Why Can't Team USA Win?

Sunday was a perticularly profitable day for me.I spent most of the day watching how exciting golf can be at times.Padraig Harrington won the Open,one hundred and forty five Euro was won,national pride was felt,one hundred and forty five Euro was prematurally spent and drinks were had.After the celebrations were done and the triumphant walk to the bookies was over with I sat down to watch what I had been looking forward to all day long.The final of the U-19 World Championships:USA vs. Serbia.

I was watching this tournament all week long and was enjoying every bit of it.There was some great teams there and some brilliant individual talent on display.By an odd coincidence the two best teams in the competition actually got to the final-something that is rarley seen in the NBA.Serbia were easily the best "team" in the competition but the talent and athleticism of the U.S could easily dominate the game.The US had a great panel of players,not the best that they could have picked but definitley a team packed with talent,Serbia also had three or four possible NBA prospects.The game started with a run from Serbia,USA maybe were feeling a bit intimadated by the partizan atmosphere as the Serbs had home advantage.Even some of guys from some of the bigger colleges would not have played in such a hostile atmosphere before.By the third quarter the Serns were up by 20 and things looked gloomy for Team USA.After a good fourth quarter effort that saw the US close the gap but never really looked like winning.

This got me thinking about the U.S national team in general and why the country with by far the best pool of talent in the world isn't winning and dominating the way it should be.At first I tried to do what I hate to do:playing the "blame game".For the U-19 team this was easy.There was one person that could easily be blamed.Jerry Wainwright the head coach.His mistake was an easy one to make and one that many Team USA coaches have made before.He put a players status before its ability which saw players from some of the lesser programs like Matt Bouldin from Gonzaga and Stephen Curry from Davidson suffer in playing time.Both of whom made big contributions earlier in the tourney.He also made the mistake of trying to please everyone-getting everyone on the court sometime in the game and not focusing on finding out who his best five were.

The senior team however is a much,much different situation.Players egos are huge,most (with the exception of a few) think that they are the best players in the world and should be treated accordingly.A lot of them have thier own brands to think about and see the national team play as an opportunity to expand and get exposure.So..what will happen when you get all these guys on a team?You see a lot of entertaining play at the start when they play some of the lesser teams,but,when it comes down to the wire and they play high quality teams who play as a team they get exposed.Instead of making the pass to the open man,you will see contested jumpers.You will see a lot of driving the lane with no plan B.All concept of the team will breakdown and the US's game will decline into five different games of one-on-one in one court.What will happen if Kobe starts becoming a liability on offense?Will the coach be brave enough to sit him down for extended minutes?

Now the tournament that the US are preparing for is the Pan-AM games-which because of Argentina's weakened squad shouldn't be a diffcult tournament to win,but they are ultimitley preparing for the Olympics next year and if they fail to win-there should be some changes made.That is of course if they care that much.