USA Basketball Avoids Disaster Thanks To A Retired Coach And G League Names

I know not a whole lot of people care about this, but there was a very important basketball game on involving Team USA. More importantly it was a basketball game that Team USA desperately needed to win in order to avoid disaster of 2004 levels.

I’ve talked about it a handful of times. The way FIBA World Cup qualifying changed their schedule completely changed how Team USA goes about fielding teams for it. They set up qualifying similar to how soccer does it. A couple of games in a month spread out over about 18 months. All but these last two games take place during the NBA schedule and unlike soccer, the NBA isn’t going to stop their schedule to let players play for their country.

So that means USA had to field a team with names that you may not remember since their college days. Take for instance the group that just won two massive games against Uruguay and Panama. It was included the likes of Henry Ellenson, Frank Mason, Reggie Hearn, Chasson Randle, Dakari Johnson, Derrick White, Dwayne Bacon, Travis Trice, Bryce Alford, Ben Moore, Jameel Warner and Isaiah Hicks. That’s not exactly the Dream Team.

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But, they did what they had to do. Dominate two games and win. USA is in Group E of FIBA Americas qualifying. They are in the same group with Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, Panama and Puerto Rico. The top-3 teams from the Group automatically qualify for the World Cup in China next season. That’s where we’ll see the names that we know playing.

The US is currently 7-1, tied with Argentina for first in the group. If we would have lost to Uruguay we’d be tied with them at 6-2 and Puerto Rico is sitting at 5-3. That wouldn’t exactly be best case scenario considering the US has games left against Argentina (twice), Uruguay, Puerto Rico (twice) and Panama. If the US beats Argentina it’s all but a lock for the US to advance since Puerto Rico and Panama (both 5-3) play and the loser will be 3 games back of first.

So thanks to Jeff Van Gundy and the hodgepodge roster. They are giving us Team USA playing in China next summer and the Olympics in 2020.