puget sound cal fan;842516526 said:
I, too, am hopeful enough of a tempest has developed from this situation to cause USA Basketball to seriously review the situation and enact measures to prevent it from occurring in future national team programs featuring amateur athletes. I don't think coaches like Staley appreciate how pursuing their own agendas potentially affects the players and the game. I don't want to take anything away from Canada's accomplishment, but the USA's talent strongly suggests a different outcome.
Ok - now I'm really confused.... We know Staley's team didn't lose to Canada, right? That was the PanAm team, coached by the Iowa coach - who far as I know is not in contention for any recruits (and that team has no HS players).
It's more than a little ironic that this thread mentions the problems inherent in hyperbole and mind reading as well as using rocket science and devious plotting to explain things you don't get or agree with, when more simple explanations are available. (perhaps Stanfurdbites' insinuation was just a reminder that Occam prefers a close shave)
I would say this board is getting to be a bit of an echo-chamber on this topic, but it's actually spread beyond that -- when we're relying on other message boards as source material, it's not a good sign. ;-)
It's in the nature of fan bases to complain when things don't go the way they'd like; and the nature of these kind of all-star team selections is also messy, especially in the U.S. system. So people are always going to be unhappy (and these are the ones that usually make the most noise) and there's nothing wrong with having a place to voice opinions, and it's definitely fun to vent.
But these things can also tend to take on a life of their own, assumptions get built on top of other assumptions or gossip, messages passed back & forth like a game of telephone -- and it's easy for rationality to get lost. You also see a lot of bemoaning on these boards of players transferring, or of not playing enough team ball.... But seems to me the fan mentality that complains about playing time and wants to overhaul the system based on the evidence we have is part of the same problem.
If Anigwe's playing time were cut for some legitimate reason (or would be at Cal - plenty of people have said that Boyd or Gray should have been sat to teach a message, right?), I wouldn't want the first knee-jerk response by Kristine, parents or friends, etc. to be that the coaching staff must have some personal agenda -- doesn't help Kristine or the situation. But if Coach G (or anyone) were in Staley's position, even if she bent over backwards not to show any favoritism, what I'm pretty sure of is that somebody's still going to feel slighted and accuse her of something.... That seems like as simple an explanation as any.
