Team USA
 

I'm pumped about USA hoops. It's high time we reclaim our place on top of the basketball world. Team USA is looking good so far, but it remains to be seen if they can keep up the intensity once they open Olympic play. It was good to see Kobe smother Sarunus Jasikevicius, one of the cockiest players I have ever seen. For this summer at least, I have found it easy to love Kobe, Carmello, and other players I usually root against.

I too have found it interesting to find myself rooting for guys, who in other settings, I can't stand. Kobe, Carmello, Paul, Kidd are at the top of the list. In my opinion these guys are every bit as talented as the great Olympic teams of the 90s, but they still lack the size I think they need to dominate. Outside to Dwight Howard, they are weak in the middle and if they don't win gold, I think that will be the primary reason. Tyson Chandler is an alternate, but should be the first big man off the bench. Colangelo and K have dropped the ball with Chandler.

If we could see this team play the original Dream Team, we would witness the Dream Team completely demolish this team.

Nike is doing a video series on this team called Road to Redemption. It's a 5 episode series, with three of the episodes available on youtube. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTsAupQI-HY

I was just looking at the roster and they are very weak down low. Outside of Howard and Bosh, they have no bigs, at all. Booz and Prince are both very soft 6'9". I didn't see Tyson Chandler on the roster.

I think they'll have no problem on the offensive end, but their interior defense could be their downfall.

For anyone that watched the game this morning, Utefans should be in mourning right now. Patrick Mills who is a freshman at St. Marys should be a ute but they chose Kepkay instead. Also Shane Foster from Vanderbilt who was the SEC player of hte year should have been a Ute as well but they decided on a JC kid who never showed up.

I don't think we win gold. The rest of the world has improved immensely since the days of the Dream Team and many of those teams have been playing together as a team since they were teens. While I really hope we reclaim a gold in bball, I'm thinking we take home silver.

Yes, Giacoletti really messed up Utah basketball and it will take some time for Boylen to get it back on track. He has signed a few kids that are a step in the right direction.