2018 FIBA Americas U18 Championship (June 10-16)

[JGX2]

Argentina 82 Ecuador 61
Dominican Republic 90 Panama 57
USA 115 Puerto Rico 71
Canada 97 Chile 60

USA rolling from the fourth quarter of the first game onward. Argentina-DR and Chile-PR quarterfinals will be interesting with different styles of play between the Caribbean and South American teams.

 

[JGX2]

Quarterfinals

Argentina 87 Dominican Republic 70
Puerto Rico 68 Chile 65
USA 132 Ecuador 55
Canada 105 Panama 39

Controversial play in the PR-Chile game as PR's Vasuqez banked in a three as the shot clock expired to give PR a 66-61 lead. They never showed a replay but the Chileans certainly thought he didn't get the shot off in time. Chile had a chance to tie at the end but PR played good defense and forced a long contested three.

 

[Federoy2]

The US has done NO heavy lifting in this tournament at all...but I'll pause for caution against Argentina; we can't look pass them. If we hit a scoring drought and allow the Argentine's to run their stuff on offense, things could get interesting. I still think we'll win, but this will be the first real challenge of the tournament. I can see Puerto Rico giving Canada a little trouble, but Canada will eventually get the upper hand since talent and depth usually win out...and the homecourt advantage.

 

[JGX2]

Dominican Republic 102 Ecuador 70
Chile 67 Panama 61

USA 104 Argentina 92
Canada 95 Puerto Rico 89

Didn't get to see any games today, sounds like the semifinals were closer than expected.

 

[Federoy2]

The US is running away with this game. They're up by 28 pts. at halftime. I was expecting this to be a hotly contested match-up given it's on Canadian soil and both teams mirror each-other in so many ways. Aside from the talent gap, the biggest difference I see is the coaching...I have to give Bill Self and his staff credit; this is undoubtedly the best coached underaged American team I've seen in years. This team is fundamentally sound, unselfish, has great decision making and defensively very good. Even though they've destroyed the competition and made the tournament predictable, it was still a joy to watch this team play.

 

[carlo2]

Just watched the replay, it was a huge final performance from US team, with defense, passing and especially great team play, amazing for such young age (kudos to the coaching staff). Interestingly, this relatively unheralded team performed better than, to say, the U18 team winner in 2016 which was more loaded of highly ranked prospects. In this title game Robinson-Earl (just ranked #34 in 2019 class by ESPN) was notably impressive, with a perfect 7/7 shooting and strong rebounding. I thought Canada more competitive after watching some of their prelim games, in the end Argentina proved to be the hardest competitor to US team.

All-Five: Nembhard, Caffaro, Anthony, White and Grimes (MVP).

 

[Federoy2]

Just watched the replay, it was a huge final performance from US team, with defense, passing and especially great team play, amazing for such young age (kudos to the coaching staff). Interestingly, this relatively unheralded team performed better than, to say, the U18 team winner in 2016 which was more loaded of highly ranked prospects. In this title game Robinson-Earl (just ranked #34 in 2019 class by ESPN) was notably impressive, with a perfect 7/7 shooting and strong rebounding. I thought Canada more competitive after watching some of their prelim games, in the end Argentina proved to be the hardest competitor to US team.

All-Five: Nembhard, Caffaro, Anthony, White and Grimes (MVP).

Agreed. This is probably the best coached US team I've seen since the 2013 U-19 World Championship. This squad played with cohesion, unselfishness, intensity and great basketball IQ, which is rare for an underage US team that hadn't played together for long. I believe Canada is a better team than the result, but the spotlight of playing at home made them play faster with more intensity than necessary, resulting in terrible shot selection and rushed FG attempts; the US exploited their every mistake. I expect them to be better prepared next summer during the U-19 championship. The Argentines usually give the US more trouble because they play more of a European-style: half-court basketball, limit the amount of turnovers, foul the US on fastbreaking/transition opportunities, and stretch the US defensively with spacing and backdoor cuts.