As the U.S. prepares to take on Greece in Japan, Shane
Battier has gone from being a role player to being an indispensable part of the
team. Anyone surprised? He's just doing what he's always done.
Speaking of the Greeks, this
promises to be a challenging game. Greece is not as talented - no team is -
but like the other remaining teams, they are very cohesive. They are a
more deliberate team than the U.S., and they play well in the half court on both
ends. It's not going to be easy.
However, the best news for the U.S. may be that it struggled
against Germany. Long-time Duke observers knew that after a rocky first
half, the Devils were likely to come out with some fire in the second half, and
they did.
They're also very likely to come out in the next game with a
much more intense focus.
Duke tends to do that after a sub-par game, and Krzyzewski
also has a knack of getting his teams to play on a championship level when a
title is in range. We'd expect that against Greece, win or lose.