraid FIBA world. Be very afraid. And don't hate if we win FIBA title number eight.

Team USA is playing in a warm up tournament in Salamanca, Spain today and Saturday with Australia, Spain and one of their Group B opponents in Senegal.

Speaking of number one teams, lets see who made it to the top of the rankings for our illustrious SUF award this week.

There was a bumper crop of fools standing out this week. Beck, O'Reilly, Palin number one with a bullet and rising is Delaware tea bagger queen Christine O'Donnell, Rep. Mike Castle and Dinesh D'Souza were considered.

But this week's winner is Kentucky GOP senate candidate Rand Paul.

After running around Kentucky spouting rhetoric that politicians are chicken for not telling you what they plan to do when they're in office, he then hypocritically states that he won't reveal his plan for how to balance the budget and pay for the Paris Hilton tax cuts until after the election.

Rand Paul, shut up fool!

Team USA FIBA Worlds- We Are The Champions!

That's right FIBA world, read it and weep. USA rules, you drool.

USA! USA! USA!

The Naismith Trophy is headed back to the nation where basketball was born for the first time since 1994 thanks to the 89-74 demolition of Lithuania in the semifinals and the 81-64 takedown of Turkey in the title game yesterday in front of their home fans in the Sinan Erden Dome.

Oh yeah, Kevin Durant won the FIBA tournament MVP as well.

'B Team' you say? I guess 'B Team' now means 'Best in the World', 'We Beat y'all' or 'soon to be FIBA Number one world ranked ballers'.

To all the European basketball fans who were hatin' on Team USA on the FIBA website and elsewhere, and especially the Serbians, where y'all at? Y'all left Turkey without a medal. Lithuania spanked that behind 99-88 in the bronze medal game, so what's your excuse now?

We'll see y'all in London two years from now assuming you qualify.

While the rest of FIBA world is busy qualifying for London next summer and in 2012, we'll be resting, admiring that beautiful trophy, cheering on the Team USA women as they attempt to do the same thing in the Czech Republic in two weeks and contemplating who will be on the Olympic squad since we got the automatic qualifying slot with it.


You'll also be trying to qualify while we watch Kevin Durant and the rest of the so called 'B team' get stronger, faster, and add more versatility to their games. It also means there will be one more spot available in the FIBA Tournament of the Americas next summer in Argentina.

And more bad news for FIBA world, got more players in the development pipeline.

Check out these results from recent FIBA b-ball tournaments.

FIBA Men's World - GOLD/UNDEFEATED USA
FIBA U-19 World - GOLD/UNDEFEATED USA
FIBA U-18 Americas - GOLD/UNDEFEATED USA
FIBA U-17 Worlds - GOLD/UNDEFEATED USA
FIBA U-16 Americas - GOLD/UNDEFEATED

And I haven't even started talking about the USA women yet, but I will.

Jot this name down for future reference: John Wall.

Y'all thought Russell Westbrook caused your Euroball squads fits, wait until you see John Wall wearing a Team USA jersey at an arena near you.

The new FIBA rules take effect in which you'll have to shoot the three from 6.75 meters (22 feet 2 inches for the metrically challenged), which is getting closer to the NBA 7.23 meter three distance (23 feet 9 inches). You'll have the NBA style rectangular lane and no charge semicirles.

Oh yeah, something else you'll probably see in 2012 is Kevin Durant along with Kobe, LeBron, D-Wade and Chris Bosh from the 2008 Olympic Squad wearing Team USA uniforms.

Congrats to the soon to be FIBA World number one ranked team, and the 2010 World champions.

Team USA FIBA Worlds- USA Thrashes Tunisia 92-57

Team USA went into their final FIBA Worlds Group B matchup with nothing to play for except a 5-0 record.

They clinched Group B the day before with their victory over Iran and the only mysteries left before tipoff was who was going to be their first knockout round opponent, how much playing time the starters would get, and how long would it take Team USA to blow out the Tunisians, who were 0-4 in group play while making their first appearance ever in the FIBA Worlds tournament.

The Tunisians has other ideas. They pushed Team USA in the first half and at one point trailed by only two thanks to Team USA's miserable 1-10 shooting behind the FIBA arc and failure to put together consistent stretches of offense.

Despite the sloppy first half and the determined effort from Tunisia, Team USA led 39-33 at halftime.

Team USA opened it up in the third quarter with an 8-2 run kick started by a Kevin Durant three ball. They started lighting it up from FIBA three land after that and tightened up the defensive pressure to hold the Tunisians to 13 points in the quarter to stretch that lead to a 63-46 advantage by the end of the quarter.

Team USA kicked in the afterburners for a 29-11 4th quarter to close out the 92-57 win.

USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski said in the post game news conference: "We thought in our pool every team played hard. Tunisia's play was symbolic of that type of play, as they fought on every possession. An outstanding first half for them. You get 25 offensive rebounds, it means that you never give up on the ball and I admire that. Although we need to work on our stuff a little better, I thought we played hard in the second half.

For the third game in this tournament everybody on Team USA scored. High point man was Eric Gordon who finished with 21 points thanks to 4 of 7 three point shooting. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook both chipped in 14 points.

On to three days off, the knockout rounds and a Monday matchup with the 4th place team in Group A, perennial FIBA African Zone champ Angola.

Team USA 2010 FIBA B-Ball Finalists In New York

The 2008 Olympic champion Team USA men ballers start FIBA World Basketball Championships Group B play on August 28 against Croatia.

This weekend in New York Team USA Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski and his staff will have to determine which three guys will not be going to Turkey out of the 15 finalists for the squad. The 12 man rosters for the two week FIBA tournament must be finalized by August 24.

For you LeBron haters, he, D-Wade and Chris Bosh aren't on the list. Neither is Kobe Bryant for you folks who love hatin' on him.

Before y'all get too happy, they are STILL on the 27 man USA 2010-2012 national squad.

Note to the rest of the FIBA basketball planet, don't get too happy because our 'A' team isn't going to be in Turkey. Some of the finalists on this squad are Rajon Rondo, Chauncey Billups, Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, Tyson Chandler, Lamar Odom and Andre Igoudala just to name a few.

They'll be just as determined to not only win gold in this FIBA world championship for the first time since 1994, but get that automatic qualifying spot for the 2012 Olympic B-ball tournament that goes with it.

As part of a World Basketball Festival that started yesterday at Radio City Music Hall with an intersquad scrimmage on the Radio City stage, Team USA will be taking on a French National Team at Madison Square Garden August 15 that doesn't include Tony Parker or Joakim Noah.

Noah is on the 24 man French roster and has made it clear while he won't be playing in the FIBA Championships, he will play for France in the future. The Puerto Rica squad will be taking on China in the other game.

But back to Team USA and Coach K and his coaching staff's dilemma. It will be interesting to see who makes this team, then watch them take on the world in Turkey in two weeks.

UConn Perfect Perfect

The University of Connecticut Huskies overcame an abysmal first half in which they scored 12 total points and went 10 minutes without scoring to beat the Stanford Cardinal 53-47 at the Alamodome.

It was UConn's 78th consecutive win, and they became the first NCAA women's basketball team to win consecutive national championships with an unbeaten record. Interestingly enough, UConn won the 2002 national title game against Oklahoma in San Antonio with a perfect record as well.

The Huskies get to savor this history and their seventh national championship for a few months before they resume chasing the legendary John Wooden coached UCLA Bruins.

The Bruins won 88 straight games in the 70's before Notre Dame knocked them off . They are only 11 wins shy of passing that mark, and it'll be interesting to see if they can do it.

Who Dat Gonna Be NFL Champs!

The New Orleans Saints were founded in 1967 and have endured 43 seasons of good, bad and ugly football. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005 and wrecked the Superdome, it wasn't even certain that the Saints would even be playing their future NFL games in New Orleans.

Today you can call them NFL champions after playing and winning in their first Super Bowl appearance.

They ain't the Aints no more.

In a Super Bowl for the ages the Saints turned a 10-6 halftime deficit, gutsy play calling and stout defense into a memorable 31-17 win and a well deserved championship for the long suffering Saints fans.

Mardi Gras has already started, but this party will probably be going on until tomorrow morning and maybe into next week.

Congratulations Saints. Way to geaux!

Super Bowl XLIV

Will Who Dat win? Or will another Vince Lombardi Trophy be heading back to Indiana?

Starting at 6:25 PM EST America and a large television viewing audience will know the answer to that question as Super Bowl XLIV kicks off.

The NFC Champion New Orleans Saints will tackle the AFC Champion Indianapolis Colts in Miami with an NFL title on the line.

I'm hoping for a good game that will be fun to watch.

As for what team I'm rooting for? I lived in New Orleans for two years.

Geaux Saints!