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Despite generally good pub but very little coverage of this event elsewhere - we unfortunately had our worst outing ever in the World University Games -
The rest of the world is getting better but there's more to it than that - we just don't send all-around quality teams any more and are getting beat more.
We used to routinely dominate this event - it used to be held every two to four four years...
We won & went undefeated in 1965, 1967, 1973, 1977, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995 (Jim Molinari head coach), 1997, 1999, and 2005.
We won & went 7-1 losing only in pool play in 1979 & 1981.
We were 8-1 & lost the title game to Russia in 1970, we finished 3rd at 6-1 in 1983 despite a near-dream team of Barkley, Karl Malone, Kevin Willis..., came in 2nd at 5-1 in 1985, 2nd at 7-1 in 1987, 3rd at 7-1 in 2001.
In 2009 we lost the semi to Russia and went 6-1 and 3rd place.
Then we finished out of medal contention for the first time in 2011 losing in the quarters to Lithuania and going 7-1 for 5th place.
So - in 20 previous World University Games we went 133-8, NEVER finishing out of the Medal Round 'til last time, never losing more than one single game during ..
any competition, and we won it 13 of our 20 times there (and 13 of the first 18 times), and we finished 2nd three times, third three times, then 5th once. So we never finished lower than 3rd until droping to 5th last time.
This time, however we didn't even make it out of pool play and missed the eight-team Medal Round, we were relegated to the "loser's bracket" for the first time ever,
where we finished 9th - losing TWICE for the first time ever.
The rest of the world is getting better but there's more to it than that - we just don't send all-around quality teams any more and are getting beat more.
We used to routinely dominate this event - it used to be held every two to four four years...
We won & went undefeated in 1965, 1967, 1973, 1977, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995 (Jim Molinari head coach), 1997, 1999, and 2005.
We won & went 7-1 losing only in pool play in 1979 & 1981.
We were 8-1 & lost the title game to Russia in 1970, we finished 3rd at 6-1 in 1983 despite a near-dream team of Barkley, Karl Malone, Kevin Willis..., came in 2nd at 5-1 in 1985, 2nd at 7-1 in 1987, 3rd at 7-1 in 2001.
In 2009 we lost the semi to Russia and went 6-1 and 3rd place.
Then we finished out of medal contention for the first time in 2011 losing in the quarters to Lithuania and going 7-1 for 5th place.
So - in 20 previous World University Games we went 133-8, NEVER finishing out of the Medal Round 'til last time, never losing more than one single game during ..
any competition, and we won it 13 of our 20 times there (and 13 of the first 18 times), and we finished 2nd three times, third three times, then 5th once. So we never finished lower than 3rd until droping to 5th last time.
This time, however we didn't even make it out of pool play and missed the eight-team Medal Round, we were relegated to the "loser's bracket" for the first time ever,
where we finished 9th - losing TWICE for the first time ever.