Five-ring circus: The Thread of the XXXIII Olympiad

Probably worth 9 points and see you back in Medicine Hat. But whatevs.

 

They are fully capable of winning Gold. And that would be a wild story.

 

Maybe not so wild. A 16 beating a 1 in the NCAAs assumes the 1's path, or basically an 8 or a 4 or anyone else pulling an upset in a fixed knockout bracket.

 

Just getting out of the group required the stars to align perfectly.

 

Detroit finished second to Mexico City in the balloting for the 1968 Olympics.

 

If something happens to Colin Jost on the way back from Tahiti - obviously I hope it doesn't, but if it did , He's had a pretty good life.

 

I said in the WNBA thread that Cairlyn should have been on the 3x3 team. And with the Brink injury, they had the opportunity to shuffle the deck. Now I don't think Caitlyn's defense is anything special, but she has two things you want in 3x3 -- the ability to blow past a defender off the dribble and the ability to shoot from anywhere, which would strike so much fear in her defender, that she'd be able to blow past her whenever she wanted.

Funny thing is the 3x3 team that won gold in Tokyo was perfect. They had Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum to handle the backcourt and take defenders off the dribble, they had Alisha Gray to hit the mid-range and drive the lane and Stefanie Dolson to clean up the trash. Just rinse and repeat that formula until something changes.

As for the men, that's more difficult because there's no spacing. The refs aren't calling anything, so they could've used a hatchet man that is strong on the glass, but they definitely need better shooters.

 

Clark didn't play any fiba 3x3 qualifying

 

Are they using the FIBA rankings for these games? i thought that was one of the things they were not completely sold on doing with the short Olympic cycle.