Mike Monroe: Team USA pays for Coach K's idiotic decision Web Posted: 09/01/2006 10:24 PM CDT San Antonio Express-News According to a reliable USA Basketball snoop, Team USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski decided the final roster spot for the FIBA World Championships was center Brad Miller instead of Spurs' forward Bruce Bowen. Bowen supposedly got the ax because Coach K wanted one more big man for the tournament in Japan and because Miller had shot the ball better from 3-point range in exhibition games in Asia. Hindsight, of course, is flawless, but in light of Team USA's 101-95 loss to Greece on Friday, that was an idiotic decision because Coach K did not see fit to even play Miller in the game that ended America's dream of regaining the top spot in world basketball. Among the 24-man cadre from which the USA roster was filled, Bowen was the only member of the NBA's first-team All-Defensive unit available to play in Japan. Kobe Bryant, the only other member of the group who has made an All-Defense first team, was injured. So think about it. One of the premier defensive players in the world was not good enough for a team that stressed defense. Krzyzewski had insisted it was Priority No.1. Greece won Friday's game by running the same play, a high pick and roll, over and over and over. John Stockton and Karl Malone never ran it better. And Krzyzewski never made the right adjustment to stop it. How stubborn do you have to be to not try a little zone defense when you're being eaten alive by a pick and roll? Krzyzewski said something else after the first day of training camp that was both surprising and unsettling. He said he had been greatly impressed by Joe Johnson; that before seeing him in practice he didn't know how good Johnson was. It was the first clue that the accomplished college coach needed someone to clue him in about the NBA personnel on his roster. Team USA's head coach needs to know his own personnel better than Krzyzewski did during the FIBA tournament. Bowen discovered that Coach K was clueless about his own defensive versatility when the coach questioned Bowen's ability to defend Puerto Rican point guard Carlos Arroyo in an exhibition game. Bowen suggested he consult assistant coach Mike D'Antoni, well aware the Phoenix Suns head coach had seen Bowen defending Shawn Marion, Boris Diaw, Raja Bell and, occasionally, Steve Nash. After Friday's loss Krzyzewski said Team USA needed to learn the international game better. Perhaps D'Antoni, who coached in Italy for eight years and obviously knows NBA personnel better than Krzyzewski, would have been a better choice for head coach. Now the U.S. has to qualify for the 2008 Olympics in the Tournament of the Americas next summer in Venezuela. I wonder how many of the 12 who have to play for the bronze medal, instead of gold, in Japan, are going to want to spend another long summer overseas. Bowen promises he will be back in the cadre when it convenes for practice next summer. Perhaps his defensive prowess won't be wasted then
