USA Drops U19 Title Game

Well, at least now Michael Beasley can leave the land of crappy food and return home to Manhattan, and his mom's homecooking. Team USA lost to host Serbia today in the U19 World Championship Game, 74-69.

Beasley had massive foul trouble during the tournament, picking up 20 personal fouls in nine games, limiting him to 17 minutes per game (stats here). Despite the limited playing time, Beasley scored 12.8 points per game, second most on the team. He also pulled down 5.3 boards per game. His overall shooting was pretty good (56.7 percent), but from three-point land he was woeful (one of 10). Who am I to nitpick though, it was a pretty good tournament for Beasley.

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Nice article about Josh Freeman in the Manhattan Mercury today. It's mostly a bunch of offseason-speak about how he wants to be a leader and has worked hard in the weight room, but it's a good read nonetheless. Also interesting to hear he's up to 260 lbs. now, although he estimates he'll play at more like 250. Considering the average (projected) starting linebacker in the Big 12 North weighs about 230 lbs., Freeman will be a difficult target to take down.

Now if the line can just keep those guys off him...



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Big week coming up here in the Cat Zone. The Big 12 media days are upon us, and I'm sure I'll have plenty to say about the paid writers' predictions. Particularly if I can get my hands on the print copy of Tom Shatel's columns for the Omaha World-Herald.

That said, us bloggers have some good stuff in store, too. Stay tuned...

Oh yeah, and congrats to Padraig Harrington for his big win at the British Open today. That was one of the most exciting final rounds I've ever watched.