http://espn.go.com/olympics/summer/...t-scores-24-leads-team-usa-dominican-republic USA - 113 DR - 59 Not sure where to discuss this, but I figured this would be the appropriate venue. Did anyone else watch Team USA's exhbition against the Dominican Republic, where the USA almost doubled the score on them in a second half that was Globetrotter-esque? I had a few thoughts about the game - - It was a good showing for Team USA, and we looked dominant, but could it be a false sense of confidence? The Dominican Republic national team is essentially Al Horford, Francisco Garcia, and a bunch of players who would struggle to make the roster of prominent Euroleague teams. Hell, Edgar Sosa even went down in the first with an injury. - How will our lack of size translate against teams that not only have better size, like Brazil, but teams that also have decent backcourts as well, like Spain? Spain not only has both Gasol's in the frontcourt, alongside Ibaka, who can hide Pau's defensive vulernabilities, but they also have guys like Calderon, Fernandez, Navarro, and Rodriguez in the backcourt. Essentially, they have a superior frontcourt and a backcourt capable of at least keeping up with Team USA's... nothing near what we saw tonight against the DR. I'm still expecting a win vs ESP, of course, but you have to be concerned. (On a side note, I did find someone dumb enough to take Team USA on the over with a 30 pt spread with $100 on the line.) ***Rant not about Team USA, but about Calipari... Read on if you don't know about Karl Towns, the #1 recruit from the 2015 class How the hell is "Coach Cal" allowed to take Karl Towns and bring him to the Dominican national team, and no one in the NCAA bats an eye? It's the ultimate loophole. I'll probably be ranting about this in the near future in some sort of forum. Essentially what happened was that Karl Towns, who is a 6'11" high school freshman (going on sophomore status), who is considered by ESPN to be the #1 player in his class was invited by Calipari to play Olympic basketball. It just so happens, his mother was Dominican, and that made him eligible to play for the national team. While he had no real place playing with the rest of the roster, Calipari booted guys like Charlie Villanueva in order to make a place for his potential recruit, who probably didn't deserve the place on the team. At his age, Towns is just starting to be exposed to serious college recruiting. This creates a huge recruiting advantage for Kentucky. Not only does Towns spend months with Calipari, but the team also practiced for over two weeks on the University of Kentucky's campus, at a time that happened to fall between their NCAA title and their NBA Draft where there were six Wildcats being drafted... aka the perfect time to bring a recruit in for a weekend visit, and Calipari had the loophole of having Towns on campus for a very extended period of time. You don't think all of "Big Blue Nation" was all over Towns, showing him the best time of his life when he was "practicing" in Lexington? This inclusion on the Dominican Repubic team was essentially Calipari's legal loophole to bring the best prospect in the 2015 class around Kentucky all summer, coach him, and create a relationship with him. Those sort of recruiting practices just get to me after I watch legitimate coaches like Mark Few, Bo Ryan, Jamie Dixon, and Tom Izzo, who do everything the right way and can never pull in big time recruits. They try to recruit the top players, and if they don't pan out, that's not big deal. All of those coaches will still find diamonds in the rough and find their way into better postseason success in March than the flashy sleaze-balls. In particular, I think of Tom Izzo, who makes a point of playing by the rules, even if it means he never gets the top recruits. He's never recruited a player who he hasn't wound up playing in the Final Four, yet the highest rated recruit he's ever had was Shannon Brown. In short, the man makes gold out of clay. With that said, there was a situation where he was doing everything and by the book, but he ultimately received a suspension out of the blue because one of his assistants was in the same place as a potential recruit during the offseason. At the same time though, "Coach Cal" is actively coaching a rising high school sophomore, bring him around his campus for two weeks, and making his dreams come true by playing against the best players in the NBA. How many times has Coach Cal been suspended for anything? I could write a book on all of the sketchy things he has done, yet Calipari is given full clearance to hang out with a rising high school sophomore all summer. Karl Towns' dad even said that his involvement on the Domincan Republic team could give Calipari an edge in recruiting, and the announcers tonight also insinuated that his inclusion meant that'd he'd be playing for Kentucky in three years. How does the NCAA allow this? John Calipari is ruining the collegiate game. I hear so many people say that he's an "great recruiter," but the fact of the matter is that the guy has the sleaziest recruiting tactics known to man. I've seen it for years at Memphis, and I'm sick of it. To quote one of the greatest coaches of all-time, Bobby Knight, "Why does this guy still have a job?" I could go on and on about Calipari, but I'll stop here.
I just read an article about Michigan State's scholarship offer to Towns, and of course, if ended on this note - Fuck John Calipari, everything he stands for, and what he's doing to the game of college basketball.
