The Olympic basketball team is down to eight and happily, the US is still in it. This didn't seem certain during exhibition play, nor after the ugly loss to France, but things look much better after big wins over Iran and the Czech Republic.
Here are the matchups for the first round of knockout play:
- Germany vs. Slovenia
- US vs. Spain
- Italy vs. France
- Argentina vs. Australia
As you see, Team USA opens with old foe Spain. We mean that in two ways.
First, Spain has been legitimately great and one of the toughest teams for the US to beat during the last 12 years when Mike Krzyzewski ran the program.