FIBA Americas - World Championship Qualifying Tournament

[Manu'sMagicalLeftHand]

Venezuela got their first victory, a 100-91 win over Canada.

Boxscore

In progress:
Uruguay 38
vs. Mexico 33

And, later in the last game of the day, Argentina faces a tough challenge, Puerto Rico. They'll play without Carlos Arroyo, but the rest of their key players will be there (Peter John Ramos, Rick Apodaca, Elias Ayuso, Antonio Latimer, Karim Fajardo, etc.).

In other news, Anderson Varejao had to leave the game against the US, with an elbow injury. No news on his status yet.

Tomorrow USA plays against Canada, Brazil against Panama, and Argentina will have a day off.

[Kori Ellis]

In other news, Anderson Varejao had to leave the game against the US, with an elbow injury. No news on his status yet.

Cavs' Varejao dislocates shoulder

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) -- Brazilian forward Anderson Varejao will miss the rest of the Americas World Championship qualifying tournament after dislocating his right shoulder on Thursday in Brazil's 96-94 loss to the United States.

Varejao, an energetic rookie last season with the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, was elbowed by U.S. forward Aaron McGhee while fighting for a rebound with two minutes remaining.

He immediately grabbed his right shoulder and left the court grimacing in pain. The U.S. won the game with three last-second free throws by Lynn Greer.

"The initial diagnostic is that he needs 15 days of rest," Brazilian coach Lula Ferreira said after the game. "It's a hard blow for us."

Brazil is the favorite in the 10-team tournament, which began on Wednesday and ends on Sep. 4.

[JMarkJohns]

Paging Tiago Splitter.

Bad loss for Brazil. Love what Barbosa's doing, but understand it's against inferior compe ion for the most part, though, Bell is a solid player (All-Star in Europe) and Edney should be in the League.

If all this does is give Barbosa his confidense back, it'll be huge.

He was completely lossed last year. The 5 assists tonight (and 5.5 average) was most encouraging of all the stats.

[Kori Ellis]

Brazil dominated the US in the warmup games in Brazil last week. But the USA team thinks they are coming together as a team, so perhaps they are getting better. I really thought they'd lose today .. very good win.

[kolko]

First victory for Argentina, 96-79 over Puerto Rico.

[Kori Ellis]

USA is getting killed by Canada so far today - 40-24. No one is doing much for US - Lynn Greer has six points. Alex Scales has only 2 points and Noel hasn't played yet.

[Manu'sMagicalLeftHand]

@halftime:

CAN 49
USA 28

Canada is owning USA lately (U-21 World Championships), but it ain't over yet, there's plenty of time left for the Canadians to collapse.

[Kori Ellis]

Noel told me after they played this Canada team in Brazil that they are incredibly physical. He said that they have one big guy who seriously tries to hurt people to keep them out of the post. So I'm sure he's thrilled that he hasn't got much playing time this game. I hope he doesn't play in the second half.

[CubanMustGo]

Crap. Canada doing the US in basketball ... that must be how they felt when we finally beat them in hockey.

59-34 Canucks about halfway through the 3rd. Whoever Denham Brown and Juan Mendez are, they're killing the Yanks.

[Kori Ellis]

Denham Brown is a 6'5 shooting guard who went to UConn. I don't know about Mendez -- he doesn't sound Canadian to me

[CubanMustGo]

Mendez plays for Niagara U ... lives in Montreal. 6'8", 245#, senior. "...Needs 323 points to pass Michael Meeks of Canisius (1993-96) as Canada’s career scoring leader in Division I." Like that's a hotly contested category, but the young man seems to have some skills.

http://www.purpleeagles.com/sports/m...?PLAYER_ID=875

[Manu'sMagicalLeftHand]

Wow, I think I know who the beater is Kori. Canada's Richard Anderson, he fought for a loose ball with Mc Ghee, and a brawl almost breaks out. He also made some hard fouls in defence.

Noel Felix has entered the game, 4th. quarter: CAN 74- USA 56.

[Kori Ellis]

Canada's Richard Anderson, he fought for a loose ball with Mc Ghee, and a brawl almost breaks out. He also made some hard fouls in defence.

Yeah that must be who it is. Noel hated playing Canada when they were in Brazil because of it. He said all their players felt like they were in danger of getting injured by that guy.

[Manu'sMagicalLeftHand]

USA made a last run but it wasn't enough. The Canadians played very well at both ends of the court, while the US had an awful game.

Final score:
USA 76
CAN 92

[Kori Ellis]

Oh well they aren't in bad position, thanks to that miraculous victory over Brazil. Lynn Greer seems to be the only US player who had a decent game. Even though other players put up some stats, it was in garbage time. It looks like the US really sucked in the first half. For the game, 19 turnovers and only nine assists isn't going to cut it.

[Manu'sMagicalLeftHand]

Oh well they aren't in bad position, thanks to that miraculous victory over Brazil. Lynn Greer seems to be the only US player who had a decent game. Even though other players put up some stats, it was in garbage time. It looks like the US really sucked in the first half.

Yes, their two previous wins puts them in a position where they can lose their remaining game and still advance to the next round. However, the results of the first round affect the standings in the secound round.

Scales and Bell were Missing In Action, after they had a good couple of games.

[reader]

Just noticed one of the U21 players on the Canadian team, Kendall, he is the guy who scored 40 pts against the U21 US team. Guess he got the call-up.

[Trainwreck2100]

[Kori Ellis]

US just lost 71-70 to Venezuela. By the online play-by-play: The US was down by 3 with 26 seconds left. Noel hit two free throws to make it down 1. There was a turnover by Venezuela to give the US the ball back but Charlie Bell committed a turnover at the end and they lost.

Did anyone watch this game to know why Alex Scales didn't play??

[Nikos]

Do you have a link Kori? Why does the USA have these kind of players on the team?

[Kori Ellis]

Do you have a link Kori? Why does the USA have these kind of players on the team?

They supposedly picked the best non-NBA players for the tournament. They wanted a lot of guys who had FIBA experience.

Go to http://www.usabasketball.com for all the info on the team, etc
Go to http://www.fibaamericas.com/torneos1...p?t=XGLQKBLQOI for info on the tournament.

USA will already go to the 2nd round with their record (8 teams advance to round 2).

They need to be in the top 4 teams (not counting Argentina) at the end of the tournament to qualify for the World Championship.

[Nikos]

Why are they having so much trouble with Cananda and Ven? Flores, Denham, and Mendez are solid sure. But Isn't Denham not even NBA calibur and Mendez? Why are they schooling these guys?

[Kori Ellis]

Why are they having so much trouble with Cananda and Ven? Flores, Denham, and Mendez are solid sure. But Isn't Denham not even NBA calibur and Mendez? Why are they schooling these guys?

Well the US should have got killed by Brazil, so I guess it all evens out.

Canada beats them up - they banged them around quite a bit in the warmup games in Brazil too.

I don't know what happened today with Venezuela - I haven't talked to anyone who was there (or even watched it) yet. But Alex Scales is one of the USA's leading scorers and he didn't play today. That probably had something to do with it.

[FreshPrince22]

Does anyone know why guys like Ginobili, Delfino, Nocioni, Scola, etc aren't playing for the Argentina National team? Are they just saving them for the real tournament? I really have no idea how it works, I am just wondering if Carlos Delfino will be playing during the tournament? I know he left the Pistons summer league early to go there, but I haven't been able to find any other info.
________
Best whip vaporizer

[Kori Ellis]

Does anyone know why guys like Ginobili, Delfino, Nocioni, Scola, etc aren't playing for the Argentina National team? Are they just saving them for the real tournament? I really have no idea how it works, I am just wondering if Carlos Delfino will be playing during the tournament? I know he left the Pistons summer league early to go there, but I haven't been able to find any other info.

Argentina is already qualified for the World Championships by virtue of winning the Olympics. So this tournament for them is for no reason. They have to play in it, but they don't count toward the four teams that advance. So they have no reason to risk sending their best players.

I don't think Delfino is on this team.