http://www.usabasketball.com/mens/worlduniversity/ The University team played their first exhibition today, blowing out the Russian university club. Their first real game is this Sunday, and all games will be broadcasted on ESPNU. Their roster features future NBA players/NCAA stars, such as Doug McDermott, Adreian Payne, Spencer Dinwiddie, Cory Jefferson, and Yogi Ferrell. http://www.usabasketball.com/mens/u19/ The U19 team is now 6-0 and enter Quarterfinal play against Canada on ESPN3. They're led by future NBA stars like Marcus Smart, Aaron Gordon, and Jahlil Okafor. Gordon, in particular, has really been tearing it up for Team USA so for. The Canadian team we play tomorrow (on ESPN3) doesn't feature Andrew Wiggins, but it does feature ESPN's #4 2014 recruit, Trey Lyles, as well as Florida State commit (and Rivals' #30 recruit), Xavier Rathan-Mayes.
Fosho fams... gotta love it when Team USA stretches the basketball season into a year-round sport... I was thinking of the same comparison when I saw him in the All-Star games... but I also thought, "maybe I'm just thinking that because he looks so much like Blake Griffin," haha... Gordon really does have that explosive, powerful, athletic game though. Gordon led Team USA in minutes, scoring, rebounding, and blocks in the first six preliminary games, whereas Marcus Smart has had a lot of off-nights, hasn't been getting played that much, and has one of the lowest FG%'s on the squad. Dante Exum (Australian phenom) has respectable numbers in pretty much every game so far, but for some reason, when he played Team USA, he only played 11 minutes and put up 7 pts, 2 rbs. I don't know if he got hurt, because they didn't mention it in the post-game article, but he came right back out the next game and put 20 on Russia. Wondering what was going on with him during the USA/Australia game...
Keep an eye out for Nigel Williams-Goss - he's a Clackamas kid who went to Findaly Prep to play HS ball - Plays AAU ball for I-5 elite... going to University of Washington next year. He's leading the team in Assists, 3pt %, Ft % and has fewest TO's. My Son did some hoops training with his dad a few years back and Nigel was always super nice to the boys.. even though he was a "super star" in the 4th grade. Rooting for the kid.
Fun game to watch... some good Will Sheehy dunks... US - 140 UAE - 46 http://www.usabasketball.com/mens/worlduniversity/13_mwug_game_01_box.html Nine players were in double figures... Top Performers: Yogi Ferrell (Indiana) - 15 pts, 5 rbs, 13 asts, 4 stls Cory Jefferson (Baylor) - 14 pts, 11 rbs Sean Kilpatrick (Cincinnati) - 18 pts, 4 rbs, 3 asts We play the Czech Republic tomorrow at 1 ET/10 PT. For some reason Adreian Payne, who started at center in both exhibitions, only played two minutes off the bench in this one. At first, I thought he might have been hurt, but if that was the case, then why play him at all? I wonder if he didn't break a team rule or something. That's fine against the UAE, but they're going to need him to beat Australia and Canada. The Canadian team has a realistic shot to knock us off, with 13 D-1 basketball players, including Kyle Wiljter (Kentucky), Dwight Powell (Stanford), Kevin Pangos (Gonzaga), and Brady Heslip (Baylor).
Don't really care if I start to redundantly triple or quadruple post in this thread... this is a GREAT TOURNAMENT to watch, if you're a BASKETBALL FAN, and it's all on ESPNU. I just finished watching the US blow out the Czech Republic... replays will be shown throughout tomorrow evening. Like I said earlier, things will really get interesting when we play Australia and Canada, but for now, it's hard not to like watching Team USA's collegiate squad blowing out other countries. There have been several guys that have looked good, but Will Sheehey has really looked great. With Oladipo, Zeller, Watford, and Hulls gone, I wouldn't be surprised in the least if Sheehy didn't become the next "under-the-radar" lottery talent. He's really showing out at the University Games, and to help his cause, he's got his point guard Yogi Ferrell on the roster. DraftExpress has him undrafted... going on the record saying that guy's a first round talent.
Sergey Karasev, the Cleveland Cavaliers' #19 pick, has been tearing it up for Russia so far - 31 pts (13-17), 3 rbs, 3 asts in a 117-24 win over Oman in only 19 minutes 20 pts (8-10), 5 rbs, 7 asts in a 113-54 win over South Korea in only 21 minutes It should be really interesting to him play Team USA after pool play. I know the competition has been weak for Russia in the first two games, but c'mon... 31/3/3 in 19 minutes is insane, much less 20/5/7 in 21 minutes. I'll reserve final judgement until we see him play Team USA or Canada, but at only 19 years of age, it's starting to look like the Cavs really hit a home-run.
You're ruining this for me! I'm going to watch these games next week when I get home!! Sent from my baller ass iPad FAMS!
Well, c'mon... you knew we'd blow out the UAE, Czech Republic, and Sweden. The fun really starts tomorrow when we play Australia, and then on Friday, shit will get real against Canada. That's a team with 3-4 guys that could easily be on Team USA with a bench full of guys playing D1 ball. After pool play, Russia's a real threat as well. They beat us in an exhibition already, and Sergey Karasev (#19 pick for the Cavs) is balling out of his mind. He keeps putting up some of the best numbers in the tournament, and he's only playing around 20 mpg so far. We actually haven't won Gold since 2005. I wouldn't be surprised if Russia is actually this year's favorites. They won their last three games by 93, 60, and 63 points, whereas we struggled early on with an 0-2 Swedish squad today.
To please players & parents with equal minutes, maybe coaches play their best players more against the best teams, and his worse players against worse teams. A guess. Except against the U.S., since they know they'll lose.
Well, without playing spoiler to HCP on this one - Team USA vs. Canada is on in an hour and half (2:00 AM PT) on ESPNU, and if we don't win that one, this will be the THIRD straight University Games that Team USA failed to win Gold. In fact, if we lose that one, we won't get any medal at all, and Canada's going to be our toughest competition to date. It comes down to this... we win, we get into elimination play. We lose, we're out of medal contention (provided Australia doesn't lose to UAE... which they won't).
Ladies and Gentlemen... We've tipped! Turn on ESPNU if you want to see Team USA in a "life or death" game versus a Canadian team with a couple NBA prospects and a roster full of D-I players.
HCP, if you DVR'ed and are planning on watching these games, then stop reading. I was wrong that we needed to win this game to get into the medal rounds... We need to win this game by 10 or more to advance. ---- End of Q1 - We're down 18-17. This is the hardest I've seen Team USA play so far. We're playing with so much more purpose than we did in our loss to Australia, or any of our easy games for that matter. The problem is, now we're playing a team that's just as talented as we are, and that 7'2" Canuck from Arizona State is causing a hell of a lot of problems for us in the post. Again, to even compete for a medal, we don't just need to beat them... we need to beat them by 10+. (Currently airing on ESPNU)
This is really hard to watch... Canada - 46 Team USA - 36 ... and Team USA needs to win by 10+ to survive. We're playing panicked and frustrated, whereas Canada has way more set plays and is playing with professional composure. It's hard to collect my thoughts about their performance, especially at this time of night. I'm thinking that maybe the coaching could be better, and maybe the roster could have been chosen more carefully, but at the end of the day, the "World" teams have caught up so much so that our University team can't make it past qualifiers, even though they're stocked with our best NCAA players. Our international teams continue to have such an arrogance and a lack of preparation that we look like idiots purporting the NBA Championship to be the "World Championship." Not looking forward to the 2016 Olympics...
With that said... these international ref's have apparently never seen a Big 10 game... they're calling any slight contact a foul. The fact that Team USA hasn't adjusted to that style of play though should really rest on Bob McKillop's shoulders. We're into the second half of what is essentially an elimination game for Team USA, and Spencer Dinwiddie just flopped. I hate flopping, but that's the first time Team USA has flopped, and if that's the way they're calling this international competition, that's 30 flops too late...
This Canadian team is just kicking our asses... I'm about to turn this off... Canada's up 14 now with about a minute left in the 3rd. (We need to win by 10+ to even play in the medal rounds.)
HCP ... Don't even watch any of these games. It was fun to watch us blow out the UAE, Czech Republic, and Sweden, but watching us lose to Australia and Canada was just disheartening. I've been on record in saying that there's a changing of the guard in North America for a while... You could say our "best" college players weren't playing for Team USA, but neither were the "best" college players playing for Canada. I mean, we're looking at back-to-back Canadian #1 picks... Team USA is in some real danger in 2016, not only from Spain, France, Serbia, Lithuania, Australia, and Russia (Argentina's days are over), but now, Canada as well.
