Bo Hamburger
Years ago

Tankonia 2: Spain v Brazil (men's)

An interesting piece by ESPN's Marc Stein about today's Spain v Brazil matchup:

...Spain and Brazil both appear to have great incentive to lose in their final installment of men's Olympic basketball pool play.

The winner of the Spain-Brazil encounter would finish second in Group B and advance to a likely quarterfinal matchup with Argentina, with Team USA looming in the semifinals.

The loser, by contrast, would fall into a quarterfinal matchup with France and likely see Russia in the semifinals if it can get past the French, thereby avoiding the Americans until the gold-medal game.

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paul  
Years ago

I agree with this one.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

the system is obviously retarded - why not just emulate hockey and have the top 2 in each pool go direct to the semi's?

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LC  
Years ago

Yep - a definite game in which the losing team could benefit more than if they played to win...

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Is it safe to assume that their is overtime in case of a draw?

Would have been funny to see a draw which would have meant Australia would have finished third.

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paul  
Years ago

Maybe both teams get thrown out for tanking badminton style and we finish second!

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Bo Hamburger  
Years ago

Why can't the teams swap uniforms and then play to 'win'? Let's see the FIBA bylaw on that. :)

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Anonymous  
Years ago

i guess it's their own fault for not beating Russia. It's definitely the fairest system to use. It only seems unfair because basketball is percieved as lopsided due to USA's dominance.

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XY  
Years ago

Funnily enough, it just so coincidentally happened that Spain, the world no. 2, somehow managed to squander a double digit lead for most of the game, and a six point lead with five minutes to go, to lose by 6 (they got as far as being down by 9).

Who would have thought. Without seeing the game, that must just be one of those mysteries of life.

Would love to see Spain disqualified on the badminton principle. But they were, presumably, more subtle than just continually serving into the net.

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paul  
Years ago

Yeah, they must have just had an off quarter ;-). Works well for Brazil too though, I think both teams would prefer their neighbourly QF opponents.

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