Greece blows it against Spain

After being competitive the entire game against the defending world champs -  and then taking the lead in the 3rd quarter - Ellas lost their concentration and blew it against Spain this afternoon in the first leg of the knockout round of the 2010 World Championships in Constantinople.

Greece took a four-point lead late in the third behind the shooting and defense of Dimitris Diamantidis. But midway through the final quarter Greece turned it over 3 straight possessions to literally hand the game to Spain.  The turnovers were the result of incredibly sloppy passes, more unforced errors than turnovers.  

Down the stretch Greece looked uber-European in a basketball sense: no concentration, which manifested itself in a 7 for 16 night at the free throw line; and terrible decisions and bad passes, a simple lack of basketball sense that is the biggest difference between American and European players - we are just smarter and concentrate more than they do.

Greece bows out way too early, in the round of 32, instead of competing for a medal.  Both Greece and Spain underachieved in the group stage; that's why they met so soon. Greece ended up third in their group behind Turkey and Russia - a team they should have beaten.  Doing so would have meant a second place finish and more importantly avoiding Spain.

So instead of defending their silver medal from 4 years ago Greece goes home way too early.  It looks like Ellas really missed the back court play of Theo Papaloukas, a smart point guard who rarely made mistakes in leading Greece to the 2005 European championship and the silver medal in the 2006 world championships, including the semi-final win over the U.S.

The good news out of the world championships is the play of the U.S.  Spain may give US a  game, but the US has played very well and should win the gold in a walk.

Wide World of Sports

Lots of post-Strasburg sports news to focus on, including a smorgasbord of baseball, world basketball championships and more bad news, this time from Carolina.

Nationals Notes

Another weird week for the Nats.  The up side for me was the pitching of Jordan Zimmermann.  In his second start after "Steven Strasburg" surgery (formerly known as Tommy John surgery) Zimmermann was dominant is striking out 9 Marlins in six innings of one-hit, shutout ball.  It's only one start, but some good ju-ju for Nats fans contemplating Strasburg's return from the same surgery.

With Zimmermann's return, the signing of Bryce Harper, the September call up of Danny Espinosa, the minor league progress of Cuban pitcher Yunesky Maya and catcher Wilson Ramos, the second half progress of Ian Desmond, Roger Bernadina, Michael Morse, and Drew Storen, plus Gold Glove/Silver Slugger/Face of the Franchise Ryan Zimmerman there is legitimate light at the end of the Dr. Yoakum's scalpel.  

In 2012 Nats, fans could have a young, exciting and legit line up of CF Carl Crawford (would love to sign that guy from Tampa Bay), SS Desmond, 3B Zimmerman, 1B Dunn/Someone Like Him, LF/!B Morse, RF Harper, CF Bernadina, 2B Espinosa, C Ramos, complimented by a starting rotation of Strasburg, Zimmermann, Maya, Ross Detwiler and John Lannan, with Storen closing with help from set up men Sean Burnett, Tyler Clippard, Garrett Mock, and Colin Balester.  

Of course, one name missing from that list of man of the hour, Nyjer Morgan. I'm all over the place with Nyjer.  

Frankly, he lost me on the inside the park home run he 'gave up' to the Orioles' Adam Jones by slamming his glove on the ground in disgust after missing a deep drive.  I say he gave it up because even though he failed to make the catch, the ball did NOT clear the fence.  But instead of finding the ball he slammed his glove down in a fit of pique. Morgan never found the ball, and by the time left fielder Josh Willingham came over to throw the ball back in Jones had an inside-the-park home run.  

Morgan's concentration and production seemed to go south shortly after than unprofessional play.  His on base percentage, base running, and fielding suffered but things really came unglued in the last few weeks.  First he was accused of throwing a ball at a fan in Philadelphia.  Of course, Phillies fans are pains in the Manasses, but a professional DOES not do that.  There have been a few eyewitnesses who exonerate Morgan, but MLB did suspend him 7 games.

That suspension was on appeal when Morgan collided with not one but two catchers. The first collision, against the Cardinals, was just odd.  He bumped the Cards' catcher Bryan Anderson even though there was no throw home. Of course, he connected with Anderson but missed home plate. Morgan was eventually ruled out after Ivan Rodriguez grabbed him and pushed him towards home so he could eventually step on the plate, which is against the rules. Morgan's play was at best odd, at worst stupid.

Instead of trying to bump the catcher, Morgan should have slid and scored.  But Morgan did not seem to learn that lesson; two nights later instead of trying to slide under a tag in the top of the 10th inning (of Zimmermann's gem) Morgan really slammed into Marlins' catcher Brett Hayes in an attempt to jar the ball lose.  It didn't happen.  Hayes made the tag but Morgan had separated the Marlins catcher's shoulder.  He's out for the season.

Morgan and Nats expected retaliation.  Nothing wrong with that as long as it's not at a player's head.  Morgan was plunked in the side, and it seemed like that was that.

But Morgan kept the flames going, at least to the Marlins, by stealing two bases and scoring on a sacrifice fly.  Though the Nats were down at the time 3-14, in Morgan's defense it was only the 4th inning and the Marlins were holding him on. The steals prompted the Marlins to do something you NEVER see - a player getting thrown at twice in one game.

The next time Morgan game up the Marlins threw behind him, and a massive fight ensued.

Like I said, I'm torn.  Morgan has been a below-average player this season, mainly due to mental errors and a lack of professionalism. In Miami, he is not solely to blame for the fight.  You don't throw at a guy twice in one game.  

But again, it goes back to the inside-the-park home run he game up.  A professional makes the smart play, and in this case it meant sliding in to home instead of trying to run over the Marlins' catcher.  Morgan does that - the Nats score and no one gets hurt - and a bean ball war does not start the next game. 

In each instance you can find a scapegoat - obnoxious Phillies fan, Ivan Rodriguez grabbed him, the Marlins threw at him twice in one game - but bottom line you need to be a professional and play with your head.  Perhaps a bad season - Morgan had been demoted to 8th in the Nationals line up - prompted him to take out his frustrations against two catchers.  But neither play made sense, and neither one was the smart baseball play.  

In firing obnoxious blow hard Rob Dibble from the booth and cutting malcontents like Elijah Dukes the Nats front office has demonstrated a willingness to fire employees who rhyme with pass moles.  We'll see how they deal with guys who are unprofessional and unfocused like Morgan has been the last few weeks.

Anyway, remember the good paragraph about the 2012 line up.

Time to Drop Football?

There is disheartening news out of Chapel Hill, too.  It's been hard to keep track of all the fires swirling around Carolina's football team.  Contact with agents, problems with tutors, and academic issues have plagued the Heels all summer.

My gut reaction is Carolina should stop trying to chase the fool's gold that is big time college football, which of course is incredibly impractical but does make sense.  For a great piece on the greed that dominates college football, and undermines a school's mission, check out today's John Feinstein column in The Post.  Ever since Mack Brown left football has suffered, but not from lack of trying. The Heels have never gotten over the hump despite spending millions on new facilities and expanding Kenan Stadium.  

And now 6 of the 11 starters from the famed Tar Heel defense are suspended, as are the Heels two best running backs.  College teams often rally in the face of this kind of adversity; it's almost a coaches dream scenario (at least for pre-game speeches).  But the Heels have so many top players suspended you wonder if there is enough depth to paper over the losses.  

Perhaps most frustrating is the contact with agents.  Why did these guys come back to Chapel Hill for another season - at least four Carolina defensive players were projected as high draft picks in the spring - only to allegedly start taking money and gifts from agents?  And now in addition to not playing they are tarnishing the reputation and embarrassing the university.  

But at least they did not try to steal a pass in the 4th inning.

World Basketball Championships

The U.S. has looked pretty good in the World Basketball Championships in Turkey.  Despite having Krzyzewski as 'our' coach Kevin Durant and Derek Rose have looked great in leading the US to a 5-0 record.  We play Angola in the knock out round tomorrow in what will likely turn out to be another 40-point rout.

Greece, on the other hand, has yet to get their groove back.  Ellas was blowing out teams prior to the bad-karma-inducing game and fight with Serbia a week ago in the Acropolis Tournament.

After winning their first three games - versus China, a good Puerto Rico team, and Ivory Coast - Greece lost to Turkey (no shame there; the Turks have 3 NBA players on their roster and are playing at home) and Russia by 3.  The greater shame is losing to two nations who WE civilized. 

Anyway, that two-game losing streak means Ellas has to play Spain, who also under whelmed in the first round of play, on Saturday in the knock out round.  Instead of playing - as expected - for a medal Greece and Spain are playing for their lives tomorrow. It should be a great game between two of the four best national teams (widely considered to be the U.S., Argentina, Spain and Greece), and I think it will be on NBA TV live at 2:00 pm eastern if you want to tune in.

 

Quick Take on the Sunday Post

Back in DC, and reading the Post on newsprint as opposed to on line (but as it was on the Outer Banks, I'm still not wearing a shirt; I offer that up as a warning to my coworkers and fellow Metro riders for Monday).

After an hour of reading the paper, here are three quick takes on the news:

• The lead article in the Post is on another infamous Alaskan plane crash that killed Reps. Begich and Boggs in 1972.  The article also references the 1978 plane crash that killed Sen. Ted Stevens' first wife.  I bring that up only to point out how odd - and ideological - Sen. Stevens was.  In December 2005, when he failed to successfully include Arctic Refuge drilling language in a defense appropriations bill (he was chair of that committee at the time), he called the day he lost that vote "the saddest day of my life." Really, sadder than the day your wife died in a plane crash?
• Dan Balz's column points out how Ds hope to weather voter dissatisfaction in the November midterm elections by pointing out how crazy the Rs are. Of course, the only agenda the Republican have is to repeat how mad they are; they do not have an agenda or a single idea on how to end the two wars Bush got us in, fix the economy, put people to work, or protect the planet. 

Pointing out how nutty folks like Dookie Rand Paul are is certainly a valid point.  But it also is a depressing statement about the American electorate.  Obama ran and won - in part - on being aspirational and solution oriented on health care, the economy, financial reform, clean energy, etc. Then again, he mainly won because the electorate was fed up with George Bush. Is the political shelf life of being optimistic and aspirational a mere two years in contemporary America?  Are we that cranky and distracted and immature, that we are only happy complaining about things rather than trying to implement difficult solutions to serious problems like energy and health care?  Seems like it.

• Finally, I close with two mundane items from sports.  One, FIFA is thinking about eliminating ties in World Cup matches.  But football should not stop there.  Ties should be banned from all football/soccer matches.  One of the frustrating things about soccer is that not every team in every game plays to win, and you gain a point for not winning.  Think about how stupid that phrase is: in some games in certain scenarios one of the teams is NOT playing to win. If you are not playing to win you should not be playing.  Banning ties would also get rid of the stupid point system employed by soccer; it should come down to wins and losses.  One important way to dramatically improve soccer is to ban ties from every league and tournament. 

And two, the right-wingers in charge of the USA Basketball, Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski, are not picking any Tar Heels for this year's team set to play in the 2010 World Basketball championships in Turkey at the end of this month. But that's not all.  Colangelo had famously stated that anyone who does NOT play for the national team in 2010 will NOT be eligible for the 2012 Olympic team.  Predictably, Colangelo has backed off on that statement, in effect throwing the players who are playing in Turkey for the U.S. under the bus: 'thanks for playing in 2010, but sunshine patriots like LeBron and Wade are here for the Olympics so we don't need you any more.'  More right-wing hypocrisy.  As it was in 2006, this is not my America, so I will likely root for Greece if they play us in Turkey.