Sue and the Mask

"The Brazilian fans might be seeing a mask in their future".

I sure hope she isn't talking about the presidential elections in October...
The change of guards on Team USA is going to be interesting. For as long as I can remember, it has been either Teresa Edwards or Dawn Staley running the show. Now both have retired and Team USA will look weird, at least for this casual fan. I would have to think Sue will have no problems running the point because Anne Donovan will be there for her. If it were Van Chancellor, then I could see things getting a little rough for her. What is weird is that they didn't select any backup PG. We'll probably see a guard with good ballhandling skills running the point when Sue gets a break.
Talking about PG's, old ones, I can't believe we haven't found a new one for ourselves. Since Magic Paula retired, it's been Helen Luz. See, I like Helen, but she's no Magic Paula. That would be akin to saying that you like Chris Paul, but he's no Magic Johnson. Stupid, I know. The thing is, it gets worse. When Helen leaves, there's no backup PG. Adriana is not an option. The talent is there somewhere, in our corn fields, and nobody is plucking it. The youth programs are non-existent, the junior teams barely get playing time together, there's no exchange, no development. We have a great coach in Paulo Bassul. He knows how to work with young talent. He led Brazil in the 2003 Under 21 World Champs and we finished second only to a US team that had Alana Beard, Lindsay Whalen, Seimone Augustus, Cappie Pondexter, just to name a few. It's insane to think nobody from that team has made it to the National Team. Paulo was an assistant coach with Barbosa. He quit because he couldn't stand to be working with someone whose basketball knowledge dates back to the 70's.
Well, I did warn you about the crankiness part...