4B THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OLYMPICS
THURSDAY, AUGUST 19.2004
The 'Dream' is gone U.S.men's basketball can't hold a torch to 1992 team
Duscan Vranic/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Duscan Vaniac/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Tim Duncan of the United States watches the women's U.S. team play Korea during a women's basketball preliminary round match at the Hellinikon Indoor Arena yesterday during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATHENS, Greece — Other than putting their uniforms on right, U.S. basketball coach Larry Brown struggled to find something, make that anything, good to say about his players.
good to say this. This is hardly news. After losing one of two Olympic games and one of six on a pre-Olympic tour that turned out to be more torture than tune-up, Brown has been using his postgame news conferences to read off a laundry list of woes. The only thing that seems to change is the order.
seems to change After escaping Greece 77-71 Tuesday night, he started by getting on his players for passing up too many good shots, taking too many bad ones and making too few shots.
new slots.
After that, it was about showboating too much ("troubling"), complaining about the way he parcels out playing time ("other teams accept it better") and still failing to grasp the nuances of international basketball ("tough to play when you haven't figured out the rules").
So what's new?
So what's new?
Now, opposing coaches are dissing them, too, joining the U.S. audience looking in back home and threatening to become some kind of Greek chorus.
"They don't seem to be interested to improve their shots," said Panagiotis Giannakis, Greece's coach. "They like to go close to the basket to make a shot."
shot.
Now you know why nobody wants to pose for pictures with the Dream Team anymore. There is no reason for awe, little to admire and even less to learn from this latest collection of NBA millionaires.
The original Dreamers went through opponents at the Barcelona Games in 1992 like pylons at a coaching clinic, dunking over entire countries at
will, playing a style of basketball that seemed as unfamiliar as it was unattainable.
It didn't hurt, of course, that those Dreamers featured not just the best U.S. players of their era, but some of the best and most entertaining the game has ever seen — Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird — not to mention some of the hardest-working.
working On the court, they crushed every opponent and did it with great style and humor. The only suspense that remained after the tip-off was how many foreign dignitaries would try to squeeze into the postgame photos.
So give the rest of the world credit; it's improved by leaps and bounds in the dozen intervening years, begging, borrowing and stealing everything from coaches to gear to training regimens in a mad dash to catch up. But what's troubling about this latest U.S. edition is that it made sure the gap finally closed by backing up so far so fast.
"My boys put their best effort into this game, given they were playing great players they watch on TV. That said," Giannakis paused for a sly smile, "we didn't go onto the court with fear."
Brown knew why, and he didn't think it was so funny.
Narrow victory over Greece a 'sigh of relief' for U.S.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATHENS, Greece — In past Olympics, defeating a mediocre team such as Greece by a mere six points would be cause for alarm for the United States.
In 2004, it's reason for a collective sigh of relief.
lective sign of the U.S. men's basketball team was breathing easier Tuesday night after its first victory of the Athens Games, a 77-71 win over the host country that showed once again how difficult success will be for the "Gang That Can't Shoot Straight."
That can be a A 4-for-21 effort from 3-point range, 13 missed free throws and 19 turnovers translated into a tough night for the Americans, who won despite Tim Duncan fouling out, Allen Iverson playing with a broken thumb and Lamar Odom fighting off severe dehydration to come up with the defensive play that ended the home team's last hope.
In other games, Spain again
looked like the class of the field with an 87-76 victory over Argentina, Yao Ming scored 39 points to push China lead New Zealand 69-62, Lithuania defeated Puerto Rico 98-90, Serbia Montenegro edged Italy 74-72 and Australia defeated Angola 83-59.
Greece had a chance to pull within two with 18 seconds left, but Odom defended the key play of the game perfectly, holding his hand steady and high and getting a piece of Dimitris Pipanikoulou's layup attempt.
Odom rebounded the miss and made two free throws to lock up a victory that helped keep the United States — coming off a humbling 19-point loss to Puerto Rico — from doubling its Olympic loss total from the previous 68 years.
"We wanted to play this one and get that out of our heads," Duncan said.
Iverson scored 17 points, 13 of them in the first half, and Duncan had 13 of his 14 points
in a third quarter in which he picked up his second, third and fourth fouls, setting the stage for a tight fourth quarter.
The Americans led 64-61 when Duncan returned with 5:46 left, and 67-63 when he fouled out some two minutes later on a questionable loose-ball foul call that left him staring in disbelief and Brown pointing in anger at the official who called it.
Boozer came up with the Americans' biggest field goal of the night, rebounding Shawn Marion's missed 3-pointer from the corner and banking it in for a 74-68 lead.
A 3-pointer by Greece made it 75-71, and Boozer missed a pair of free throws to give Greece a chance to get within two.
chance to get over A turnover by Greece after Odom's free throws with 15.5 seconds left finally quieted the crowd and ended the suspense
"That was the loudest arena I've ever been in," LeBron James said. "That was electrifying."
U.S. line-up change unlikely
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATHENS, Greece — Same starting lineup, same subs, same tactics. The U.S. basketball team may be an unimpressive 1-1 in the Olympic tournament, but coach Larry Brown won't do any tinkering for today's game against Australia.
gamat Hornstein.
That likely means that Richard Jefferson, who shot 0-for-7 against Greece and 3-for-16 against Puerto Rico, will remain the starting small forward. And LeBron James, whose defensive energy produced three breakaway dunks in the second quarter, will continue to come off the bench at shooting guard behind Allen Iverson.
Brown has never been one to make wholesale changes on the
fly, and he's not about to start now — even with observers wondering why he isn't making more use of full-court pressure or half-court traps that cause turnovers.
Even Brown noted that his team is attempting more 3-point shots than its opponents — and not making many (7-for-45). That's got to change, he said.
Brown believes winning or losing will be determined by effort - players diving on the floor for loose balls, boxing out underneath for defensive rebounds and making the extra pass against the zone defense to open up mid-range scoring opportunities.
opportunities The Americans have done those things at times, but never for a full game.
And if they don't get into the habit of playing with extra effort for a full 40 minutes, their chances of standing on the medal podium will dwindle fast
Against Australia, the Americans will need to concentrate on stopping point guard Shane Heal, a veteran of both the NBA and the Euroleague known for his sharpshooting from 3-point range.
Like the U.S. team, the Australian team has shown itself to be wildly inconsistent.
Australia, the United States, Puerto Rico and Greece all have 1-1 records in Group A, which Lithuania leads with a 2-0 record. Angola (0-2) is last in the six-tem group from which four teams will advance to the quarterfinals.
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