The qualifying tournament for the 2008 Olympics starts today in Las Vegas. There are two groups of five teams each: Group A Panama Puerto Rico Argentina Uruguay Mexico Group B USA Venezuela Brazil Virgin Islands Canada I think the format is that the top 4 teams from each group qualify for single elimination, and then the two teams that reach the finals are the ones who qualify for the Olympics. The USA games will mostly be on ESPN Classic or ESPN2. Tonight's game is against Venezuela at 11 PM Eastern time; ESPN's own site can't seem to make up its mind about which channel it'll be on, so I guess it won't be totally clear until game time. Chat will be open for anyone who wants to stop by.
It looks like I got the tournament format slightly wrong. According to this link, after the first phase of group play, the top four teams in each group will play another round-robin where they face each of the top four teams from the other group. Once that's finished, the top 4 teams in the overall standings will advance to the semi-finals.
I just hope LeBrone don't go crazy and start driving and dunking on Chauncey and Tayshaun when the three of them are on the court playing tonight.
By "that format" you mean, refs who aren't intimidated by him or controlled by Stern? Wouldn't Euro refs be a breath of fresh air for the NBA?
CA aka the dribbler, against Mexico just turned in one of the worst performance ever for a pg. 23 minutes, 0-10, 5 turnovers, 2 assists
I can't want until the season starts when that clown will have to work without the refs in his pocket. Its also going to be very interesting if he still gets the love after america decided he was not important enough to watch in the finals. That had to be a huge blow to the hype machine. Everyone was so convinced that he was going to save the sagging ratings.
The US team is a powerhouse. It's a joke watching them play Venezuela. Only caught the end of the Canada/Brazil game. We have a long way to go to rebuild our national program. But it is promising. Thanks D4, BillL and Illmatic for the chat. Good times.
Just watched the 1st quarter. This is one of the best teams the USA has fielded for International competition. Nice mix of athletic players who can both shoot and penetrate. This team is going to be extremely difficult to defend because they can burn you in so many ways. I also like the decision to go with a College head coach as this more like the college game with all the creative matchups out there. Takes someone to think outside of the NBA box to succeed.
