Team USA Women 2010 FIBA Worlds- USA 108-Senegal 52

Team USA shook off a slow 1 for 7 shooting start to wake up and start blistering the nets for another Group B blowout win against FIBA African champ Senegal 108-52.

Maya Moore came off the bench to lead six USA players in double figures with 15 points as all 12 USA players scored for the second time in this 2010 FIBA World Championship tournament.

Candice Dupree and Swin Cash contributed 14 points apiece, Tina Charles chipped in 11 points with Sylvia Fowles and Lindsay Whalen on 5 for 5 shoot tallying 10 points apiece.  Three more players, Diana Taurasi (8 points), Angel McCoughtry (9 points) and Tamika Catchings (9 points) narrowly missed joining the double digit scoring party.

"It's funny because we have so much talent on this team, and at any point any player can go off," said Sue Bird. "But that's where our advantage lies, where we don't have the training, we have the depth. So, we can go 12 deep, and it could be anybody in double figures. It could be six people, seven people, and that's really where our strength is."
Team USA eventually shook off the slow start to eventually finish the game shooting 61.1% for the game on 44 for 72 shooting. They also outrebounded Senegal 44-25 and forced 28 turnovers that they converted into 28 points.   

Team USA went on 17-0 and 11-4 runs to break open the game and go up 30-11 at the end of the first quarter and expand the lead to 58-25 at halftime.  

They came out of the locker room determined to get off to a good second half start and a 14-5 run over the first 5:25 of that quarter helped expand their lead and build it to 86-36 by the end of the third period.

Senegal never quit and played Team USA hard the entire game, but the American squad had too much talent. 

And more bad news for FIBA world, they're getting better.

"Our chemistry is building," said Jayne Appel.  "It's kind of the same mindset every night, in the sense that each game that goes on, everyone is getting more comfortable, starting to trust each other a little more. So everything is definitely starting to work, and we're getting more and more pieces of the puzzle."

They play France in their final Group B preliminary game before the crossover round starts September 27-29 in Ostrava to form Group E.   Team USA will play against the top three teams in Group A.  The medal rounds will be played in Karlovy Vary, with the quarterfinals scheduled for October 1, the semifinals on October 2 and the medal games played on October 3. 
  
Two games down, seven to go.

Team USA Women 2010 FIBA Worlds- Good Start! USA 99-Greece 73

The Team USA women successfully began their quest for an eighth FIBA world championship in Ostrava by beating Greece 99-73 in their tournament opening Group B game.

They were in the unfamiliar position of coming into this tournament as bronze medalists.

Several members of this team such as Tamika Catchings and Sue Bird who played on the 2006 FIBA squad are on a mission to return this team to its recent gold medal winning ways in international basketball competition.  

Every player on Team USA scored and five were in double figures led by Swin Cash and Angel McCoughtry's 16 points each.   Candice Dupree and Tina Charles chipped in 12 apiece with Tamika Catchings contributing 10 points in 20 minutes of play.

Team USA shot 55.7% for the game and a blistering 45.5% from 3 point land on 5 of 11 shooting from behind the arc and outrebounded Greece 43-19.


Maya Moore became the third collegiate player in the last twelve years to play on a US FIBA team (Chamique Holdsclaw 1998 and Candace Parker 2006) and helped ignite the 17-6 run that expanded a three point USA lead to 32-18 at the end of the first quarter.   That lead grew to a 52-35 at halftime despite Evanthia Maltsi's game high 29 points for Greece.

Team USA continues its Group B play tomorrow with the FIBA Africa champion Senegal team they obliterated last week in a Spanish warmup tournament and Saturday against a French team missing two of its better players from its Eurobasket squad in Sandrine Gruda and Emilie Gomis.

If they finish in the top three teams in Group B they will move on the the crossover round against the surviving members of Group A September 27-29.

Renee, Looking Forward To Team USA Dishing Out That B-Ball Beatdown

The FIBA World Basketball Championships for Women start in just a few hours and one of the things I'm looking forward to in this tournament is when my FIBA Number one ranked 2008 Olympic champion ballers finally get that opportunity in the crossover round to play Canada.

A certain Canadian had a little too much Molson's and was talking smack to me one night about how a Canadian from Ontario by the name of James Naismith invented the game of basketball.

Yep, he sure did. On American soil in Springfield, Massachusetts.

He may have invented the game, but we Americans perfected it, took the FIBA men's championship trophy that bears his name back to the States and are back to dominating the game at all levels. Our men hold championships at all FIBA levels of competition, did so without losing a game to international competition and are also ranked number one in the various FIBA classifications.

Team USA is only a FIBA women's title away from matching what 'the menz' did.

In the meantime, enjoy this video from the Canadian victory over Cuba in the bronze medal game of the 2009 FIBA Americas tournament as the countdown to your b-ball beatdown commences.



The good news is you caught one break by not ending up in Group B with us during the draw. The bad news is you ended in Group A with defending FIBA women's champ Australia, Belarus and China, and you start Group A play with the Opals.

So if Canada is one of the top three teams in Group A, Team USA will be waiting for you in the crossover round.

Looking forward to the upcoming basketball beatdown. USA! USA! USA!

Team USA Women 2010 FIBA Worlds- We Have A Team

The twelve women that are going to represent FIBA number one ranked Team USA and attempt to bring an eighth championship back to US soil were named by USA Basketball today.

Your 2010 FIBA World team will consist of two-time Olympic gold medalists Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings and Diana Taurasi, 2008 Olympic gold medalist Sylvia Fowles, 2004 Olympic gold medalist Swin Cash, Jayne Appel, Tina Charles, Candice Dupree, Asjha Jones, Angel McCoughtry, Lindsay Whalen, and Maya Moore.

Moore is the only collegiate player on this FIBA World Championship squad predominately made up of WNBA and Olympic team ballers.

“The process has been unbelievably difficult. It’s taken a lot out of us, the committee, coaches, staff,” said USA head coach Geno Auriemma. “It was probably the most difficult time that I’ve had as a coach in 35 years. When you have to say goodbye to players as committed to USA Basketball as Kara (Lawson) and Seimone (Augustus) have been, it’s very, very, very difficult. But there’s so much uncertainty in our post players position that we had to make some very difficult decisions. I think the team that was picked is a terrific team. It’s a terrific group of kids and the next nine games will give us an opportunity to prove that.”

“This was an extremely difficult decision for the committee to make,” said USA Basketball Women’s National Team Director and USA Selection Committee member Carol Callan. “After four exhibition games and the scrimmage against the Czech Republic, we believe we have selected the 12 players who will make the best team to be competitive at the World Championship. These players fill various needs that this team has in terms of the international styles of play that we will face in the Czech Republic.

“Players not selected have been and remain a vital part of the USA National Team program and we appreciate the effort they gave throughout our training camps in helping the USA prepare for this important competition. Again, it was not an easy decision to make. Any combination of the 14 finalists would make a formidable team, which is why this was such a tough decision to make.”

They are 63-1 in recent international competition, and will also be attempting to get that automatic qualifying spot in the 2012 London Games women's basketball tournament that goes with winning the 2010 FIBA women's title.

Team USA opens FIBA World Championship play against Greece tomorrow at 12:00 noon EDT with all the games being telecast on NBA-TV. You can also watch all the FIBA games via live streaming at www.FIBATV.com.

Go Team USA!

Team USA Women 2010 FIBA Worlds- Countdown To Cut Day

USA Basketball announced the 14 players who still have the opportunity to make the Team USA women's squad for the FIBA World Championships for Women taking place later this week in the Czech Republic.

The USA squad finalists are: Jayne Appel (San Antonio Silver Stars), Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx), Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Swin Cash (Seattle Storm), Tamika Catchings (Indiana Fever), Tina Charles (Connecticut Sun), Candice Dupree (Phoenix Mercury), Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky), Asjha Jones (Connecticut Sun), Kara Lawson (Connecticut Sun), Angel McCoughtry (Atlanta Dream), Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury), Lindsay Whalen (Minnesota Lynx) and the only collegiate player on this team, UConn's Maya Moore.

Team USA closed out the exhibition schedule with a 3-1 record and have a scrimmage in Brno in moments with FIBA women's tournament hosts the Czech Republic.

Group B pool play for the seven time FIBA women's champs starts in Ostrava on September 23 against Greece, followed the next day with games against Senegal and closing on September 25 with France.

Top three finishers in each group move on to the crossover rounds which will be conducted in Ostrava from September 27-29. Canada's in Group A along with defending FIBA world champ Australia, Belarus, and China.

The medal round will be played in Karlovy Vary, with the quarterfinals scheduled for October 1, the semifinals on October 2 and the medal games played on October 3.

But before we get to that point, the 12 woman FIBA tournament team rosters have to be finalized on September 22.

Coach Auriemma and the USA Basketball staff have some tough decisions to make in terms of who will be the last twelve women standing for the FIBA number one ranked USA women's team.

Whoever makes Team USA, the goals remain the same. Take their eighth FIBA world championship crown and the automatic bid in the London Games back to US shores.

Team USA Women 2010 FIBA Worlds- Another Exhibition Blowout

The Team USA women were more than a little upset about the way they played last night in their 83-77 loss against the defending FIBA world women's champion Australia.

They took out their frustrations on Senegal, who they will see again in Group B pool play on September 24 when the FIBA Women's World Championships start on September 23.

Unlike last night, Team USA was a blistering 65% from the field on 39 of 60 shooting and were 6 of 9 from 3 point range (66.6%). Thirteen USA players scored in this 93-51 win with six Team USA players in double figures.

Team USA outrebounded Senegal 48-23, forced 23 turnovers, and dished out 22 assists and was in command of this game from the opening tipoff.

Hey, save some of this butt kicking intensity and focus for the tournament!

Senegal's only lead of the game was at the 8:36 mark of the first quarter after nailing a three pointer to give them a 3-2 lead. Team USA responded with a 23-2 run to take command of the game and end the quarter with a 31-8 lead which ballooned thanks to the second unit to 50-25 by halftime.

The three point barrage started after halftime and allowed Team USA to expand the lead to 79-37 by the end of the third quarter.

And yes, women's b-ball fans, Maya Moore was back in the Team USA lineup. She had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Diana Taurasi led all scorers with 14 points and five assists on 6 for 7 shooting in just 15 minutes of play. Kara Lawson tallied 13 points on 5 for 5 shooting from the field, including 3-of-3 from 3-point land. Lindsay Whalen chipped in 11 points on 5 for 5 shooting as well. Tina Charles contributed 10 points and six rebounds and Seimone Augustus added 10 points and four assists.

Coach Auriemma was pleased with Team USA's performance. "I thought that defensively we were much better than we were last night. Obviously the level of competition was much different. We are much more talented than Senegal. I don't want us to be dependent on that. Hopefully what we brought to the defensive end today is going to be more indicative of how we're going to play. It's evident that unless we're committed, especially on the defensive end, it's going to be very difficult to reach our goal of winning the World Championship."

Team USA closed out the exhibition schedule with a 3-1 record, but they do have a September 20 scrimmage in Brno with FIBA women's tournament hosts the Czech Republic.

The 12 member FIBA women's tournament team rosters have to be finalized the next day, and bear in mind Sue Bird, Swin Cash and Angel McCoughtry will join the team in the Czech Republic. Sylvia Fowles is day to day after having arthroscopic knee surgery. Coach Auriemma and staff have some tough decisions to make in terms of who will be the last twelve women standing.

Group B pool play starts in Ostrava on September 23 against Greece, followed the next day with the game against Senegal and closing on September 25 with France.

Will Team USA be ready to play and take the championship and the automatic bid for the London Games back home? If they play like they did today, the answer is probably yes.

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 Women 2010 FIBA Worlds- Headed To Europe

Now that the 'menz' have finally ended their 16 year championship drought in the FIBA Worlds, time for me to turn the TransGriot spotlight toward our Team USA woman, who have handled their basketball business internationally when the men weren't.

They have a 63-1 record in major international basketball competitions (the last loss was against Russia in the 2006 FIBA world semis), have won four consecutive Olympic gold medals (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008), two FIBA World Championship gold medals (1998, 2002), one FIBA World Championship bronze medal (2006) and one FIBA Americas Championship gold medal (2007).

The task of building on this recent run of success for the 2010 edition of Team USA women's squad falls upon the shoulders of UConn's Geno Auriemma and his staff for the FIBA Women's Worlds and the 2012 London Games.

Team USA has been whittled down to 14 finalists, and the goal of the final 12 women left standing for our FIBA Number one ranked women's team is the same as the USA men had for their successful world championship business trip to Turkey.

The Team USA women wish to leave the Czech Republic October 3 with the FIBA crown and the automatic bid for the London Games in hand as well as protect their FIBA number one world ranking.

Was a little bummed to find out that if I'd asked, I could have attended the 89-56 demolition of defending FIBA women's champ Australia Friday night in Hartford. However, not taking too much stock in that game because the Opals were missing Penny Taylor and Lauren Jackson. Jackson is busy playing in the WNBA Finals with Seattle Storm teammates and Team USA members Sue Bird and Swin Cash against the Atlanta Dream and Team USA member Angel McCoughtry and Team USA assistant coach Marynell Meadors.

UConn senior Maya Moore is the only collegiate player on this squad, but as far as I'm concerned she's probably made the 2012 London team as well.

She led the way for Team USA by lighting up the Opals for 16 points. Beijing 'Young Gun' Kara Lawson chipped in 15 points and three assists with Tamika Catchings contributing 12 points and three blocks. Jayne Appel grabbed eight rebounds to go with her seven points.

The next night (September 11) they took out Spain 85-69. They got off to a slow start as Spain took an early 6-0 lead, but tightened up the defense and found themselves headed into the halftime locker room with a 44-24 lead.

They had to withstand a Spanish run that saw them shrink the lead to 68-63, but eventually got it together to build the lead back up to 76-65 and preserve the win.

They had five players in double figures led by UConn alum Tina Charles' double double of 17 points and 10 rebounds. Kara Lawson had 11 points while Candice Dupree, Asjha Jones and Maya Moore all chipped in 10 apiece.

That capped the domestic portion of Team USA's training and they now headed to Salamanca, Spain to tangle with the Aussies and Spanish teams again along with Senegal on Spain's home soil. They will be playing Australia in the first game of the 2010 Spain International Invitational tournament on September 17 with Spain taking on Senegal. Winners meet in the title game September 18 while losers meet for third place.

Missing You Governor Ann

Today is the day that the best Texas governor we've had in my lifetime, Ann Richards, passed away.

We progressive Texans miss you more with each passing year.

If Semenya Looked This, Y'all Wouldn't Be Hatin'

This is Czech runner and 1980 Moscow Games 400m silver medalist Jarmila Kratochvilova, the current 800m world record holder.

She entered the 800m at a July 26, 1983 meet in Munich, Germany as a training exercise and the rest is history. Her time of 1:53.28 in that race not only smashed the then world record of 1:53.43 held by Russia's Nadezhda Olisarenko, it is currently the oldest world athletics record on the books.

One of the things that has pissed me off in this whole Caster Semenya saga since it started last year is the undercurrent of bigotry and the denigration of her femininity by the vanilla flavored peanut gallery.

Some of the haters throwing 'that's a man' shade at Semenya within the 800m world damned sure wouldn't be on the modeling catwalks themselves or on the stage competing for their nations in the Miss Universe pageant.

But let's get to the crux of what I suspect is some of the motivation behind the hatin' on this talented 19 year old South African runner.

There has been a long line of African descended female sprinters since the 60's that have come over time to dominate the sprint races (the 100m, 100m hurdles, 200m, 400m, 400m hurdles, the 4X100 and 4x400 relays) in what the world calls athletics.

They have also etched their names into the sports record books. The next oldest world record held by a woman is Flo-Jo's blistering 10.49 100m time she set in Indianapolis during the US Olympic trials in 1988,

In the long distance races such as the 3000m steeplechase, 5000m, 10,000m and the marathon, those are increasingly either being dominated by eastern African runners and Asian runners or the European dominance of them is being challenged.

Now that challenge to European dominance is happening in the middle distance races such as the 800m and 1500m.

During the 2008 Beijing Olympics the medals in that race were all won by runners from African nations, with Pamela Jelimo of Kenya taking the gold.

Want to guess who was the person Semenya passed in August 2009 to become the fifth fastest 800m runner of all time?

Pamela Jelimo.

Now a young runner from South Africa comes along seemingly out of nowhere like Pamela Jelimo did in 2008 to win the 2009 world championship in the event. Factor in that Semenya has three years to improve on that time, she's of African descent and has non standard feminine presentation, and let the 'unwoman' hate flow.

But peep another picture of Kratochvilova from back in the day. Sure didn't hear much 'that's a man' shade coming from the vanilla flavored peanut gallery at the time.

No clamor to have Kratochvilova immediately slapped in stirrups and subjected to a humiliating and invasive 'gender verification' examination. No enduring an 11 month competition ban as your competitors gleefully denigrated your gender presentation in front of rolling television cameras.

Nope, don't recall that happening.

It's why I'm hoping that Semenya not only breaks that 800m world record, it would be even sweeter if she did so while snatching the gold medal in London two years from now.