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U.S., Mexico To Rumble In Barcelona

U.S. is an overwhelming favorite, but sometimes neighborhood brawls are the toughest.

By JD King

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For people who are still wondering, plays like this are part of the reason why Mason Plumlee made the U.S. team.
For people who are still wondering, plays like this are part of the reason why Mason Plumlee made the U.S. team.
Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

The U.S. takes on Mexico Saturday in the first game of the knockout round. One of the things we haven't focused on a lot is the reunion of Kyrie Irving and Mason Plumlee.

During his abbreviated freshman year, before he was injured, Irving made Plumlee into a very dangerous weapon and one of the things Duke lost when he went down was that for all his other virtues, Nolan Smith simply couldn't exploit Plumlee's abilities in the same manner. Plumlee's scoring went down when Irving did.

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So it's fun to see them back together if only in spurts. Irving is a key player on this team while Plumlee is near the end of the bench. It'd be fun to see one more alley-oop though or perhaps Plumlee's Duke trademark, a reverse dunk.

Like a lot of things between the two countries, the lines are blurred: three of Mexico's starters all went to Denver's Lincoln High: Brooklyn Net Luis Gutierrez, Francisco Cruz and Hector Hernandez.

Presumably Plumlee can give some scouting info on Gutierrez.

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