Medal Play Recap (After Womens Semis and Mens Quarters)

This post was written Thursday evening, after the Womens Semi’s.

Greetings from the home stretch of the 2008 Olympic Tournament. This has been a tremendous event to be involved in. I have been having a blast covering these games despite the workload and time change issues that are wreaking havoc with my MoJo. Our days and nights have been running together and it is hard to remember which end is up. I have had my share of doubleheader games at 2:30 in the morning and at 4:45 in the morning. I don’t know how you Doctors and Emergency Room people can work those shifts on a regular basis. God Bless the support staff here at NBC for keeping us taken care of and keeping us sane as we’ve been pulling all nighters for the past 2 weeks. Special thanks to Melisa Mowry, Mike Lurie, Laura Harrington and Laura McGuire.

The basketball action has been fast and furious the last 2 days. I just finished covering the Women’s Semis this morning after covering a couple of brilliant Men’s games in the Quarterfinals the day before. What a great opening day of Medal Play for the Men! The Argentina vs. Greece game was International basketball about as good as it gets. You had 2 veteran teams that play very well together and who both came up huge time after time down the stretch. Manu Ginobili continues to prove that he is one of the best around….(.I could hear Barkley yelling “GIN – Ohhhh-BBBah – Lee!!!!!” all the way from Scottsdale or Vegas or Leeds or Monte Carlo or wherever he might be at the moment.)  Manu made big shot after big shot yesterday. Carlos Delfino was Kobe-like for a stretch when he scored 15 straight points for Argentina when they desperately needed him. Nocioni is banged up and we don’t know his status yet for the USA game. Obviously Argentina needs to be at full strength to have a chance against the U.S., but if they are healthy and if they shoot it as well as they did today they can play against anybody. Argentina usually does shoot it well, yesterday was no fluke. They shoot the 3 all the time and they consistently shoot a high percentage. They may die some times by it but they use it as a weapon so well and so consistently that it is a major factor in every game that they play.

The U.S. had a battle in the first half with Australia, who kept it close until the very last seconds of the half. AUS battled hard and got some good minutes from Brad Newley and Patrick Mills and others. Patrick Mills is going to be a monster for my old basketball camp friend Ranny Bennett at St. Mary’s in the WCC as soon as he develops a reliable 3 point shot. He is quick and strong and unafraid. He is getting a ton of valuable experience this summer and I am sure he will come into his second college year as a much better player than he was last year (and he was very good last year). With just a few minutes left in the first half, David Andersen missed an easy lay-in that would have put AUS within 5. A couple moments later Deron Williams went full court and pulled up and hit a 3 at the buzzer that put the US up 11 at half. They never looked back after that.

No amount of tired could keep me down when I get to do the commentary on a game like Argentina vs. Greece yesterday. What a fantastic game that was! Argentina is a tremendously fun team to watch. They make the game seem easy.  There can’t be a more clutch guy to watch than Ginobili. It is a shame that they have to play the U.S. in the semis because I think that those are the best two teams in the tournament. I think Spain is great and I think they have a bright future with a team of relatively young guys in Calderon, Fernandez, Rubio, Marc Gasol, etc. However, I think Argentina is still the present and I think they represent the best chance to play the U.S. well. Argentina is going to sorely miss Pepe Sanchez, who was a great guard for years on their team, including the Gold Medal team in Athens. Prigioni has performed very well so far but he has not ever faced the kind of pressure that the U.S. is going to throw at him. Greece played very well and had a great tournament. I thought that Spanoulis in particular was as good a player as anybody has been so far.

In the Women’s Semis, the US had a battle on their hands as Russia stayed with them for most of the game. It ended up being their closest contest, as you might expect from their most important game to date against the team most of us figured would be the bronze medal winners.

Team USA had been averaging 99.2 points as they went undefeated in the first six games, winning by 43 points a contest. The closest win was 38 (vs. Spain when they were only up by five at the half). But Russia played a very good game, especially in the first half. Russia had been up and down during the preliminary games. I wasn’t sure whether they were having some problems meshing with newcomer Becky Hammon, or whether they were playing Opussum a little by not playing their best, which is a regular tactic in International tournament play. Regardless of the reason, it was the best Russia had to offer against the U.S. They led by 5 midway through the 3rd quarter before the U.S. went on a 12-0 run to eventually end the quarter up 48-40. They continued to pour it on in the 4th as Russia could get no closer than nine.

Becky Hammon really struggled, scoring only 3 points after leading them with 17 in the Quarterfinals. Russia only shot 1-14 from 3 and Hammon was just 1-6. So it is on to the Finals again for the U.S.Women, headed for the showdown against Australia that was also favored to reach the Gold Medal game. AUS might be without their second best player Penny Taylor, which would be a huge blow to The Opals chances.

• I mentioned in a previous post that Duke assistant Steve Wojciechowski, who is in Beijing along with the other members of Coach K’s assistant coaching staff from last year, played for me in Poland several years ago. Wojo was kind enough to make himself available for my “5 Questions with….” segment, even though he is unbelievably busy helping to prepare Team USA. Wojo is, and always has been to me, as good as it gets.

5 Questions with Steve Wojciechowski

Q1: If you had to pick just one, what aspect of your play so far are you and the staff most pleased with?

A1: Our defense. This group embraced being an outstanding defensive
team. Pressure defense has become the identity of this team and it has been
beautiful to watch.

Q2: What part of the International game has been the most difficult for
you guys to prepare for?

A2: International teams shoot the ball so well from all five
positions on the floor. There spacing and movement offensively is terrific and
causes a number of problems and tough decisions when preparing for them.

Q3: You have been around this group day and night for the last month.
Which player, either by their on court play or their off court
personality has surprised you the most?

A3: It is a great group of guys to be around. I hope that there
commitment is rewarded with a Gold medal and I have been impressed
with each of them both on and off the court. They are outstanding role
models for young players.

Q4: What non-basketball related happening has been your most memorable
experience in Beijing?

A4: There hasn’t been too much time for activities outside of hoops but
we did manage to make a trip to the Great Wall one morning and it is
spectacular and something I will always remember.

Q5: Has your coaching philosophy been reshaped at all with anything you
have observed or experienced through these games?

A5: The quality of coaching around the world is at such a high level.
Being a young coach, it has been an amazing opportunity to watch and
learn from them. There will be a number of thing I will take back and
use in the future.