VEN - Eric Musselman's second blog

We trained long and hard in Venezuela, Argentina and Uruguay and finally arrived in Mar del Plata three days before the FIBA Americas Championship.

The bus trip from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata was five hours.

Most of the teams are staying at the same hotel and eat meals in one large dining room with tables reserved for each team. It´s nice because it gives players and coaches time to interact and socialize. One of the assistant coaches of Canada is Scott Roth, a former high school teammate of mine. It's great to be able to spend time with him. I have also enjoyed talking with Canada's Head Coach Leo Rautins and Dominican Republic Coach John Calapari and assistant coaches Billy Bayno and Dell Harris. I've also had the chance to spend time with players on other teams that I have coached.

The first night in Mar del Plata, we practiced at "Punto Sur", a sport club 20 minutes from the hotel. It was a nice facility but the gym was pretty cold. On Monday, we had a great shoot-around in the arena "Polideportivo Islas Malvinas" where we play the tournament. Former NBA great Gail Goodrich was at practice because he is working as a TV analyst for FIBA.

Pre-Olympics

August 30 v Brazil

Our first game was on Tuesday against Brazil. They are extremely well coached. Our staff worked hard to prepare for this one. Daniel Seoane broke down film to show the team and Brad Greenberg did the walk through of Brazil plays. The guys gave a great effort on the court and played a strong game, but Brazil's experience showed as they have played together for so many years and knew how to close the game. Brazil point guard Marcelo Huertas had a phenomenal floor game and played well down the stretch. Greivis Vasquez played his heart out for us and got to the foul line 11 times and had seven assists to go with 26 points.

August 31 v Dominican Republic

Our second game had an early 11:30am start. We played with great enthusiasm and effort and went to a zone defense for most of the game. The Dominican Republic has one of the best big men in the world - NBA All Star Al Horford. We felt a zone might be able to neutralize him a bit. However the Dominican Republic has a deep team with former NBA player Louis Flores and current NBA player Charlie Villanueva coming off the bench for them. No other team in the tournament has current or former NBA players coming off the bench for them. Flores had a strong fourth quarter and was a key to the Dominicans beating us 92-89. Oscar Torres had 19 points in 28 minutes for us and Vasquez nearly had a triple-double with 16 points, nine assists and 10 rebounds.

September 1 v Cuba

We played our best game of the tournament today as our backs were against the wall after two very tough losses. It was a must win for us and our players really responded as we beat Cuba 106-60. We got great play from both starting guards (Greivis Vasquez and David Cubillan) today and our bench was terrific as Dwight Lewis and Nester Colmenares, two players who have not gotten an opportunity to play much, both did this time and were terrific. Cuba was led in scoring by point guard Alexis Mestre (six 3-pointers, 26pts).

Friday, September 2

Our staff will scout the Cuba v Canada game and then head to our 2pm practice to begin the preparations for Canada. We have a bye after three games in three nights. The Canada contest on Saturday will be a physical game as Canada has played great defense throughout the first part of the tournament. Their defense is keyed by Miami Heat center Joel Anthony and they have two great outside shooters in Carl English and New York Knick Andy Rautins, as well as NBA first round draft pick Cory Joseph.

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.

FIBA