That was so tough to watch that lead slip away in OT. Had they managed to pull it out in OT and go on to qualify for the Olympics, that final minute of the 4th could have become the all-time iconic moment for the national basketball program.
It's so important for the program going forward that these young guys (Wiggins, Barrett, NAW) come back next time. I don't think it got much attention that Cory Joseph was the only guy to play in both the 2019 worlds and this tournament. Hard to build any chemistry with that level of inconsistency in the roster. I hope at least that this was a good learning opportunity for them and they realize how important playing the full 40 minutes is in this sort of tournament.
Qualifying for the next Olympics begins next year with the Americas qualifying tournaments for the Worlds. We need to qualify for the Olympics through the worlds next time and stop putting ourselves in unnecessary must-win situations. At least we should move up the world rankings a bit with our win over 6th-ranked Greece, but missing out on even getting to the finals of this tournament limits how much we can move up. That world-ranking is important because it goes into the draw for groups and tournaments like this. Had we won more games in recent years and moved ourselves into a higher world-ranking, we wouldn't have gotten slotted into a draw with 3 top 15 teams. One good international tournament would change the fortunes of this program so much.
The U19 team is exciting too. Elijah Fisher is such a high-level talent, and there are a bunch of other great guys on the team... and they're missing Josh Primo who's in the NBA draft process and is the top guy we have at that age right now. And with three guys who likely will measure 7'0 or better, it's a group with really great size. Hopefully a couple of them reach their potential and help fix the size deficit we have on the senior team.
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