The
USA defeated Spain 101-72 to capture not just their sixth consecutive gold in
the XXXI Olympiad in Rio, but they won their 49 straight Olympic contest and
improved their all-time mark to 66-3.
After
hanging around against the mighty USA women for about a quarter and a half, USA
head coach Geno Auriemma pulled his secret trump card by plugging in all five
of his former University of Connecticut Lady Huskies players in Diana Taurasi,
Sue Bird, Maya Moore, Tina Charles and Breanna Stewart, for the first time
during the tournament. That quintet sparked a 22-8 that put the game in the USA’s
favor and they never looked back.
“It
was pretty incredible. We had a goal to win the gold medal,” Taurasi, who hit
five more three-pointers to finish with a team-high 17 points said to NBC’s Kerith
Burke after the game on Saturday.
Moore,
who was the ultimate Swiss army knife for Team USA had 14 points, five boards,
six assists, a steal and a block shot.
The
reserves for the US also had a major hand in the victory with 55 points, with
backup guard and Minnesota Lynx All-Star Lindsay Whalen scoring 17 points. In
comparison, the Spain reserves who totaled just 23 points.
To
bring the sheer dominance of the US Women’s National team into clearer focus,
coming into the Gold Medal contest on Saturday, they averaged 102.3 points per
game in the Pool round and in the quarterfinal and semifinal games. Their
average margin of victory in the first seven games was 38.4, while holding
their opposition to just 37 percent from three-point range, while they, shot 58
percent from the field and 43 percent from three-point range. Team USA
out-rebounded their opponents by a +17.3 and their assist to turnover ratio was
195-104.
The
victory also meant that Taurasi, Bird who play for the Phoenix Mercury and
Seattle Storm respectably in the WNBA and Tamika Catchings of the WNBA’s
Indiana Fever captured their fourth gold medals, which ties Teresa Edwards and
Hall of Famer and two-WNBA champion with the Los Angeles Sparks Lisa Leslie. Edwards,
who played on the 1992 team has five Medals all-time.
This
was the first of what will be many gold medals for Taurasi’s teammate with the
Mercury Brittney Griner; Bird’s teammate with the Storm in Stewart, who became
the first player, man or woman to win four straight NCAA titles, which she did
at UConn followed by a gold medal and 2015 WNBA Most Valuable Player for
Chicago Sky Elena Delle Donne. This was the third for Seimone Augustus and
Sylvia Fowles and the second for Tina Charles, Angel McCoughtry Moore and
Whalen.
In
their journey to winning gold, Team USA set a number of records. They scored
100 points or more in three straight contest. Their 65-point win against
Senegal (121-65) in the preliminary round set a U.S. record for largest margin
of victory and the 121 points they put on the board are the most in U.S. women’s
Olympic game. They recorded 40 assists in one of the earlier games broke their
old record of 36, that they tied earlier in the tournament.
As
mentioned earlier, Taurasi was as hot from the three-point line in this
tournament as the weather in New York the past few days. The two-time WNBA
champion with the aforementioned Mercury not only set an Olympic tournament
record for three-point connections with 33, but added to the all-time record
for connections from long range with 71 in her Olympic career.
Taurasi,
Bird, Stewart, Charles, Moore also continued a legacy of UConn Lady Huskies to
make the Olympic team. That legacy began with the likes of Kara Wolters,
current WNBA analyst for ESPN and former New York Liberty player Rebecca Lobo,
Asjha Jones and Swintayla “Swin” Cash.
Auriemma,
the all-time leader with 11 NCAA titles also made history as the first head
coach for the Women’s National team to led his team to back-to-back gold medals
and has continued the amazing legacy of greatness that began with Billie Moore
back in 1976, with one of his players being Hall of Famer Ann Meyers Drysdale.
That legacy then moved onto the late Sue Gunter in 1980; the late great Hall of
Fame head coach of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers Pat Summitt in 1984; the late
Kay Yow in 1988; Teresa Grentz in 1992; Stanford Lady Cardinals head coach Tara
Vanderveer in 1996; Nell Fortner in 2000; four-time WNBA champion with the then
Houston Comets Van Chancellor in 2004; Former WNBA head coach and player for
Team USA Anne Donovan.
This
greatness that was on full display during the 2016 Olympics is no accident.
Eight of the players on the roster have won a WNBA title. Seven of the players
have won an NCAA title; Seven were named College Player of the Year when they
were in school and that same number were named WNBA Rookie of the Year in their
first respective season’s in the league. Eight of the player were No. 1 overall
picks and two were No. 2 overall picks.
The
great thing about this talented, highly accolated group is that in each game,
they put an A+ performance on the court from start to finish. Offensively, they
looked for the open woman at the offensive end time and time again. Defensively
they made it very difficult for the opponent to get into their offensive sets
with any kind of consistency.
Each
player brought something to the table that helped the team win. Griner showed
throughout the tournament her ability to score in the paint at the offensive
end and be a great rim protector on the defensive end. Augustus knocked down 15
and 16 foot jump shots time in and time out. Moore presence on the perimeter on
both ends was exceptional. Whalen and Bird complimented each other very well at
the lead guard spot with the former Minnesota Golden Gopher able to change the
pace of the game when she replaced Bird and the former UConn guard provided a
steady presence on the court with her ability to run the team without scoring a
point. McCoughtry also provided a major spark of the bench with her ability to
also be a Pitbull on the perimeter defensively and score from the perimeter or
attack the basket offensively.
Having
great basketball minds in assistant coaches Doug Bruno, head coach at DePaul
University; Lynx three-time WNBA champion head coach Cheryl Reeve and University
of South Carolina head coach and a member of the 1996 Team Dawn Staley next to
Auriemma was a major plus.
Catching
more than any of the players really showed her greatness as a teammate
throughout the tournament. The 37-year-old WNBA champion, WNBA MVP, perennial
All-Star and five-time Defensive Player of the Year, who will retire at the end
of the WNBA season did not play a lot of minutes, but her energy on the bench
and how she communicated with her teammates showed the kind of unity that this
team had and resulted in winning gold in Rio and carved their own legacy, while
continuing what the 1996 team started in the Olympics in Atlanta, GA and will
continue into the future.
“There
was something else you wanted to get across. That this is probably the best
team sport that you can play and we made it that the whole time,” Taurasi said.
“It’s not about one person. One coach. It was about how can we make this the
best basketball team ever? And it wasn’t easy. Doesn’t matter what the scores
were. A lot of people had to sacrifice to get to what we did today and it just
feels really good.”
Information,
statistics and quotations are courtesy from coverage of XXXI Olympiad on NBC
from Aug. 5–Aug. 20, 2016; 8/20/16 article “Stay Golden: USA Tops Spain for
Sixth Straight Olympic Title,” by Bill Leopold on www.nbcolympics.com; 8/20/16 2 p.m. EST
Women’s Basketball Gold Medal Game between Spain versus USA on NBC commentated
by Marc Zumoff, Ann Meyers Drysdale and sideline reporter Kerith Burke; www.uasb.com/womens/national-team/roster.aspx;
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball_at_the_1992_Summer_Olympics#Women;
Http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamika_Catchings.
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