USA upset by Lithuania at World University Games

[Da Coach]

The heavily favored US team, made up of college stars and coached by Matt Painter of Purdue, was stunned Saturday night by Lithuania 76-74, in the quarterfinals of the World University Games in Shenzen, China.
As always seems to be the problem for US teams in international play, The US team's outside shooting was atrocious. The went 5-30 from three for the game, and were 0-14 in the 2nd half.

http://espn.go.com/olympics/basketball/story/_/id/6880515/us-loses-lithuania-university-games-quarterfinals

The best the US team can finish now is 5th place by winning the consolation bracket.
Here is a look at the players on the US team-

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/katz_andy/id/6850622

[tornado]

Predictable -- unfortunately many of our best college players do not want to go...
the best ones prepare over the summer to go pro, and other top players either tour if their team's going somewhere or stay home to avoid injury ..

[SFP]

It has been established that if we do not send our best players we lose. USA is no longer head and shoulders better then the rest of the world. They have caught up. Does this result really surprise anyone? You also have a tighter group of players who grew up together playing together much longer. There needs to be a system that brings our guys together consistently so they can develop chemistry that will lead to winning these games. AAU ball just does not cut it and we do not have the talent to come together 3 weeks before and expect to win. They changed the way we prepare for the Olympics so why not these teams also?

[Future Walk-On]

We would have a batter chance if we just took the best team in the nation college wise and sent them (for the big FIBA one)

[tornado]

We would have a batter chance if we just took the best team in the nation college wise..

I have an idea -- send Georgetown

[Missouri Brave]

Honestly, not much shame in losing to Lithuania. That team is loaded.

[tornado]

Anyone remember ex-Bradley Brave Marcel De Souza....?

Marcel is still very actively involved in basketball in Brazil, owns and runs a website that gives the best coverage of any site around on Brazilian basketball, and offers "editorial opinions" - often somewhat critical of the way the Brazilian national teams are selected or how they play --
In other words...he writes for his own web site and he says what he thinks - and thus he gets into a little hot water and rankles some people's feelings -- but at least he's honest..

Lately, Marcel has been very critical of Brazil's international performance - mostly dwelling on how the players are selected, on the fact that many of the BEST Brazilian players don't want to play & represent their team & country, and that they haven't always played as well as he believes they can...
...all of which sounds very familiar - since that's what has been happening at USA Basketball also.


Here's Marcel's basketball web site..

http://databasket.com.br

And here are his editorials...

http://www.databasket.com.br/descricao.asp?NOME=Editorial&IDMATERIA=22653

his message board (translated)

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522marcel%2Bde%2Bsouza%2522%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dstrict%26sa%3DX%26gl%3Dus%26biw%3D986%26bih%3D876%26tbs%3Dqdr:w%26prmd%3Divnso&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=pt&twu=1&u=http://www.databasket.com.br/forum-resposta.asp%3FIDTOPICO%3D2392&usg=ALkJrhg_8hVL0C1k96xY_QrY0y2tjWsnvw

long interview with Marcel..

http://www.databasket.com.br/descricao.asp?NOME=Not%EDcia&IDMATERIA=17647

Latest Brazilian basketball news...

http://databasket.com.br/indice.asp?IDCATEGORIA=1&NOME=Not%EDcias