VEN - Eric Musselman's fifth blog and all-tournament team

Wednesday, September 7 - Venezuela 110 Panama 74

This was by far the best overall day for the tournament with every game having great meaning. R.C. Buford, the general manager of the San Antonio Spurs, and New York Knicks scout Scott McGuire, were both scouting. The first game went down to the wire as Canada beat Uruguay. We had the second game and played our best offensive game of the tournament. Coming into the game, we led the tournament in scoring with an average of 92.7 points per game and free throw percentage (78.4%). We are second in 3-point percentage (39.1%). Today we continued to excel in those three categories as we scored 110 points and shot 16 of 32 from three-point range (50%) and 8-of-10 from the foul line. We continue to score early in the shot clock in transition as we outscored Panama 30-2 in fast-break points. The best stat of the game, however, was 32 assists on 43 field goals and only eight turnovers. Greivis Vasquez came into the game as the tournament's second leading scorer (behind Al Horford) and GV had 24 points in 25 minutes. Oscar Torres had 16 points and nailed four 3-pointers. For Panama, they where led in scoring by forward Josimar Ayarza, who had 30 points. We had one of our better defensive efforts as we held Panama's top four scorers (Gary Forbes, Danilio Pinnock, Ruben Garces and Jaime Lloreda) to a combined 33 points.

This win means we control our own destiny in the Thursday game against Uruguay. With a win, we would finish the tournament in fifth place and qualify next summer for another pre-Olympic Qualifier (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament).

We had our team lunch post game and then the coaching staff began its preparation for Thursday's game against Uruguay. The two night games featured four excellent teams as Argentina played Brazil and the Dominican Republic played Puerto Rico. We decided to have a single-minded focus and as a team ate together at 8:30PM and then watched film on Uruguay tendencies from 9PM to 10PM.

Thursday, September 8 - Venezuela v Uruguay

The day will start with a team breakfast at 10:30am and we will pass out the scouting reports for the players to review. On the bus ride to the arena today, we will have video rolling on Uruguay to get one last look at our opponent.

Friday September 9

The Top 4 teams will begin preparation. Our team will be headed home. Most everyone will take the seven-hour flight from Argentina to Caracas, Venezuela, and I will head from Argentina to San Francisco on a 20-hour day ahead. Then some family time and then off to Los Angeles to begin working for the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the NBA Development League. Two of our coaches used this opportunity to get new jobs as Brad Greenberg will be the head coach of Bucaneros de la Guaira in the Venezuelan Liga Professional De Baloncesto (LPB) league and work for a tremendous owner, Rufo John. Daniel Seoane will be an assistant coach for Bigua of Montevideo, Uruguay, in the Liga Uruguaya De Basket League (LUB). Argentina , Brazil , Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic will now get ready for the next stage of the tournament which begins Saturday.

Tournament Awards as our staff viewed it:

First Team
PT - Carlos Arroyo - Puerto Rico
PG - Greivis Vasquez - Venezuela
G - Emanuel Ginobili - Argentina
PF - Luis Scola - Argentina
C- Al Horford - Dominican Republic

Second Team
G - Marcelo Huertas - Brazil
PG - David Cubillan - Venezuela
SF - Andrés Nocioni - Argentina
PF - Jack Michael Martinez - Dominican Republic
C - Daniel Santiago - Puerto Rico

Third Team
PG - Jose 'JJ' Barea - Puerto Rico
G/F - Carlos Delfino - Argentina
F/G - Oscar Torres - Venezuela
PF - Hector Romero - Venezuela
C- Joel Anthony - Canada

Honorable Mention:
PG - Pablo Prigioni - Argentina
OG - Gary Forbes - Panama
OG - Enrique Martinez - Paraguay
OG - Danilo Pinnock - Panama
OG - Carl English - Canada
G/F - Francisco Garcia - Dominican Republic
F - Guilherme Giovannoni - Brazil
PF- Esteban Batista - Uruguay
PF - Ruben Garces - Panama
PF - Renaldo Balkman - Puerto Rico
F/C - Jamie Lloreda - Panama
F - Guillermo Araujo - Paraguay
F - Jose Fabio - Paraguay
C- Rafael Hettsheimer - Brazil
F/C - Joan Luis - Cuba
C - Tiago Splitter -Brazil

Top Young Players:
G - Vitor Alves Benite - Brazil
PG - Cory Joseph - Canada
G - Juan Pablo Pineiro - Cuba
OG - Andrew Rautins - Canada
F - Windi Graterol - Venezuela
F/C - Gregory Echenique - Venezuela
PF - Mathias Calfani - Uruguay
C - Kelly Olynk - Canada

MVP - Emanuel Ginobili

Eric Musselman is making his bow as the coach of Venezuela at the FIBA Americas Championship. An American who has coached in the NBA and NBDL, Musselman is blogging for FIBA.com on events in Mar del Plata - the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament.

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