2016 Summer Olympics

[tarcone]

In beach VB, why do the men wear tank tops and shorts and the women wear nothing?

[whomario]

Originally Posted by tarcone

In beach VB, why do the men wear tank tops and shorts and the women wear nothing?

I guess if Men were allowed to go shirtless, they would. Women are free to wear a variety of other clothing choices as per the rules in any case nowadays and i guess one can see how wearing 2 pieces of clothing is more comfortable playing the sport than 4.

Also there really isn´t a real difference between their clothing and, say, track&field athletes.

The sports popularity obviously derives partly from the clothing (on the part of the women) and i guess sponsors don´t exactly mind women choosing the more revealing option.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by whomario

And to be fair the Rest of the world is really close to it being an amateur sport and the College System is lightyears ahead of youth programs for women. The tighter economics in lots if countries will make that gap bigger with the womens teams of clubs being first to suffer. The gap ought to be bigger than with the men, imo.

Australia has a pretty good youth program for its top players - the Australian Institute of Sport. A lot of the kids that end up spending the last couple of years of school at the AIS do go on to play college ball in the US, so we benefit from a similar system at a much smaller scale. So while we have a much smaller pool of talent to draw from, our top players are still generally pretty darn good.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Australia has a pretty good youth program for its top players - the Australian Institute of Sport. A lot of the kids that end up spending the last couple of years of school at the AIS do go on to play college ball in the US, so we benefit from a similar system at a much smaller scale. So while we have a much smaller pool of talent to draw from, our top players are still generally pretty darn good.

But you see how having one such program versus (i guess) a dozen of that level in the US is kind of what i was getting at (and yeah, i realize a ton of the US players went to Connecticut ...)
At the end of the day you can always create top players with one great program, but that´s not really a sustainable thing over the years and across a large pool of players.

Also, hasn´t the AIS discontinued it´s scholarship program and all that is now handled directly by the respective federation which are merely "renting the facilities" ? That always confused in a "wait, how is that a winning strategy ?" way.

[Easy Mac]

Originally Posted by whomario

Hope she realizes who is really to blame here ...

Hey! I... well yeah.

[whomario]

Ok, the diving pool suddenly turning "green" (instead of "blue") overnight is up there for weird things to happen.

[cartman]

I bet it was a prank by the drunk Dutch gymnast, and that was the real reason he was sent home.

[tarcone]

Dang people cant keep results quiet. Whats the point of watching the events if people post the results.

I hate tape delay.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Dang people cant keep results quiet. Whats the point of watching the events if people post the results.

I hate tape delay.

May i just say that i find this concept to be utterly insane in the 21st century ? I mean, just reading some statements like the one JIMG posted earlier it seems to me that NBC is less covering the events and more creating a 3 hour show built from 12 hours of events that already happened, based on the results.

Also, can´t you just watch streams ? Doesn´t NBC offer those ? Or are they withholding events till they can broadcast them at primetime ?

[tarcone]

I dont know. And I keep forgetting my directv password and log in. And Im too lazy to find it. So I suffer.

[tarcone]

How do gymnastics work for individual medals? Do they all perform each event at a later date? Or do they base it on the scores from the team event?

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by tarcone

How do gymnastics work for individual medals? Do they all perform each event at a later date? Or do they base it on the scores from the team event?

Later event

[whomario]

[Breeze]

Given that my kids are all swimmers, I really love following the swimming competition during the Olympics, but I do get irritated with journalists that write articles without understanding the details of the sport. For instance:

Get with the Times IOC.

It's a general article about how great Katie Ledecky is. Which any idiot could write. However, in this one the writer chooses to make a point that the IOC should get with the times and allow the women to compete in the 1500 like the men do rather than just having them swim the 800, thus allowing Ledecky to win yet another medal. Again this is fine, but there is 1 MAJOR flaw in his logic. If women swam the 1500 there would be NO 800 to swim. For the distance free event, the Olympics choose to have women do an 800 and men do a 1500 (men don't do the 800 at all)...so sure, switch women to the 1500, but that wouldn't earn Ledecky an additional medal, she'd just swim an additional 700 meters and win by a larger margin.

[Breeze]

Originally Posted by whomario

Ok, the diving pool suddenly turning "green" (instead of "blue") overnight is up there for weird things to happen.

The FINA explanation:

"The “water tanks ran out of some of the chemicals used in the water treatment process,” the statement read, which pushed the pH levels of the water outside of the normal range."

That Green is actually algae...apparently the PH balance in the pool rose to a 9...should be between 7.2 and 7.8.

[Julio Riddols]

Love that Rio water.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by tarcone

How do gymnastics work for individual medals? Do they all perform each event at a later date? Or do they base it on the scores from the team event?

At a later date, but they've already done qualifying for each of those events.

[whomario]

Australia up 5 at the half over the US. Won´t last i guess, but still a nice little performance by the Boomers. Nice to see Andersen with a good game, the guy was always one of my favourites with his old-school style mixed with range. If any of the US 6´9ish guys had his sort of post/in-between game paired with their ability off the bounce, they´d be unstoppable.

Delly again terrific, Bogut very good as well. US bigs getting exposed as is usually the case in these matches. Anthony and offensive rebounding the things the US has going so far. That and abusing the backup guards for the Aussies.

Delly with a +- of +19 !

[Groundhog]

Waiting for the inevitable USA run, but a pretty encouraging start. This is the best Aussie team I've ever seen in terms of on-court performance, despite a couple of questionable decisions re: which players we took to Rio.

[whomario]

Anthony is the one guy who would absolutely obliterate the competition in Europe and win championships while doing it with his game. Everybody else would be good to outstanding to some degree, of course. But any Top10 Euroleague team with Melo added would be near unbeatable imo.

[Critch]

Mens 77kg Weightlifting was great. Some guy dislocated his elbow (ok, that part wasnt great, a bit nasty and screamy really), then a Chinese guy seemed to clinch the gold, left a Kazakh lifter needing 4kg more than the world record to win. He only went and done it, then exploded into some crazed dancing to celebrate, his coaches losing their cool too. Good entertainment from a sport I wont watch for another 4 years.

[wustin]

US stepped up their defense and Aussie's offense staggered. You can't have two traditional big men on the floor against the US. They just exploited Baynes at the 4 spot.

[Groundhog]

Problem is, the 4 spot is our big weakness on this roster. Andersen is a good player, but he's also 36 years old, so we were stuck with Bairstow, Baynes or Brock Motum at that 4 spot for big minutes. IMO we should be using Broekhoff at the 4 spot more as he can actually rebound a little and also stretch the floor... I'll be surprised if Broekhoff isn't on an NBA roster in a year or two.

But hey, great effort by the Aussies. 10 point loss to Team USA is the equivalent of a 15 point win over any other team in the world.

[jbergey22]

Missed the game just finished up work. The Aussies must have played well again. Certainly looking like the Silver medal team.

Not really arguing the melo statement just kind of wondering why him over Durant or George? Melo is kind of a high usage not as efficient scorer as some of the others. Melo can be great but when he is cold he can very easily lose a game on his own.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by wustin

US stepped up their defense and Aussie's offense staggered. You can't have two traditional big men on the floor against the US. They just exploited Baynes at the 4 spot.

That´s the USs single biggest advantage. If you look around there are very, very few good 6´7-6´9 wings internationally to match up with guys like Melo, George or Green. Every team has good shooters in the 6´4/6´5 range, most have good PGs and Bigs. But very, very few have even one, much less 2 players capable of guarding NBA-level SFs and PFs.

And that´s not a current trend, has pretty much always been the case.

And since you are destined to have a mismatch defensively i can see the thinking of putting in the best player available and when in doubt, go big to exploit the US 3/4s cluelesness defending in the Post or backdoor cuts, which worked pretty well when it was Andersen playing (but he´s 36 years old).

That was Spains biggest weakness in their glory years as well, which they tried to overcome by playing 3 guard lineups with 2 bigs.

[Groundhog]

Melo is a beast at the international game. I don't know what it is, but I agree with whomario - in an alternate universe, Melo is the greatest Euroleague player of all time.

[larrymcg421]

Team Handball is such a fun sport to watch. Why can't the US get a good team in this? It seems like it'd be a good fit for some pure athlete basketball types who aren't good shooters.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Melo is a beast at the international game. I don't know what it is, but I agree with whomario - in an alternate universe, Melo is the greatest Euroleague player of all time.

So seriously? You two are saying you would take Anthony over Lebron or Durant in an international game?

[Groundhog]

In a FIBA competition - LeBron, no. Durant? Probably.

[jbergey22]

Fair enough. Durant's game is so solid and he towers over the other wings. Even in the NBA he is matchup proof. Dont get me wrong I think Carmelo has the same advantages and is stronger in the post but Durant is a much better pure shooter.

[RainMaker]

I would take Melo over Durant too in the international game. Durant's game relies a lot more on drawing fouls and you just aren't going to get that kind of treatment in these international competitions.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

So seriously? You two are saying you would take Anthony over Lebron or Durant in an international game?

I don´t want to judge "who would you take within the US to play internationally against other teams if you could choose only 1", but as far as playing with the best players from both systems under FIBA rules including the way it´s refereed and court dimensions ?

If he bought into it, absolutely.

Especially when we are talking prime Melo, but even todays version would be amazing. Basically every strength of his gets magnified while his few strength would not matter much. He struggles (comparatively) putting the ball on the floor and finding the open man, he´s not quite explosive enough to attack the basket all the time , he is a so-so defender against world class SFs and his 3 point shot is shaky. All those things matter very little under FIBA rules, whereas the in-between game he excels at is a much more viable option than in the NBA.
Heck, he probably would have developed a true post game over here as well

Plus the international 3 point line is basically his sweet spot/distance, he would get shots created for him actually, there is a ton more scoring without putting the ball on the floor (the rules just encourage it, as does the less space in the lane).

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

Fair enough. Durant's game is so solid and he towers over the other wings. Even in the NBA he is matchup proof. Dont get me wrong I think Carmelo has the same advantages and is stronger in the post but Durant is a much better pure shooter.

The big difference is that so much of what Durant does in the NBA starst from iso plays from the wing, which is not nearly as effective in the FIBA game because the spacing is different and, yeah, the game is also called differently.

Any nation in the world would love to have Durant on their national team, don't get me wrong, but Melo's ability to take the ball into the post as well as fire from deep is a lot more valuable overall, especially for Team USA who have a lot of guys who shoot 3s already.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

Fair enough. Durant's game is so solid and he towers over the other wings. Even in the NBA he is matchup proof. Dont get me wrong I think Carmelo has the same advantages and is stronger in the post but Durant is a much better pure shooter.

He really isn´t i would argue He is great at shooting off the dribble and off-balance and has much better range (at least if we are talking consistence) and is less effected by a man "in his face" due to his length and athleticism. But Melo is imo much better at shooting as a catch-and-shoot player and especially off a jab-step or a pump fake without having to put the ball on the floor. He just doesn´t get to concentrate on that in the NBA or gets open there. Durant needs space to move into to be dangerous, it is much easier to fill that space internationally to cut him off by good teams (as you saw today). He would of course still be amazing, but not quite as amazing

Also would benefit on the existence of a back-to-the-basket game (as well as backdoor cuts), both for himself and benefitting from ball movement starting off kickouts. There´s a reason Team USA bigs almost universally struggle to score and defend internationally and are constantly in foul trouble. Always rebound like hellhounds and defend great on switches and stuff, but let´s just say these games show they are lucky not to have been playing in the 80s and early 90s (though probably would have been trained differently then, of course). Conversely, there´s a reason why a ton of fringe-nba bigs look great internationally or why a ton of great international bigs aren´t generating interest in the NBA.

I mean, DeMarcus Cousins is undoubtedly an amazingly versatile NBA big (that has his issues) but i doubt he´ll look any better against France or Croatia or Serbia than he did today other than rebounding, defending on the run and getting the odd dunk from a fast break.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

Team Handball is such a fun sport to watch. Why can't the US get a good team in this? It seems like it'd be a good fit for some pure athlete basketball types who aren't good shooters.

There´s a little more to it (there´s really only 2 spots for these sort of players on most team as well). But i actually do suspect Handball is one of those sports that are drawing a couple potential 6´7/6´8 SF/PF types away. It´s also fairly big in a few relevant countries: France, Spain, Croatia (balkan in general), also Germany even though we are less of a power in Basketball of course.

But glad you are enjoying it What games did you catch so far ?

[tarcone]

We play a modified handball game in class. Kids absolutely love playing it.

[JPhillips]

It is shocking to me that apparently most or all of the Olympic sports don't have any concussion protocol.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by tarcone

We play a modified handball game in class. Kids absolutely love playing it.

Start the movement I personally liked it as well. Never in goal though, those guys are maniacs

[whomario]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

It is shocking to me that apparently most or all of the Olympic sports don't have any concussion protocol.

Which event ?

Still to come today:

Swimming (duh ...)

Mens Soccer Brazil-Denmark.

After 2 drab 0:0 games, Brazil needs to win to advance and are not only one of the few teams bringing the nearly-best possible team (including the biggest star in neymar) but of course are the most crazy nation about the sport arguably, so this is a big one

Womens Volleyball (indoor ) Brazil-Japan. Arena goes crazy for that team, no idea how good Japan is.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by whomario

He really isn´t i would argue He is great at shooting off the dribble and off-balance and has much better range (at least if we are talking consistence) and is less effected by a man "in his face" due to his length and athleticism. But Melo is imo much better at shooting as a catch-and-shoot player and especially off a jab-step or a pump fake without having to put the ball on the floor. He just doesn´t get to concentrate on that in the NBA or gets open there. Durant needs space to move into to be dangerous, it is much easier to fill that space internationally to cut him off by good teams (as you saw today). He would of course still be amazing, but not quite as amazing

Also would benefit on the existence of a back-to-the-basket game (as well as backdoor cuts), both for himself and benefitting from ball movement starting off kickouts. There´s a reason Team USA bigs almost universally struggle to score and defend internationally and are constantly in foul trouble. Always rebound like hellhounds and defend great on switches and stuff, but let´s just say these games show they are lucky not to have been playing in the 80s and early 90s (though probably would have been trained differently then, of course). Conversely, there´s a reason why a ton of fringe-nba bigs look great internationally or why a ton of great international bigs aren´t generating interest in the NBA.

I mean, DeMarcus Cousins is undoubtedly an amazingly versatile NBA big (that has his issues) but i doubt he´ll look any better against France or Croatia or Serbia than he did today other than rebounding, defending on the run and getting the odd dunk from a fast break.

Well from a very large sample size over 1500 games. Durant shoots 38 percent from 3 point range while melo shoots 34 percent. From the free throw line Durant is 88 percent while melo is 81 percent.

From 0-3 feet Durant wins 72-59, from 3-10 feet Durant 43 to 33, from 10-16 Durant leads 45 to 39, from 16 to 3 point distance finally a close one Durant leads .420 to .415.

In other words there is not a shot that melo is better than Durant in over a sample size of 1500 games. If you wanted to take all the other variables out of it wouldnt the 88 percentage career free throw shooting kind of tell the story about who the better "pure shooter" is? Unguarded 15 feet away where defenders or size isnt in the mix.

[JPhillips]

I saw the replay of the UK gymnast that fell square on her head and was allowed to continue even after she was noticeably woozy and I just watched a Swiss beach volleyballer that used the five minute injury timeout, but there was no concussion check.

It doesn't seem like concussion awareness has reached the IOC.

[tarcone]

Not enough money in it

[whomario]

All that and i don´t even like Melo and have likely railed against him a lot when it comes to the NBA

Originally Posted by jbergey22

Well from a very large sample size over 1500 games. Durant shoots 38 percent from 3 point range while melo shoots 34 percent. From the free throw line Durant is 88 percent while melo is 81 percent.

From 0-3 feet Durant win 72-59, from 3-10 feet Durant 43 to 33, from 10-16 Durant leads 45 to 39, from 16 to 3 point distance finally a close one Durant leads .420 to .415.

In other words there is not a shot that melo is better than Durant in over a sample size of 1500 games.

You have just proven that he is the better NBA player/shooter by citing stats achieved under NBA rules with NBA spacing where him being a better natural shot creator and athlete (which is a factor over a 80-100 game season at a pace that is also inflated by the rules) comes into play, also playing on better teams most seasons, especially recently. I mean: Why play the what-if game if you are not going to play ?

There´s no way i can back my claim, other than i feel (how very republican convention of me) that Melo would benefit a whole lot from playing under FIBA rules with FIBA style play whereas Durant would be still be amazing but not quite that good. And yes, i realize he has excelled under FIBA rules playing for a stacked US team. Can only go by watching them in both settings and watching my fair share of games every season of teams of different quality and makeup under both rule sets.

EDIT: In addition to Groundhogs example of Iso-plays from the wings not being as effective it is also much harder to get all the way to the basket off the Pick and Roll to either score of kick out to a wiiiide open player. Moving your butt to the edge of the lane, take one hard drible and either score on a fadeaway or find an open man however is much more prevalent. Again, neither is much of an issue when your 10th best player would be a Top 2 or 3 player everywhere else, but on a regular team it would be.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by tarcone

In beach VB, why do the men wear tank tops and shorts and the women wear nothing?

With it being a cold night, both the german and italian women are currently playing in Shirts and long track pants btw

[tarcone]

Yeah, I saw the Swiss women were in body suits as well.

[cartman]

Phelps is just ridiculous. He smoked the field in the 200m Medley.

[SirFozzie]

Dat Phelps swim so good

[tarcone]

He has been amazing the entire Olympics. He is a once in a lifetime performer.

[PilotMan]

That man is such a freak. There's never been anyone so built for domination in any one sport as he is. He is the total package for swimmers and I'm still in awe of him.

[cartman]

He has to swim again in less than an hour for the semifinal of the 100m butterfly.