Posted on 10/26/2011 8:55:13 AM PDT by Loud Mime
The Pan American Games men’s basketball competition gets underway Wednesday, exactly 13 days after the USA Basketball men’s group assembled in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The U.S. squad is comprised for the first time in Pan American Games history by professional players who are under contract to play in the NBA Development League in 2011-12. Serving as the USA Pan American Games head coach is Tulsa 66ers mentor Nate Tibbetts. The 2011 USA Pan American Games Team consists of Blake Ahearn (Erie BayHawks/Missouri State ‘07); Brian Butch (Injured for 2010-11 season/Wisconsin ‘08); Justin Dentmon (Texas Legends/Washington ‘09); Jerome Dyson (Tulsa 66ers/Connecticut ‘10); Moses Ehambe (Iowa Energy/Oral Roberts ‘08); Marcus Lewis (Tulsa 66ers/Oral Roberts ‘09); Leo Lyons (Austin Toros/Missouri ‘09); Renaldo Major (Dakota Wizards/Fresno State ‘04); Donald Sloan (Reno Bighorns/Texas A&M ‘10); Gregory Stiemsma (Sokhumi Tbilisi, Georgia/Wisconsin ‘08); Curtis Sumpter (Maroussi BC, Greece/Villanova ‘07); and Lance Thomas (Austin Toros/Duke ‘10).
“I think what excites me about this team is our commitment to defense, our guys have really bought into that,” said Tibbetts during the team’s training. “And then we’ve got some guards that can really push it and we’ve got some bigs that are really, really playing hard and are game changers just with their effort.”
Because of the team’s shorter than desired training period, Tibbetts knows his USA team enters this competition as a project under construction, a team that will need to continue to improve each day.
“Because we have had a short training period, it’s critical that our team improve with each game. That’s our goal – to get better every day,” stated Tibbetts,
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Schedule:
Preliminary Round
Wednesday, Oct. 26
10:30 a.m. Canada - Argentina
1:00 p.m. Brazil - Uruguay •
5:30 p.m. Dominican Republic - USA •
8:00 p.m. Mexico - Puerto Rico •
Thursday, Oct. 27 10:30 a.m. Uruguay - Dominican Republic •
1:00 p.m. Argentina - Puerto Rico •
5:30 p.m. Canada - Mexico •
8:00 p.m. Brazil - USA •
Friday, Oct. 28
10:30 a.m. Puerto Rico - Canada •
1:00 p.m. Dominican Republic - Brazil •
5:30 p.m. USA - Uruguay •
8:00 p.m. Mexico - Argentina •
I don’t think it is correct to say we haven’t won since 83. I believe we won in 07 to qualify for the Olympics, after losing the world championships in 06. We then won the Olympics in 08 and the world championships in 10.
I may be wrong, though.
I know the writer, he knows his stuff (about basketball). The defending gold medalist gets a return to the Olympics, no matter what the PanAm results are.
Yeah, but we didn’t win the gold medal in 04 Olympics. We had to qualify. Maybe we didn’t qualify in Pan Am games?
Darn, you got me there! We got the Bronze. Maybe it’s all the medalists who return. I’ll check on it later today.
When you search, here is some help — We lost the 06 World championships in Greece (?) finishing third (Spain won...we lost in the semis to Greece...Wade, James, etc. were on the team but no Bryant). By losing the 04 Olympics and the 06 WC, we had to qualify. We did so by winning in 07 in South America, not sure what the tournament was (Tournament of the Americas, perhaps? It was FIBA sponsored)...Again, James, Billups, Anthony etc. but no Bryant. We won that in 07, then the Olympics (with a completely stacked team) in 08 and then the 10 WC (with our “B” team that included future stars like Rose, etc).
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In July of 2012, twelve teams will head to London to compete for Olympic gold in men's basketball. Twelve others will be going for the gold in women's hoops. But in reality, the competition started years ago; simply qualifying to compete in the Olympics is an arduous process that plays out over the course of several years.
Host Country
Generally, the first berth in the Olympic basketball tournament is reserved for the host country. In 2012, that's Great Britain. But the British aren't exactly known as a hoops power. FIBA, basketball's international governing body, asked Great Britain to make substantial improvements in its basketball programs before agreeing to give them a host nation berth in the tournament. London was awarded the games back in 2005, but was not officially given the berth until March of 2011.
Reigning FIBA World Champions
The reigning FIBA World Champion also gets an automatic slot in the Olympic games. Team USA has that honor for the 2012 games, thanks to Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose and the other NBA stars that won gold at the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey. FIBA Regional Championships
Seven more spots in the Olympic field are distributed based on the results of tournaments held in each of FIBA's five geographic divisions:
Two from Europe
Two from North and South America
One from Africa
One from Asia
One from "Oceania" - essentially, Australia and New Zealand
Those berths go to the champions - in Europe and the Americas' case, the champions and runners-up - of tournaments held in each region.
The Olympic Qualifying Tournament
That leaves three unfilled slots. Those are filled by the top three finishers in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, which matches up twelve of the lower-tier finishers from the FIBA regional tournaments. The Olympic Qualifying Tournament includes the third through sixth-place finishers from Eurobasket, the third through fifth from the Americas, the second and third-place teams from Africa and Asia, and the Oceania tournament runner-up.
Ah, very interesting. I am guessing the Pan Am games are no longer a qualifying tournament (it used to be years ago).
I love basketball...and unlike many, I think international basketball is getting more interesting every year. The quality of some of the foreign teams has really improved, and in a 1-loss-you’re-out tournament, anything can happen when the teams are as talented as they are now. Spain had 5 NBA players as starters on its 2008 Olympic team that lost to us...
One would think that I’d know more because I work in the sport. I do my job and do it well - - and that’s kept me in the game. I wonder where I heard that the Gold Medal team defends their olympic title. That’s bugging me.
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