Olympic Men’s Basketball: Knockout Seeds Set As Group Play Ends

What an upset! What a block! Croatia kept its game against Spain close throughout the fourth quarter, and it took the team only a matter of seconds to capitalize and gain the lead.

But Nikola Mirotić managed to hit an open three for Spain to keep the team within one. After an intentional foul, Spain needed only two points to tie. Dishing the ball to Pau Gasol seemed like the most obvious option to send the game to overtime, but Croatian forward and Philadelphia 76er Dario Šarić appeared outta nowhere to deliver a clutch block.

I’ve previously argued that the Olympic men’s basketball tournament could be more competitive if the field were expanded. Too high a percentage of the current 12-team field is granted to automatic qualifiers from the world’s weakest regions. Adding more at-large spots would open up the tournament to more good teams, such as Turkey, who missed out on the Olympics because of a bad performance at EuroBasket 2011. Now we have some current evidence on how far behind Europe and the Americas the rest of the world is in the sport.

Four of the 12 teams in the Olympic field were from Asia, Africa or Oceania. Three of the teams won their regional championships to get here. The fourth, Nigeria, finished a surprising third at the (field-restricted) wild card tournament in Venezuela in early July. Against the eight teams from Europe and the Americas in the Olympics, these four African-Asian-Oceanic teams are a combined 2-14. Australia has both of the wins. One of them came against host Britain, who would otherwise not belong in the tournament as the 13th or 14th best team in Europe.

Things went pretty close to the blueprint in the group round in the Olympic men’s basketball tournament. The eight teams I picked to advance indeed advanced, though Russia’s dominance, France’s win over Argentina and Spain’s brow-raising finish mucked up the standings.

The quarterfinals begin on Wednesday with Russia vs. Lithuania (9 a.m. ET). In advance of that, let’s rank the survivors in order of quality, taking into account the draw they face. (Sorry, Boomers.)

Every four years when Americans pay attention to international basketball during the Olympics, the same thing happens. One or two players play so well that the general public wonders, “Why have I never heard of this guy?” or maybe even “Why isn’t this guy a star in the NBA?”

But for every Ginobili who follows up his international success with NBA stardom, there are many, many others who seem to get lost in the NBA game. Now, it goes without saying that the level of competition and in particular athleticism in the NBA is far and away the highest in the world, and clearly there are plenty of basketball players at international tournaments who have no business on an NBA court. But even so, it’s still high-level basketball, and one would suspect that the difference makers in Olympic competition should at least be solid NBA players, right?

The preliminary round of the 2012 Olympic basketball tournament is now complete, and thus, the single-elimination medal round can begin. The quarterfinals were essentially set prior to Team USA’s blowout win over Argentina on Monday, and now, they are official. With their victory, Team USA will square off against Australia, the fourth-place team from Group B, at 5:15 EST on Wednesday.

Here is the complete schedule for the quarterfinals, all of which will be played on Wednedsay.

Brazil wrapped up group play in the men’s Olympic basketball tournament with an 88-82 win against Spain.

With the win, Brazil secured the No. 2 seed in Group B. They entered the game tied with Spain for second place in the group. They now move onto the quarterfinal where they will face Argentina, who finished third in Group A.

Entering Monday, the Great Britain men’s basketball team hadn’t won a game since 1948. Against China, Team GB rectified that, and ended a 64-year drought, with a resounding 90-58 victory.

Great Britain outscored China in every quarter, made 13 threes, and and forced 15 turnovers.

France was certainly the favorite in Monday morning’s game at the 2012 London Olympics against Nigeria, but Africa’s other qualifier -- Tunisia took Africa’s automatic qualifying berth -- refused to go down without a fight. It ended in a loss, but Nigeria was able to keep it close for its last game in London before France pulled away for the 79-73 victory.

Oguchi, commonly referred to as Champ, has bounced all around the world during his basketball career (since going from Oregon to Illinois State during his college career, Oguchi’s spent time in France, the D-League, the Philippines, Lebanon, Iraq and Venezuela). He likely earned himself a bit of a better job following Monday’s momentous game in the Olympics, however, as “Champ” carried his team to a near-victory with 35 points -- 8-of-14 from beyond the arc.

Steve Perrin told you all about Team USA’s bizarre new love affair with the three-pointer on Sunday, a romance that nearly killed the Americans’ unbeaten record against Lithuania. For some context on just how insane Team USA’s three-pointer rate has been, check out the chart below the jump.

This is Team USA’s percentage of all field goals that are three-pointers compared to the top five teams in that category from the last NBA season.

The 6-foot scoring guard burst on to the basketball scene by single-handedly upsetting the Oregon Ducks during his freshman season and he’s somehow found his way to random occurrences of basketball prominence ever since.

That didn’t matter to Mills, though, because it was a big stage so he naturally came through in a big way. Trailing 80-79 on the scoreboard with 4.1 seconds left to play, the Boomers drew up a play for Mills and, well, the rest is (maybe going to be) history!

In the immediate aftermath of the Olympic Women’s Badminton scandal that saw eight participants disqualified for trying to throw their final pool play matches in order to secure more favorable matchups in the knockout stage, we discussed a nightmare scenario that could play out in men’s basketball. As it happens, that perfect storm for tanking has formed once again.

Unbeaten Russia has clinched first place in Group B, so when Brazil and Spain meet in their final pool play game Monday, it will determine second and third place, with the winner finishing second and the loser third -- they are locked into those two spots and cannot rise to first nor fall to fourth, regardless of the outcomes of the other games. The ostensible advantage of finishing second in the pool is to avoid the second seed from Group A in the quarterfinals. However, there’s no appreciable difference between France (the likely second seed from Group A) and Argentina (the likely third seed).

France, which plays Nigeria in its final group game, has locked up a bid to the knockouts, but could enter as either the No. 2 or No. 3 seed. It would prefer the No. 2 seed, because that would estrange the team from Team USA in the elimination bracket. To win No. 2, France needs a win over Nigeria and a Team USA win over Argentina.

Alternately, France could get the spot with a win and an 49-point win by Argentina over Team USA. We would not recommend holding your breath for that result.

Tunisia might have lost its first four games of the Olympic basketball tournament, but it came out looking ready to defeat a Lithuanian squad that had just put some fear into the United States. But Lithuania’s superior talent shone through as a dominant defensive performance in the second half earned them a 76-63 win.

Tunisia showed its first-quarter prowess by leading early against the Americans, but it looked even better to start Monday, leading 18-7 after 10 minutes of play, ending the period on an 11-0 run. Lithuania wouldn’t come back until late in the third quarter, when its defense turned on and virtually stopped Tunisia’s scoring. The Lithuanians went on a 22-2 run and outscored the Tunisians by 17 in the final quarter.

On account of beating Tunisia, Lithuania has clinched the No. 4 seed in Group A of the Olympic men’s basketball tournament and will now face Russia, who had clinched the No. 1 seed in Group B despite falling to Australia early Monday. The two teams will face off on Wednesday in the quarterfinals. That is as yet the only quarterfinal match set.

Lithuania’s win completed the eight-team knockout field, as well, by eliminating Tunisia and Nigeria. The Tunisians, who won their Olympic bid on account of being named the champions of Africa a year ago, finished the Olympics without a single win. One of China and Great Britain will also finish winless after the teams, each 0-4, face off on Monday.

Patty Mills ended Russia’s hopes of going unbeaten in Group B by drilling a last-second buzzer beater to give Australia an 82-80 win.

The St. Mary’s product and current San Antonio Spur has not-so-quietly been having a great tournament for Australia. He put up a tournament-high 39 points against Great Britain and is fourth in scoring average with 20.2, but had been having a mediocre game with only 10 points when he got the ball at the top of the key on Australia’s final possession. Mills has always been a gunner, and had no qualms about nailing the look to give the Boomers the win.