Spain’s men’s basketball team overcame a poor start to the Olympic tournament to finish second in their group after a blowout win over Argentina to end group play yesterday.
Spain lost their first two games and did not look good in doing so, before they struggled past Nigeria. They turned it around, however, and blew out fellow quarterfinal qualifiers Lithuania and Argentina. Pau Gasol led them with a couple of monster games, while moving Nikola Mirotic into the starting lineup in place of Felipe Reyes also made a difference, as did the significantly improved play of Ricky Rubio.
The entire Spanish starting lineup began clicking against Lithuania, who the Spanish obliterated by 50 points, and continued to play well against a veteran Argentina squad many of whom are making their last international appearance after a fantastic national team run.
The quarterfinals will take place on Wednesday, and look like this:
Lithuania vs. Australia 9:00 am CDT
France vs. Spain 12:30 pm CDT
Argentina vs. USA 4:45 pm CDT
Croatia vs. Serbia 8:15 pm CDT
The winner of the Lithuania vs. Australia play the winner of Croatia vs. Serbia and the other two winners face off in the semis on Friday.
In the women’s tournament, the quarterfinals are today, and appear to have significantly less drama, as the U.S., as expected, have dominated proceedings so far. The matchups look like this:
Serbia vs. Australia 9:00 am CDT
Turkey vs. Spain 12:30 pm CDT
Japan vs. USA 4:45 pm CDT
Canada vs. France 8:15 pm CDT
Elsewhere, I joined the guys from the Corner 3 podcast to talk Wolves:
Timberwolves season preview, guest Eric Goldman (Eric in Madison) of @canishoopus joins us https://t.co/CMP7gdSD8i pic.twitter.com/xAoLY38hNJ
— The Corner 3 (@TheCorner3Pod) August 16, 2016
If you want to hear my dulcet tones give a listen.
I’m gonna finish up here since I’m running late with this and it’s the middle of August.
Question: Greatest Olympian of all time? The problem with questions like this is how we define what we mean, but I’ll leave that up to you in the comments.
Bolt seems like the clear and correct answer, but lot’s of people would argue Phelps for the sheer number of medals. Carl Lewis must be in the conversation, but what about Paavo Nurmi, the Finnish runner from the 20s who revolutionized the sport?
Discuss. Or discuss something else.