FIBA Americas Cup 2011 -- USA Beats Argentina Twice in 72 Hours, Takes Gold

USA 104 - Argentina 64
Team USA was consistent throughout the 2011 U16 FIBA Americas Cup Tournament. They took the gold medal in Cancun tonight, beating Argentina for the second time this week and dominating the field both offensively and defensively throughout the tournament. Team USA played the game at their pace, converted over 50% of field goals and dominated board play as they upped the victory margin versus Team Argentina to 40, 104-64. Aaron Gordon led all scorers with 24 points as the forward and teammate Jahlil Okafor each recorded their second double-double of the tournament. Gordon scored 24 points on 11-15 (0-0, 11-15) shooting from the floor to go with a not-so-good 2-7 night from the line. Gordon also led all rebounders with 15 (4-11-15) rebounds. Okafor scored 18 points to go with his 14 rebounds. Three other Team USA players, Justin Jackson (13), Theo Pinson (10) and Jabari Parker (14) scored 10 or more points. Team USA, no doubt sensing the gold, jumped on the Argentines right from the tip-off. Not allowing Team Argentina the time nor space to find their game, Team USA took a 13 lead, 30-17, out of the first period and extended it to 24, 54-30 by the half. After a more competitive third period (24-21 Team USA), the Americans turned on the afterburners and stretched the lead out to it's final spot at 40, 104-64 to end the game. Crunching the game boxscore to develop some possession-based stats for the game...

						FTA
	Poss.	Eff.	eFG%	OR%	TO%	FGA
USA	87.0	1.20	60.7	45.7	18.4	36.0
Argentina		0.74	37.7	24.0	17.2	16.9

Any solace for Team Argentina can be derived from the fact they are the only team that held the USA to under 90 possessions in this tournament. They could not stop Team USA from posting an extremely efficient offensive (1.20 ppp) and defensive (0.74 ppp) point-per-possession rates. A gold medal game with an opponent who had seen the USA once before most likely explains why Coach Don Showalter felt the need to rely on a nine man rotation with four players drawing > 50% of the time at their position. If the playing time was not evenly distributed, shot percentages and possession rates among five members of the rotation suggest they were leading contributors on offense. Like the Costa Rico game, five players took 20% or more of the available shots when they were on the court, while seven were credited with 20% or more of the possessions while they were playing.

Aaron Gordon had a red-letter night on the boards, while Jabari Parker also grabbed more than his share of offensive boards.

Final Standings
After pool play the field was reseeded for the last two rounds. The last two teams in each Group was assigned to the classification pool where they played off for places #5-#8. The first two teams in each Group qualified for the medal playoffs. The final standings based on the finals played Saturday...

Medal Round					Classification Round
		W	L				W	L
1	USA (gold)	5	0		5	Brazil	3	2
2	Argentina (silver)	3	2		6	Chile	2	3
3	Canada (bronze)	3	2		7	Mexico	1	4
4	Puerto Rico	3	2		8	Costa Rico	0	5

Team USA, Team Argentina and Team Canada earned berths in the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championships.

Winners... -- The top three finishers, USA, Argentina and Canada. They qualify the FIBA U18 World Championships. Team Canada -- The Neighbors to the North had the misfortune of drawing the USA and Puerto Rico for three of the five games they played at the Americas Cup this week. They managed to win one of the three (that is all they really needed to get to the World Championship next year). Team Brazil -- Though they were relegated to the Classification Bracket at the end of Pool Play, the Brazilians nevertheless managed a winning record (3-2) and a fifth place finish.

...& Losers -- Team Puerto Rico -- the Puerto Ricans swept the Centrobasket Tournament field 5-0 to qualify for the American Cup. Through Thursday it looked like the Puerto Ricans were ready for Team USA, as they also swept through their Group A slate almost as easily as they did the Centrobasket field week before. They dug a 24 point hole in their semi-final game with Argentina, but despite a furious fourth period rally, fell short and were relegated to the bronze medal game, a rematch with Team Canada, a team they beat by four on Wednesday. The Canadians took a leaf from Team Argentina's book and jumped all over the Puerto Ricans right from the start, building a 19 point lead in the first period. Team Argentina then extended their lead by three more before the half (40-18). There was no furious fourth period rally to make the final score a bit more respectable Saturday night however, as Team Puerto Rico could only cut the final deficit back to 21, 86-65. To have lost their ticket to the U18 World Championship after going on an 8-0 run has to be devastating to the young team. Team Costa Rico -- The Costa Ricans backed into the Americas Cup field when Belize squandered their last game in the Centrobasket Tournament the week before the Americas Cup. The Costa Ricans were simply not ready to compete effectively at this level however, as suggested by the -0.736 efficiency difference logged through the five games of this tournament.

FIBA Americas Cup 2011 -- USA Beats Canada, Goes for Gold

USA 113 - Canada 70
Team USA jumped on Team Canada from the opening tip, opening a 10 point lead on their first six possessions, and they never let the Canadians back into the game, building a 31-7 lead through the first period. Team USA extended their lead in each of the next two periods, taking a 63-28 lead into the half, and a 92-44 into the last period. Team Canada exacted a small solace in winning the fourth period 26-21 to soften their losing margin to 43, 113-70. Aaron Gordon led all scorers with 22 points on 11-16 (0-0, 11-16) shooting. Four of his teammates, Jahlil Okafor (16 points), Theo Pinson (15 points), Justin Jackson (14 points) and Kendrick Nunn (10 points), scored double digit points. Canadian Miroslav Jaksic and Aaron Gordon paced the rebounders with eight apiece. Malcolm Duvivier and Anthony Pate paced the Canadians with 10 points apiece. Crunching the game boxscore to develop some possession-based stats for the game...

						FTA
	Poss.	Eff.	eFG%	OR%	TO%	FGA
USA	94.8	1.19	56.3	37.8	13.7	27.3
Canada		0.74	36.9	34.8	24.1	18.8

Team Canada could not solve the USA's speedy pace and efficient offensive (1.19 ppp) and defensive (0.74 ppp) point-per-possession rates, an absolutely killing combination in this tournament. Coach Don Showalter again distributed playing time fairly evenly among the 11 man rotation he used today. Only two players logged 20 or more minutes (50% or greater of the playing time for a single position), the smallest playing time allocation, 15 minutes, equivalent to a 1½ periods or 37.5% of the playing time for a single position. Possessions, shooting and scoring followed the playing time, with nine players getting 19.7% or more of the possessions when each was on the floor, and five taking 20% or more of the shots when they were on the floor. no doubt contributed to evenly distributed shot percentages and possession rates among the five on the court. Five players took 20% or more of the available shots when they were on the court, while nine were credited with 20% or more of the possessions while they were playing.

Team Canada can draw some consolation in their board work today, matching Team USA for number of rebounds gathered, and snagging a higher percentage of their misses (34.8%) than any of Team USA's previous three opponents. Gordon pulled down a jaw-dropping 31.?% of the offensive boards when he was on the floor, while Pinson continues to gather extremely rates on the offensive boards. Okafor and Jon Williams also had a strong outing on the offensive glass. A sign of growing trust on the team perhaps, the assist rates have improved with each game. Against the Canadians it was a very encouraging 65.2%.

Who's Got Next?
Team USA is bound for the Tournament Finals. If the current scoring margin holds, the U16 USA team will play another game against Team Argentina. The Argentines currently hold a 19 point lead (71-52) over Team Puerto Rico with seven plus minutes left in the fourth period. The Gold Medal game will tip at 8:00pm (ET) tomorrow in Cancun.

FIBA Americas Cup 2011 -- USA Over Costa Rico, Advances to Medal Round

USA 118 - Costa Rico 46
Team USA held Team Costa Rico scoreless through the first period, 19-0 and continued their O'fer defensive run nearly eight minutes into the second period, taking the score to 35-0 before the Costa Ricans broke through with a two point goal. As suggested by the USA Basketball recap, by that time the game was well in hand, as the USA increased their lead to 52, 59-7 through the end of the second period. Though Costa Rico made the second half more competitive, losing the last two periods by a combined 20 points (59-39), it is doubtful that Coach Showalter let the first five-to-seven players in his rotation off the bench for that last 20 minutes. Four players, Justin Jackson (20), Aaron Gordon (23), Jon Williams (23) and Dom Collier (23) logged 20 or more minutes even as seven players scored 10 or more points. Guard Connor Frankcamp, as indicated by his post game comments, broke out of his shooting slump to pace Team USA with 22 points on 10-13 (8-8, 2-5) shooting. Aaron Gordon (18 points & 18 rebounds) and Theo Pinson (11 points & 10 rebounds) recorded double-doubles, Gordon was one assist and two blocks short of a quadruple-double. Costa Rico's Milton Jimenez Barrantes paced all scorers with 28 points on 10-29 (9-26, 1-3) from the floor and 7-11 from the line. Barrantes' 28 points was 60.9% of Costa Rico's scoring in the game. Crunching the game boxscore to develop some possession-based stats for the game...

						FTA
	Poss.	Eff.	eFG%	OR%	TO%	FGA
USA	92.0	1.28	63.5	50.0	16.3	7.9
Costa Rico		0.50	23.8	16.1	16.3	17.5

Team USA continues to push the pace yet post extremely efficient offensive (1.28 ppp) and defensive (0.50 ppp) point-per-possession rates. Evenly distributed playing time no doubt contributed to evenly distributed shot percentages and possession rates among the five on the court. Five players took 20% or more of the available shots when they were on the court, while nine were credited with 20% or more of the possessions while they were playing.

The team continues to dominate on the boards, gathering half of their misses to extend team possession. Okafor and particularly (for this game) Gordon and Parker(!) asserted themselves under the basket at both ends of the floor, while Pinson had a great night on the defensive end of the floor.

Everyone Out of the Pool
Group A & B standings going into action Thursday...

Group A				Group B
	W	L			W	L
Puerto Rico	2	0		USA	2	0
Canada	1	1		Argentina	1	1
Chile	1	1		Brazil	1	1
Mexico	0	2		Costa Rico	0	2

Team USA and Team Puerto Rico had clinched spots in the Medal Round with wins on Wednesday. Canada, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, knotted at 1-1 in their respective groups, had work to do on Thursday. Canada needed a win to clinch their spot in the Medal Round as they had already beaten Chile (on Monday). A loss to host Mexico would have knotted the Group A standings for the last three teams at 1-3, and opened the door for Team Chile, had they beaten Puerto Rico (admittedly not likely) to advance. A three way 1-2 tie in Group A would leave the last Group A spot in the Medal Round hanging on points and winning margins. Team Canada took control with a decisive 32 point win over Team Mexico 88-56. The Canadians will meet Team USA Friday at 6:00pm (ET) in the first semi-final game of the Medal Round. Resolution of the final standings in Group B came down to a shootout between Argentina and Brazil. Team Costa Rico, 0-2 with a combined margin of -141 through two games was slated to face Team USA in the 2:00pm game Thursday, with the outcome never in doubt. The winner of the Argentina-Brazil game at 6:00pm would advance as the second team out of Group B. The Argentines downed the Brazilians by eight, 85-77, and will face Team Puerto Rico at 9:00pm (ET) in the second semi-final game of the Medal Round. The final Pool standings...

Group A				Group B
	W	L			W	L
Puerto Rico	3	0		USA	3	0
Canada	2	1		Argentina	2	1
Chile	1	2		Brazil	1	2
Mexico	0	3		Costa Rico	0	3

Chile, Mexico, Brazil and Costa Rico will play two Classification Round games to determine places #5-#8. Team Chile will play Team Costa Rico (most likely at 2:00pm ET) Friday, followed by Team Brazil and host Mexico (at 4:00pm ET). The two semi-final medal round games will follow after the Classification games.

Who's Got Next?
The USA's U16 team will face Team Canada in the first semi-final Medal Round game Friday at 6:00pm. The Canadians logged a 2-1 record in Group A play to earn the A2 seed in Medal Round play, beating Chile and Mexico by a combined +79 points while losing by four to Team Puerto Rico (86-90).

FIBA Americas Cup 2011 -- USA Beats Argentina by 21

Leaping Big Hurdles
The second day of the Cancun tournament saw the U16 men's teams from the USA and Puerto Rico clinch their spots in the medal round with wins over their closest Pool competitors. The Puerto Rican team beat Team Canada by four points, 90-86 in a game that saw the Canadians lead by 10 after the first period and by one at the half. The Puerto Ricans stormed back in the third quarter to take control of the game, and hold off a Team Canada fourth quarter comeback to notch the win. Should Team Chile's 22 point third quarter lead over host Mexico hold up, Team Canada can clinch their spot with a win tomorrow (Thursday) irrespective of the other outcomes in their pool.

USA 102 - Argentina 81
That the margin of victory (21 points) is not as impressive as the gap over Team Brazil Tuesday (35) should worry no one, as Team Argentina was picked as the USA's strongest challenge in Pool B play. Argentina, favored to defeat Team Brazil in Pool B play Thursday, should advance to the medal round. Jabari Parker, for the second consecutive game, led all scorers, this time with a 21 point outing on 10-20 (1-5, 9-15) shooting from the field. Team Argentina led Team USA by a point, 23-22 at the end of an opening period, that saw three ties and three lead changes in the 10 minute period. The American's second period 30-11 outburst brought them the lead perminantly. Team USA used the third period to push the lead out to 19, and they floated on a 20+ point cushion through much of the fourth period. Six of Parker's teammates, Kendrick Nunn, a 6-1 guard and teammate at Simeon High School, Chicago (14 points), along with Larry Austin (11 points) and four others (Jahlil Okafor, Theo Pinson, Tyus Jones and Aaron Gordon) who recorded 10 points apiece, also scored double digits points. A good sign the scoring was fairly evenly distributed this outing. Okafor made it a double-double with 11 (5-6-11) rebounds. This was the second double digit scoring night for Parker, Gordon and Okafor. Crunching the game boxscore to develop some possession-based stats for the game...

						FTA
	Poss.	Eff.	eFG%	OR%	TO%	FGA
USA	91.9	1.11	54.6	47.5	21.8	67.5
Argentina		0.88	41.9	35.5	22.8	59.4

Like the Brazil game, the pace continues to look very NBA-like rather than high school or (Division 1) college ball in the USA. The team continues to record +1.00 points per possession (ppp) while simultaneously limiting opponents to < 0.90 ppp while running at 90+ possessions rate is promising. The Americans continued to shoot an encouraging 54.6% (eFG%) from the field while nearly matching their Brazil-game tendancy to get to the line (47.5% FTA Rate). Team USA's turnover rate (21.8%) continues to trouble. Argentina's turnover rate, at 23.8% is definitely down from Brazil's 32% rate. Perhaps this will prove to be a vulnerability in the medal rounds, but for the Costa Rico game, it should not be a problem. The USA continues to get to the line easily (more close-in scoring -- note that the percentage of 3FGAs to 2FGAs was 15.8%, a clear sign that Team USA goes inside for it's scoring opportunities.

On the boards, Okafor's "normal" strong effort was complemented by matching efforts from Theo Pinson and Nunn, especially under the Argentina's basket.

Next
The U16 team will close out Pool B play with a tilt against Team Costa Rico. Given the Costa Ricans are 0-2 with a combined margin of -141 points, the Americans should win comfortably. Coach Showalter will most likely give the 10-12 rotation players some run, resting Gordon, Jackson, Nunn, Okafor and Parker after a short warmup interval.

FIBA Americas Cup 2011 -- USA Downs Brazil to Open Tournament

Opening Day in Cancun
The eight team field of FIBA U16 Americas Cup Tournament opened with three blowouts. The closest match was a 10 point Puerto Rico win over host Mexico (78-68), the second game played between the two in 48 hours. Of the three blowouts, the average margin of victory was 60.7 points, with Argentina's pasting of Costa Rico, 130-28, the most lopsided of the four game set. USA's 35 point win over Brazil, 105-70, seems almost mundane.

USA 105 - Brazil 70
Paced by Jabari Parker's 21 points through the first half, the USA built a comfortable 14 point lead, 33-19, in the first quarter, and then pummeled the Brazilians with a 22-3 second quarter rout, taking a 33 point, 55-22, lead into the half. The Brazilians won the third and fourth quarters to chip the final margin down to a 30 USA win. Jabari Parker, a 6-6 forward out of Simeon High School in Chicago, Ill, led Team USA with a double-double, scoring 27 points on 9-10 (7-7, 2-3) shooting from the field to go with a 2-2 performance at the line. Parker also snagged 10 rebounds (2-8-10) to lead the team in those two categories. Three other Americans, Jahlil Okafor (19 points), Stanley Johnson (14 points) and Aaron Gordon (11 points) scored in double digits. Luis Maia, from Sao Paulo, paced the Brazilians with 16 points on 5-6 (5-6, 0-0) shooting from the field and 6-12 shooting from the line. Crunching the game boxscore to develop some possession-based stats for the game...

						FTA
	Poss.	Eff.	eFG%	OR%	TO%	FGA
USA	95.3	1.10	55.0	35.9	23.8	45.7
Brazil		0.73	45.8	27.3	32.2	41.7

The pace more closely resembles the NBA than high school or (Division 1) college ball in the USA. 95 possessions is rare even in exhibition games. The Americans shot an encouraging 55% (eFG%) from the field and managed to get to the line about once for every two Field goal attempts against a team that would be very competitive in Pool A. Of Team USA's offensive four factors, the turnover rate (23.1%) is troubling. Though partially negated by Brazil's own problems with turnovers (a whopping 31.4%), against a better shooting (and more steal-oriented?) opponent, that could spell trouble. Some possession-based stats for the individual players...

	Percent				Percent			FTA
Player	Min	Poss.	Shot	PPWS	eFG%	OReb	TO	FTA
Conner Frankamp	27.5	29.7	31.2	0.67	33.3	0.0	12.8	0.0
Justin Jackson	60.0	16.8	19.0	1.07	50.0	0.0	20.8	12.5
Tyus Jones	32.5	7.3	4.4	2.00	100.0	0.0	44.2	0.0
Larry Austin	45.0	25.1	12.7	0.99	25.0	0.0	27.9	175.0
Kendrick Nunn	57.5	23.3	24.8	0.60	15.0	0.0	7.9	40.0
Dom Collier	15.0	7.0	9.5	0.00	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Aaron Gordon	57.5	26.4	14.9	1.21	83.3	8.7	34.5	116.7
Jabari Parker	50.0	24.7	28.6	1.93	100.0	10.0	8.5	90.0
Stanley Johnson	52.5	28.2	29.9	1.18	54.5	9.5	21.3	18.2
Johnathan Williams	32.5	12.1	8.8	1.33	50.0	7.7	0.0	200.0
Jahlil Okafor	70.0	27.0	22.4	1.39	63.6	14.3	27.8	54.5

A quick look at the percentage of minutes played suggests that Coach Don Showalter will continue to go with a deep (9-10 man) rotation, even against a team as potential competitive as Brazil, a team that will most likely compete for the 5/6 place spot in the last game of the tournament. The coach has 5-6 realistic offensive options available, good news given this is a tournament that will play five games over five days. A look at some of the defensive and secondary stats:

Player	% Min	DR%	A Rate
Conner Frankamp	27.5	14.3	48.9
Justin Jackson	60.0	13.1	0.0
Tyus Jones	32.5	0.0	18.1
Larry Austin	45.0	8.7	25.6
Kendrick Nunn	57.5	6.8	4.9
Dom Collier	15.0	0.0	0.0
Aaron Gordon	57.5	13.6	24.6
Jabari Parker	50.0	31.4	0.0
Stanley Johnson	52.5	7.5	0.0
Johnathan Williams	32.5	24.1	0.0
Jahlil Okafor	70.0	2.8	0.0

Okafor's defensive rebounding may be the explanation for his additional playing time. It may be a short sighted strategy however, as Okafor's rebounding may be more needed later in the tournament against Puerto Rico and Canada. Frankamp, a 6-0 guard out of Wichita North High School, Wichita Kansas, along with Larry Austin (a 6-1 guard out of Springfield, Ill) and Tyus Jones (a 6-0 guard out of Apple Valley, MN) appear to be comfortable distributing the ball, a good sign given the team has scorers in the front court. Aaron Gordon, a 6-8 low post player out of San Jose, California also appears to be willing to throw the ball back out to a perimeter shooter when the situation calls for it.

Next
The men's team will take on current pool leader Argentina today at 6:00pm (eastern daylight) in an early pool showdown. The Argentines beat Costa Rico 130-28 to open tournament play yesterday.

FIBA U17 World Championship -- USA After Pool Play

AAU Studs
The U17 American squad that emerged Wednesday from Pool play with a 5-0 record, should be familiar to anyone who follows the High School recruiting circuit for Division 1 basketball. Conventional Wisdom posits that USA squads dominate world play until (roughly) the U19/U21 tournaments, tournaments where athleticism and individual talent can dominate the completition. FIBA-sponsored tournaments of older teams (U19/U21, Pan American Games, etc. (other) national teams, comprised largely of more developed players who bought into team play concepts have seen more success versus the individually talented USA squads.

Date/Opponent	USA	Opp.
7/2 vs Argentina	82	70
7/3 vs Lithuania	102	66
7/4 vs China	113	73
7/5 vs Egypt	132	64
7/6 vs Serbia	112	75

The team lost to the Russian U18 team in a pre-tournament warm-up game -- their early play versus the Argentines (a country whose older teams have challenged the USA at times...) was tentative -- but they hit their stride as pool play progressed. Against the better teams in the pool, the Serbs, the Lithuanians and Argentines -- the scoring margins suggest this squad follows the established pattern: early talent and athleticism dominate. Taking a deeper, "four factors" snapshot of the five pool games the USA played through July 7...

vs Argentina					FTA
	Pace	Eff	eFG%	PPWS	FGA	OR%	TO%
Offense	90.2	90.9	41.1	0.94	42.5	46.0	28.8
Defense		77.6	44.5	0.95	32.8	19.0	27.7
vs Lithuania					FTA
	Pace	Eff	eFG%	PPWS	FGA	OR%	TO%
Offense	93.1	109.6	62.3	1.26	24.7	34.3	26.9
Defense		70.9	38.7	0.88	46.8	27.7	32.2
vs China					FTA
	Pace	Eff	eFG%	PPWS	FGA	OR%	TO%
Offense	93.8	120.5	54.6	1.14	31.0	40.4	17.1
Defense		77.9	48.3	1.04	38.3	40.5	38.4
vs Egypt					FTA
	Pace	Eff	eFG%	PPWS	FGA	OR%	TO%
Offense	99.0	133.3	63.0	1.29	25.0	35.7	12.1
Defense		64.6	34.6	0.69	32.1	32.3	26.3
vs Serbia					FTA
	Pace	Eff	eFG%	PPWS	FGA	OR%	TO%
Offense	82.8	135.4	59.1	1.21	44.2	48.7	13.3
Defense		90.6	51.5	1.02	24.2	35.7	27.8
Average					FTA
	Pace	Eff	eFG%	PPWS	FGA	OR%	TO%
Offense	91.8	117.9	56.0	1.17	33.5	41.0	19.6
Defense		76.3	43.5	0.92	34.9	31.0	30.5

The pace -- possessions per game estimate -- jumps out. The possession rate is far closer to the NBA (and AAU tournament circuit) than D1 (about 66-67 possessions on average). The American squad has dominated by running...and then running some more. They have scored very efficiently in a transition-oriented offense. Consider that each team gets about 92 possessions, that is 184 possessions in 40 minutes, or about 13 seconds per possession per team. Team USA's opponents, down early, are forced to play in the American system, but they have been unable to keep up. Note that Argentina, the closest by margin game of the competition, actually converted their shots more efficiently than Team USA. The Americans won however, because they significantly outrebounded the Argentines (the Argentine shooting was largely one-and-done on their possessions), thus giving themselves 2 and at times, 3 opportunities to score in a possession. Later teams (China and Serbia) were more competitive on the boards, but were outshot by the Americans, who had found their zone in the second and third pool games.

Player Snapshots
The squad members have been fixtures on the AAU circuit for the past two summers, and will no doubt entertain fans of a number of D1 colleges (unless Coach Cal gets them all...) beginning in the fall of 2011...

							FTA
Player	%Min	Poss%	Shot%	eFG%	PPWS	OR%	FGA
Justin Anderson	21.5	21.5	23.1	70.0	1.39	10.9	10.0
Brad Beal	61.5	24.4	23.1	64.0	1.33	3.8	26.3
Quinn Cook	55.0	22.9	15.4	60.3	1.27	5.1	14.7
Andre Drummond	27.8	26.7	26.5	63.6	1.23	18.2	18.2
Michael Gilchrist	51.5	23.5	18.4	63.2	1.39	10.0	68.4
James McAdoo	52.0	21.8	22.5	66.0	1.29	11.7	29.8
Johnny O'Bryant	35.5	21.2	13.3	21.1	0.81	10.6	94.7
Tony Parker	16.0	24.4	24.9	62.5	1.31	11.7	43.8
Chasson Randle	34.0	18.9	21.2	70.7	1.40	9.7	6.9
Marquis Teague	47.0	28.3	18.0	32.4	0.84	0.0	58.8
Adonis Thomas	45.5	26.6	24.6	38.9	0.82	8.3	13.3
Tony Wroten	49.5	20.2	15.1	45.0	0.99	4.7	40.0

The squad's offensive domination has masked the shooting struggles of Teague, O'Bryant, Wroten and Thomas (see eFG% and PPWS). For Teague, Wroten and O'Bryant, free throw conversions have mitigated their 32.5% conversion rate (FGM%) from the floor. Some additional secondary possession-based stats...

Player	Ast%	TO%	DR%	Blk%	Stl%
Justin Anderson	6.3	14.2	18.2	6.6	8.4
Brad Beal	12.1	14.5	7.8	4.6	6.5
Quinn Cook	39.6	24.2	7.9	0.0	4.6
André Drummond	6.9	17.7	32.3	13.8	2.3
Michael Gilchrist	14.4	14.4	21.1	3.7	4.2
James McAdoo	3.9	9.6	18.4	8.2	8.4
Johnny O'Bryant	4.3	17.4	14.7	0.0	7.2
Tony Parker	4.3	5.6	27.2	5.9	0.0
Chasson Randle	5.7	10.2	9.0	0.0	4.3
Marquis Teague	31.1	22.9	9.3	0.0	7.7
Adonis Thomas	7.6	14.4	7.6	2.1	5.6
Tony Wroten	18.7	17.4	2.6	0.0	12.5

If Quinn Cook's assist rate -- 39.6% -- is indicative of his play, some D1 coach will be very happy come 2011. I first tracked this number in the Lithuanian game, and at that time it was over 40%. He has several games in the 45+ range. That means that on 45% of the field goals made, Cook is (while he is on the floor) the last player before the shooter, to touch the ball. Note this is on a team that scores most of it's points in transition, which suggests that Cook takes the ball, brings the ball over mid-court and (after several passes back-and-forth? Not likely...) finds a player in scoring position and gets him the ball...in about 13 seconds. Unlike U18 Coach Jeff Capel, who worked to distribute the minutes, Coach Don Showalter has consistenly played his starting five (Quinn Cook, James McAdoo, Johnny O'Bryant, Adonis Thomas and Brad Beal) for 50%-55% of the available minutes. Drummond, Gilchrist and Parker may be very effective on both offensive and defensive boards, but Michael Gilchrist is the only one of the trio to see 50% of the minutes at his position.

How adept is the squad at playing at lower pace? We may not find out, unless the hot hands (Gilchrist, Beal and McAddo have done nicely as primary offensive options, Anderson, Cook, Drummond, Parker and Randle have done very well as secondary options) cool considerably, we may not find out. The Europeans prefer a more deliberately paced motion offense, and, entering the one-and-done play of the medal rounds, the American become more vulnerable to this slower style. If the Americans can keep running, they may well run every other team out of the gym.

Next...
Team USA, the 1^st in Group A will meet Australia, the 4^th seed from Group B on Friday July 9, in one of four medal quarterfinal games. The Australians earned a 3-2 record in pool play over the last week, beating #3 seed Germany, #5 seed Spain and #6 seed South Korea, while losing to #1 seed Poland and #2 seed Canada.