[NU Sports] Self-promotion

[Alan Abrahamson]

So I really was wearing a purple Northwestern shirt around the Youth Olympic
Games venues in Singapore here a couple days ago -- that's the only Wildcat
reference I can muster to try to slip this post past Mr. Nolan.

That said, I've launched my own Olympic- and international sports-related
website -- it's at http://3wiresports.com. All clicks and word-of-mouth
gratefully appreciated.

Here's today's column for those so inclined and go Wildcats!

Alan

--

http://3wiresports.com/2010/08/20/teen-team-32-central-african-republic-28/

By Alan Abrahamson
3 Wire Sports
Teen team 32, Central African Republic 28
August 20, 2010Alan Abrahamson<http://3wiresports.com/author/alanabrahamson/>
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SINGAPORE -- If Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James were to suit up
and play a little three-on-three against the three best guys the Central
African Republic had to offer, what would the final score be?

Would the spectacle call to mind the routs the U.S. Dream Team laid on the
rest of the world at the Barcelona Games in 1992? Would the spirit of
Charles Barkley show up to elbow another skinny African?

Meaning no disrespect of any sort to Angelo Chol, Sterling Gibbs and Brandan
Kearney, the three Americans who played Thursday — a fourth, Kyle Caudill
subbing in for all of 37 seconds — they were in no position to joke about
anything after a preliminary-round game over the Central African Republic.

Final score: USA 32, Central African Republic 28.
 <http://3wiresports.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/17233736.jpg>

American Brandan Kearney driving against the Central African Republic //
Photo: Youth Olympic Games News Service

This is already what it has come to, the Americans barely squeaking by a
country most Americans have never heard of (landlocked, central part of the
continent, bordered by Chad, Sudan, Cameroon and two other nations, both of
which feature the word “Congo” in their names).

This is also exactly the kind of thing basketball’s international governing
agency, FIBA, was hoping this first-ever Youth Games 3-on-3 tourney would
yield.

The only thing better would have been if the Central African Republic guys
had actually won.

Mind you, at FIBA they’re not rooting against the Americans.

They’re rooting for the game.

And — they can’t, won’t and don’t say this, but it’s incredibly obvious  —
the game wins when the Americans lose.

For the Americans, even allowing that it’s American 17-year-olds, to beat
the Central African Republic by only four — that’s a result that’s “really
great and that excites people,” Patrick Baumann, the general-secretary of
FIBA and an International Olympic Committee member, said.

“That excites the players. They will go back home and say, ‘Yes, we can beat
the U.S.’ For everyone, the U.S. is the team to beat.”
 <http://3wiresports.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/172337281.jpg>

American Angelo Chol (right) consoles Neil Wilfried Londoumon after the
32-28 USA victory over the Central African Republic // Photo: Youth Olympic
Games News Service

Prince Albert of Monaco dropped by the tourney venue, the *scape Youth
Space, on Thursday. (That’s the name: *scape. Cool space, with a skate park
and other amenities. Dumb name.) He said of 3-on-3, “It’s fast-paced.
There’s a lot of skill involved — I mean, all the necessary skills and
physical abilities for normal basketball. But it’s just a shorter game — but
a very intense one …”

Absent the likes of Kobe, Dwyane and LeBron, in 3-on-3 pretty much anything
can happen. The game is so fast — two five-minute periods — and so
fast-paced that one scoring run can virtually seal the deal.

The four-point American victory, Baumann said, was “an amazingly exciting
game.”

As was Serbia’s 31-30 victory over Puerto Rico.

And, also in the boys’ preliminary round, Egypt’s 33-31 upset over
Lithuania.
 <http://3wiresports.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/17209530.jpg>

Egyptian coach Wessam El Diasty with his boys after 33-31 win over
Lithuania. Left to right: Assem Elgindy, Ahmed Karkoura, Khaled Ibrahim //
Photo: Youth Olympic Games News Service

Though there is still roughly a week to run in the Youth Games, it’s already
abundantly clear that 3-on-3 — which coming in was one of the most
intriguing YOG format experiments — will be one of the major takeaways in
all the Singapore debriefs.

“I think it’s just what these Games needed,” Prince Albert, who is also an
IOC member and who took part in five Winter Games in the bobsled, said.

For one, the 3-on-3 game gives countries with little or no basketball
heritage a chance against the Americans and Lithuanians, who do.

As Baumann said, it’s one thing to expect India to find 12 guys with the
skills to run with the NBA professionals in the Summer Games; it’s quite
another in a country of more than one billion people to find just three guys
who can shoot jumpers and who thus might be able to give anyone a game.

Then there’s this: Basketball is already popular worldwide. Why? In part
because Michael Jordan and the other Dream Teamers helped make it so. Also,
you can play without much of an investment. A ball, a backboard, a rim and
you’re good to go.

Even so, as FIBA figures it, there are fewer than 50 million people formally
affiliated with clubs and teams; officials conservatively estimate there are
10 times that many people already playing, many in developing nations. The
3-on-3 format would seem a natural for drawing in all that new talent.

A game like 3-on-3 is played on a half-court and thus involves one net and
backboard, not two; it requires only six players, not 10; and it’s fast, so
you can play it in the afternoon and still get home and do your homework at
night. Or do your homework, eat dinner and go back out.

The rules are simple: Both teams score in one hoop. Ten-second shot clock.
No time-outs. You can win before the end of the second five-minute period by
reaching 33.

Baumann was asked Friday if 3-on-3 might someday be part of the traditional
Olympic program. Not anytime soon, he made plain.

Then again, the odds are extremely good you’ll undoubtedly see it in London
in 2012, and probably in Rio in 2016 too, as part of the halftime shows, a
FIBA effort to build buzz for the format. You’re likely to see a boys’ game
at one end, a girls’ at the other; you’ll hear lots of loud rock music
blaring away.

That’s the action here.

Now: Can the Americans win out at these first-ever Youth Games? The boys get
Spain in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

Anything can happen. As Baumann said, “In this game, you have a chance.”