OT: Canada Basketball fails to qualify again

[BFo8]

Nigeria is 22nd in FIBA rankings. A good team, and a great win.

But counting NBA players ain't it, SMF. I'd be shocked if Nigeria medals. Their grouping has Australia, Germany, and Italy. So they may fail to advance past quarterfinals.

Will also add that I see Nigeria around 100-1 at most places that have odds posted, I would also be shocked if they won a medal.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Damn. USA lost to Australia tonight. Good thing we aren’t in that group. We might not win a game

That's the strongest group I think I can remember.

Australia has 6 NBA players plus Delladova who isnt in the league anymore but could still be.

Nigeria has a lot.

Germany only has 2 but has guys in the top Euro leagues

Italy has 3.

Im going

1. Australia
2. Nigeria
3. Italy
4. Germany

Gold: 🇺🇸
Silver: 🇫🇷
Bronze: 🇳🇬

Nigeria has the 2nd most NBA players behind the US. Gotta to go with them for the bronze.

 

[KennyTheKangaroo]

I looked at the Nigeria-USA box score and didn't see Talib Zanna's name. Is he on the team?

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

USA! USA! USA! Yeah, where is SMF at? My ass today's NBA players are better than before.

 

[cease10]

I looked at the Nigeria-USA box score and didn't see Talib Zanna's name. Is he on the team?

He's not on the roster. That shows the level of talent on the current roster.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

USA! USA! USA! Yeah, where is SMF at? My ass today's NBA players are better than before.

They are a lot better. However, the rest of the world has made up a good chunk of the deficit. Remember college kids had little trouble beating these international teams until the late 80s. The world has gotten better. If you put a college team out there now, they may not even win a game.

 

[cease10]

Basketball talent across the world is pretty even now.

Jamie Dixon coached Team USA and barely beat France a couple days ago for the under 19 World Cup.

 

[Pitt79]

I know that I should never take the SMF bait but...have you considered that France, Australia, Lithuania, and Spain exist when you are ranking national teams? Or that over the past 40 years that the second Americas slots for the Olympics have been filled by only Brazil, who are always good and during that period featured one of the great scorers of all time, or the golden generation of Argentine basketball (an Argentina that is still ranked 4th in the world)?

Canada has underachieved recently to be sure but they aren't some sort of historical underachiever at all, they just weren't very good until around 5 years ago and still have quite a ways to go.

In other news, the Czechs are dominating Rick Pitino's Greece team early on in the first so I'm really enjoying a very upset Pitino so far.

Update: The Czechs are up 27 now after three quarters and are just murdering Greece on the glass with 11 offensive boards to just 9 defensive boards for Greece. Their three headed center situation has 40 points, 15 boards, and 10 assists so far. We may have to allow that Czechia is just, you know, good.

Pitino now just looks sad and defeated but is still at least cursing during timeouts.

Greece, Italy, Russia, Turkey, Argentina lots of countries are probably better than Canada.

Greek team would be better if the Antetekoumpou brothers where available.

 

[Pitt79]

Who has the best collection of NBA players besides the USA?

Please compare and contrast all those teams with Canada? France is the only one who comes even remotely close

I've seen Greece and other foreign teams beat Team USA with zero NBA players on the roster, I don't follow NBA closely, so I'm not sure what guys from other countries are there.

 

[King Of All Message Boards]

Woooooofff

 

[cease10]

Woooooofff

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Trae Young seemed like he wanted to play. If he's healthy they should've added him.

I understand that Keldon Johnson is currently a replacement in the team and would not be a learning curve, but you don't pass on a talent like Trae Young.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Woooooofff

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Are they trying to win Silver?