Welcome to The Hangover, a semi-regular offseason item I’ve elected to start on weeks such as this, when children/work/travel/obligation have elected to cut deeply into both my subconscious and my time (or, failing at that, when there’s nothing particularly noteworthy happening). The promise of two things per week holds true, and thus has been born this attempt at offering news, tips, tricks and tales for better living until college basketball returns.
How is this different than just ranting and raving about whatever I want? Mind your own damn business is how.
What if we FIBA’d?
Little thing about me: I wish we’d go back to the old way of representing ourselves on the international stage, where the seasoned pros stayed home and we used it as a chance to showcase our up-and-coming young stars on an international stage. I know I’d get tired of this fairly quickly, and the nation as a whole would come unglued the first time we finished fourth in some major international tournament (I remember the Athens Olympic debacle, we don’t handle it well when we lost at things we should win), but it would be fun for a little while.
I propose a middle ground: let’s make this like Olympic soccer, when teams can take three players older than age-24. Given the youth movement for basketball, I’d lower that to age-23, which would alter this year’s roster like this (likely):