Ramble On ...

The dogs days of summer and an overload of personal responsibilities requiring my time and attention will limit postings to The Blog at terrylyons.com for many of the weeks to come.

That said, here are a couple of random thoughts:

First, the men's Olympic Basketball team looked great in games against Greece and Spain this week. They will play Germany in the final preliminary game and then face the #4 finisher in the opposite pool in the quarterfinals. From where I'm watching from, that will be Australia. The Aussies face a tough Lithuanian team while Croatia will play Iran in their fifth and final prelim.

One thing you can bank on if they play Oz. The Aussies will not go down without a fight. Whether it was Shane Heal butting hard heads with Charles Barkley in '96 or Andrew Gaze taking down Vince Carter in 2000 to some scuffles in the 'friendly' leading up to these Games, the Aussies enjoy the tussle.

After that?

I refuse to even speculate or take anything for granted. I will say that the USA team is primed and ready to compete. Two good games (vs. Greece and Spain) were very important for the USA's confidence level and I'm sure the performances put the coaching staff in a better frame of mind. The USA is getting a little better each game and that is what it takes to win an Olympic tournament.

Some other general thoughts:

I was very glad to see that President Bush supported both the men's and women's USA basketball teams along with all the other athletes at the Games. USA Basketball President Val Ackerman had quite a treat sitting with the President ... Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are carrying the USA team while Deron Williams is playing at a very high level ... The coverage of the 2008 USA team is very different than that of 2004. The media (and that includes NBC) has been supportive and is praising the team's efforts for their actions on and off the court. The messages of respecting the opponent and the Olympics always comes through. It is a sincere viewpoint that was instilled in this team (from Coach K to Jerry Colangelo) right from the start ... Even Jim Lamply of NBC has had nice things to say about the USA basketball squad. Chris Collinsworth was all-out giddy when he took in the USA vs. China game ... Here is a typical posting of a fans' viewpoint on this edition of the USA men, taken from an ESPN.com post to Chris Sheridan's column:

"The team work attitude is what really sets this team apart. Plenty of superstars but no egos from any player or the coach (yes, I am looking at you, Larry Brown), everyone accepts his role on the team. All the losses in last few years have really help Team USA understand they need to approach international basketball differently and they have worked hard. Let's hope for a gold medal in a week."

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Mike Breen and Doug Collins have been doing a terrific job and the sideline reports by Craig Sagar have been pretty good. Terrific job by producer-director Howie Singer who is hired by NBC Sports for the Olympics.

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Look for Jason Kidd to play a more significant role now that it's crunch time, and I don't mean by scoring ... The USA has been playing very strong defense. Look for the number of pass deflections, steals and points of turnovers as the key stats for the USA to get to the gold medal stand.

And, a few non-basketball-related Rambles:

I have nothing to say about John Edwards. A few of the Blog readers, knowing that my Democratic Primary support was behind Edwards, were calling for a posting on the recent Edwards news. Like the Beatles once sang, I say, "let it be." What's the sense in piling on or getting on a soapbox. I will leave it alone.

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Funny, but I have no desire to head out to Shea Stadium or Yankee Stadium for a "last time in the park" run. Not sure why, just other, more important things to wory about.

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We're looking at a Toyota Rav4 as the vehicle of choice for the Lyons-Martin family. I will note that the 4 is the same keyboard key as the $.

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That is all. Not sure when the next posting will be, but thanks for tuning in now and then to check.

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