re: I may throw up

[bird <birdwl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: "Josh Ozersky" <jozersky1@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Pepe Sanchez
> Pepe Sanchez
> Pepe Sanchez
>
> repeat til the page is full, printer...
Yeah.  That whole game was weak.  The USA's interior defense was porous 
and the Argentines had numerous easy layups.  That just sucked.  Sure, the 
refs made some bad calls, especially near the end, but the USA lost it 
early and then couldn't come back.  And, Argentina played a damn fine game.
  So, there you have it.  I couldn't believe I was agreeing with Tom 
Tolbert (that's gotta be a first), but he was right about the USA's lack 
of vision on the defensive end.  Argentines were cutting to the basket all 
night.

I'm usually not the rah-rah, nationalistic type, but I do like to get into 
world competition, seeing as how it's "only" sports and all.  I know this 
sounds bad, but losing to Argentina really bites.  I know they have a 
couple of really talented guys, but so do we!  The fact is, they played 
like a team more, probably because they get more time to actually play 
like a team.  And they really took advantage of the FIBA rules about being 
able to touch the ball when it's above the rim.  Well, the rule's there to 
take advantage of.  Hard to blame the Americans for that, though, because 
it's difficult to change a basic way that you've played the game for years 
and years.

I wonder what the ramifications of this loss will be?  I don't know how 
the tournament is set up, but I guess it's likely that we'll see a 
US-Argentina gold medal game.  But, beyond that, I wonder.  Americans hate 
to lose.  Especially in basketball.

Bird