The stain of the brief Tad "Papa" Boyle era with the Team USA U19 National Team can officially be rinsed clean. Thank you to all the players and coaches for restoring the USA standard.
MBJ was the real MVP. AJ will clearly be getting the Cooper Flagg media treatment all year.
https://x.com/ArizonaMBB/status/1941980612086444059?t=cWX6oV8mK0RkpsPpU2Mq2A&s=19
Quote from: |ᴘ|ʀ|ʏ|ᴍ|ᴇ| on July 06, 2025, 02:49:35 PMThe stain of the brief Tad "Papa" Boyle era with the Team USA U19 National Team can officially be rinsed clean.
The Tad Pole
Quote from: |ᴘ|ʀ|ʏ|ᴍ|ᴇ| on July 06, 2025, 02:49:35 PMMBJ was the real MVP. AJ will clearly be getting the Cooper Flagg media treatment all year.
Almost every player on this team will get the Flagg treatment. All of them would have went #2 in this year's draft if not possibly a coin flip between AJ and Flagg.
I am more than fine with Koa Peat being under the radar. He needs to get his legs under him anyway. He clearly is not a full blown above the rim player and that is OK. We have seen Zion's fall from grace. Still unstoppable when he is playing though. Lebron is perhaps the only player to be able to withstand the duress that type of build puts on the body.
With better treatments (medical and research chemical) available as well as the sheer fact that these kids are not even the same as "4 years ago" kids in terms of the 100% Basketball is Life situation now that they are all Paid as young as 13-14 years old and are Trust Fund Baby status by the time they are Juniors at IMG Academy prep settings.
This is a job for kids. It is child labor technically. Maybe the wages are above that of sweat shops, but the NBA is probably the richest league per player on Earth. 450 spots basically out of the Billions on the planet.
If you are a 5* and achieve a Super Max pathway, then it is now actually impossible to not earn a gross income of 1 Billion Dollars over your career without counting endorsements, ad revenues, or other business ventures.
You can tell the commitment level is different with this group. There is a Professionalism within the immaturity. They cannot fold at this age. It isn't the ole "30k cash in a bowling ball bag in the airport locker" trick for your Uncle's neighbor to pick up anymore.
This is real money and the kids are earning it.
Tommy somehow survived Canada. Maybe the Refs cooked it up. I won't say USA didn't belong on the floor with Canada, but we were not the better team. Those Free Throws manufactured a Gold Medal.
Go Team.
I hope Tommy learned some valuable lessons from this experience. I know Koa Peat did. He was definitely gassed over the last few games. He won't be expected to play 3-4 games in a row more than 2 times this coming season. I think Tommy did a good job of getting most of the players involved, but he went HEAVY on Koa early in this tournament. I can live with it.
Now just get home safely, go separate ways, then have some MASSIVE meetings at the Summit this season. College Basketball is about to be BEDLAM this year.
There is absolutely no way to predict who will come out on top this year. Any 1 of these kids who are attending College will be a Force to be reckoned with and can single handedly be responsible for winning Any 1 game in a Tournament 1 and Done / Game 7 type setting.
Tommy really needs to coach Defense. That is the major takeaway if anyone noticed. This was a Dream Team. We won't see one like this again for a long time.
I will always be fine with Tommy's way of trying for 80-90ppg, but if he can't get the Wildcats to buy into a system that can limit opponents early and often then we will be in shootouts every game.
Really don't want to say "Press Virginia", but Tommy does need to incorporate his Press Defenses more often. He has the depth this season. He can easily pull offense for defense subs and lean on opponents. There is no excuse to not force the issue if Tommy has 12 players by my count that can start for any D1 Power-4 Team.
Quote from: WILD on July 06, 2025, 04:21:46 PMhttps://x.com/ArizonaMBB/status/1941980612086444059?t=cWX6oV8mK0RkpsPpU2Mq2A&s=19
Champions of the WORLD. This Age Group has never been Richer too. So this makes it even more impressive depending on your opinion of whether the money is a motivator or a de-motivator since they are all already rich enough to retire today.
Quote from: |ᴘ|ʀ|ʏ|ᴍ|ᴇ| on July 06, 2025, 02:49:35 PMThe stain of the brief Tad "Papa" Boyle era with the Team USA U19 National Team can officially be rinsed clean
The Tadpole is erased by Tribal Chief Tommy Uso.