As expected,Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose made the final roster for the USA team at the 2010 World Championships that will take place in Turkey starting on the 28th. The defending Olympic gold medalists, the United States has not won the World Championships since 1994, and are not the runaway favorites that they were in Bejing. The Team USA roster simply doesn't feature the starpower lineup that the 2008 Olympic team featured with the likes of LeBron James and Co. The starting lineup in Turkey might look like this: Guards Rose and Chauncey Billips, Forwards Andre Igudola and Kevin Durant, and Lamar Odom at the Center position. Those are all pretty good players, but not necessarily on par with some of the past Team USAs.
On Sunday, Team USA struggled to beat Spain in a warmup , narrowly winning 86-85. Team USA has one more exhibition, against Greece tomorrow, before the World Championships begin on August 28th.
The FIBA World Championships are structured similar to the soccer World Cup. There are 24 countries divided into 4 groups of 6 teams, with a preliminary round and a knockout stage. In the preliminary round, each team plays games against the other five teams in their group. The USA in Group B will play Brazil, Croatia, Tunisia, Slovenia, and Iran. The top 4 in each group move on to the knockout stage, which is like the "Sweet 16."
It looks like the USA, despite their inexperience should easily make it into Knockout Stage, but from there who knows. Obviously the close win against Spain, proves their vulnerability. Winning the World Championships, would make a strong statement of USA Basketball, especially since the caliber of Team USA's squad is not the best that it could field.
Follow the 2010 World Championships via the FIBA America's Website
No comments:
Post a Comment