Serbia Fails to Qualify

[George O'Brien]

China upset S&M to qualify for the second round and knocked S&M out of the medal round.

Argentina 83, Serbia & Montenegro 82
Serbia & Montenegro 74, Italy 72
New Zealand 90, Serbia & Montenegro 87
Spain 76, Serbia & Montenegro 68
China 67, Serbia & Montenegro 66

Three of the Serbia & Montenegro losses were by a total of 5 points. Their loss to New Zealand was on a horrible call (New Zealand player intentionally fouls Vujanic to stop the clock by wrapping his arms around him and it was called a charge.

USA was given a vastly easier schedule than Serbia & Montenegro. The refs may not have been kind to the USA team, but the guys who let them play Greece, Australia, and Angola rather than Argentina, Spain, Italy, China and New Zealand must have wanted the TV ratings of having the USA team in the medal round.

 

[Chaz]

(HOMER ALERT!!)

Only if they had Zarko they would have had a chance.

 

[KANIDJA]

They did not deserve to qualify. The team this year is just not good enough this year. If we had Jaric and Stojakovic we would probably contend for gold because of their outside shooting. Bodiroga is getting old and our Centers simply suck. Rebraca would have helped but he decided not to play. Next year is the European championship in Belgrade and I am sure most player will decide to play there. So we can count on people lile Stojakovic, Jaric, Rebraca, maybe imrpoved Milicic and Krstic, sharp shooter Gurovic, Drobnjak and Radmanovic and most likely Divac. It will be different story.

 

[devilalum]

I just had the thought reading this thread that the Olympic tournament is a lot like the NCAA playoffs.

The rules are very similar and allow any team to jump up and beat any other team on any given night.

Sure the better team usually wins but not every time.

That zone really levels the playing field if the team getting zoned can't shoot.

How many times have you seen a high seed go down in March under the same circumstances?