So the U.S. finished off its redemption and once again topped the world in the Olympics for the gold medal.  Before I start ranting here, let me say, I think it's great.  We've got the most talent in the world, had by far the deepest team in the tournament and are back where we belong, at the top. 

But, to me, the one negative in all of this is the continued celebration and idolization of Mike Krzyzewski.  It may not be the politically correct thing to say, but I absolutely, unabashedly hate that arrogant SOB.  Now, admittedly, I'm a Maryland Terp fan, and if there is one program in the country above all others that we, as Terp backers, can't stand, it's Duke.  Maryland could go 2-14 in the ACC, but as long as those two wins are against the Blue Devils, it's a successful season.  Some would say we're just jealous, but  we've got a more recent National Championship Banner than Mr. Gold Medal Coach does. Hah!

Maybe I'm biased (yeah, just maybe) but I've always felt that Coach K was one of the most over rated coaches in the country.  Don't get me wrong, he's a great recruiter.  Over the past 20 to 25 years, he's brought in as much or more talent as any program in the country.  But his teams have a tendency of falling flat when the big game comes around.  It started early on with upset losses year after year in the Final Four before finally breaking through in 1991 with a team loaded with talent that upset a then-undeafeted UNLV team that had stomped the Blue Devils the year before.  I'm not usually one for conspiracy theories, but I have no doubt that UNLV threw that game.  The photo that circulated later of the Running Rebels best players hanging out in a hottub living it up with a notorious gambler and game fixer was all the evidence I needed.

They won again in 1992, but only after beating Kentucky on a miraculous buzzer beater by Christian Laettner that was helped by the fact that the clock didn't start ticking off the 2.2 seconds left in the game until Laettner had caught the ball, came down to the floor, dribbled once and spun to face the basket.  I think Kentucky fans will tell you that those were the longest 2 seconds in the recorded history of mankind.  Duke violated the laws of Quantum Mechanics to win that game.

Coach K got his third title in 2001, a particularly painful one for me to see at that.  My Terps pulled a (gasp) choke of epic proportion against the Blue Devils in the Final Four, blowing a 22-point lead.  Basically, my point is that Duke shouldn't have won any of those titles, and Coach K should still be the coach who can't win the big game.  He lost his other four NCAA finals.

But even at that, the Blue Devils played the game right.  They had great point guards, played a solid inside-out game and always played defense.  But sometime in the mid '90s, that changed.  The Duke teams of the last decade or so consistently play soft, regardless of personnel, and have a tendency to jack up tons of ill-conceived threes.  Sometimes, when they're making them, it works, but against genuinely good teams, it doesn't.  That's why the Duke teams of today aren't really legitimate championship contenders, despite consistently high seeds and ridiculous regular season records.  Coach K seems unwilling or unable to get his teams out of this trend, ever since 1993, when he let notorius gunner Jeff Capel run wild without consequence, throwing up shots that even Allen Iverson would think twice about taking.   Since then, Duke has been known more for producing an array of vastly over-rated shooting guards, from Capel to Trajan Langdon to J.J Redick, than any real championship-level success.

But perhaps the worst thing of all about Coach K is his arrogance.  You'd think the guy was Patton or somebody instead of a college basketball coach.  I ran across some old video tapes the other day, and one of them was Game 7 from the Heat-Pistons Eastern Conference Final a few years ago, and during one of the commercial breaks, wouldn't you know, there was an American Express commercial with none other than Mr. All-Time Leader of Men.  At the end of the commercial, Coach K actually said, in his usual humorless tone, "I don't think of myself as a basketball coach.  I think of myself as a leader who happens to coach basketball."  Gag.  That's a helluva noble sentiment to utter, especially when you're hocking credit cards.  What a guy.

Anyway, now he's the guy who saved American basketball.  And wasn't that image of the entire team draping their medals around his neck just oh so sweet?  I know it brought a tear to my eye, despite the fact that any #### off the street could have won a gold medal coaching that team.  All the talk about how miserably Larry Brown failed in 2004 and how Coach K stepped in to get the guys to play the right way again is so much bluster.  Compare the rosters of the 2004 team and the current model.  The 2008 champions are light years better and more experienced than the ill-conceived collection of inexperience and selfishness that took the floor in 2004.

So Coach K is now an American hero.  Yah!  Just what I always wanted to see.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a bad taste in my mouth.   I'll think I'll  go suck on a lemon.  I don't think I'm quite bitter enough.

Okay, no more criticizing the Lakers.  Geez, you'd think I insulted people's mothers or something.  The Lakers are a lock to win 70 games this season, and they'll go undefeated through the playoffs.  Kobe Bryant is the best player in the history of sports, Andrew Bynum will be the best center in the league this year, Pau Gasol will learn to play tough and Lamar Odom will finally bring the intensity every night.  I'm a convert.  Go Lakers!

No, really, I stand by everything I've said prior to that last paragraph.  The actual games may not bear me out, but I usually have good instincts about these things.  And I am already really excited to see how this season will play out.  Especially to watch Andrew Bynum.  I haven't seen him play all that much, compared to most other guys who will be under the kind of pressure he will be this year, and I really want to see whether or not he's the difference maker a lot of people seem to think he is.  Plus, I want to watch Portland and Golden State.  The Blazers are nearly everyone's pick to rise up into the West's pecking order, and I'd like to see Greg Oden actually on the floor for a change.  I'm still undecided about how much better they will be (or if they will be better at all).  The Warriors have a completely different look and I'm very curious to see what that means on the court.  They have talent all over the place, but are young and generally defenseless.  They are one of the teams I'm most interested in seeing in games that count.

I was watching some of the playoff games from last year, most notably the Houston-Utah series, the other day,  just to refresh myself with the Rockets to make certain I hadn't gone off the deep end as some have suggested.  One thing I realized is that I have probably underestimated the Jazz.  I am admittedly not the biggest Carlos Boozer fan, and AK 47 is a tad flighty to put it mildly, but I had forgotten about guys like Corey Brewer and Paul Milsap.  I've seen Kyle Korver play a lot when he was with the 76ers, and his role as designated 3-point shooter in Utah is a perfect fit for him, especially since he has few other skills.   But Deron Williams is why I've changed my tune.  He really is exceptional.  I still think Boozer is probably the Achilles heel for the team that will bring them down in the postseason, but they are clearly better than I had previously stated, and if they can improve upon their 19-29 road record of last year (including the playoffs) they can make the West a five horse race.

Wow, is Josh Howard an ####.  I still have a little optimism (very little, and fading by the day) about the Mavericks, I don't think they are done as many have said, but real championship contention is most likely out of the question.  If Howard's random acts of stupidity force Dallas to trade him, they will get nowhere near value in return at this point.  If they dump him just to clear him out, the Mavs will be hard-pressed to make the playoffs.  Drag Racing!  What a ####.

Does anybody really like International basketball?  I've been watching some of the Team USA warm up games and I just can't get into it.  The flow of the game is off somehow.  Admittedly, the games are warm ups, maybe the actual competition will be better, but I've never really enjoyed International games all that much in the past.  I think the team might actually be too deep.  No one gets the number of minutes they probably should and that's got to affect the rhythm within their own games.   I do like the physical play on the guards, though.  I think the NBA went too far in stopping contact on the perimeter.  It seems a little hypocritical that someone in the paint can get hammered and the chances of getting a foul called are about 50/50, but if you look cross-eyed at a guard out over the three point line, it's almost always a foul.

It's just not that exciting to me.  Of course, watching an All-Star team blow people out by 50 points doesn't make for enthralling television.  Even that "hard-fought defensive struggle" against Russia that they won by 20 points wasn't particularly interesting.  I never got the feeling that Russia could actually win that game.  There are probably only two or three teams that can beat the U.S., and I expect that will only happen if they get complacent in blowing people out.  I just hope the Olympics end without anyone suffering a major injury.  Can you imagine the backlash if Kobe or LeBron or Chris Paul blows out a knee somewhere along the way?  And for what?  Representing your country?  Come on, the guys in body armor, risking their lives in Iraq are representing their country.  These guys are playing in a basketball tournament on the cheap for an organization that reaps billions from "amateur" athletics and makes the NCAA look like a humanitarian group.  I can understand why NBA owners don't like their players competing in this.  Do you think the IOC or USA Basketball is going to reimburse an NBA team for their loss if someone gets hurt?  Wouldn't hold my breath.