Global game: U.S. faces stout competition in pursuit of Olympics gold

About the Globe Trotter series: The Spokesman-Review is planning to connect with Gonzaga coach Mark Few periodically over the next month to highlight his on-court and off-court experience as an assistant coach on the U.S. Olympic team.

Team USA and assistant coach Mark Few should have a pretty good idea how the Americans stack up against some of the best competition in the world before traveling to France later this month for the Summer Olympics.

Case in point: The U.S. tangles with Serbia on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, the third of the team’s five exhibition matchups and the same foe the Americans will face in an Olympics group phase opener on July 28th.

The U.S. holds exhibition wins over Canada (86-72) and Australia (98-92) with upcoming matchups in London against South Sudan on Saturday and Germany on Monday. The U.S. held comfortable leads in both wins but both were tight deep into the third and fourth quarters.

The U.S. is No. 1 in FIBA’s latest Olympics power rankings. Serbia is No. 4, Canada is No. 5, South Sudan is No. 12 (last) and Germany is No. 2.

“I think that’s what probably everybody needs to understand,” Few said last month. “This thing is so much different than back in the day when the Dream Team and some of those teams came out. Now if you look at the All-NBA (first) team, four of the five were not from the United States and they are all playing for other countries.

“And if you look at some of these rosters, in some instances their whole team is NBA guys and other instances their whole starting five is NBA guys. I mean the world has really caught up.”

The U.S. remains heavy favorites to win its fifth consecutive gold medal and 17th in 20 appearances. The Americans absorbed losses to Lithuania, Germany and Canada at the 2023 FIBA World Cup in Manila. Germany defeated Serbia to win the championship and Canada edged the U.S. to claim the bronze.

The U.S. captured gold in the 2020 Olympics (actually delayed to 2021 by the COVID-19 pandemic), avenging a group phase loss to France with an 87-82 win in the gold-medal contest. The team’s plus 120-point differential was lower than all but two U.S. gold-medal winning teams (plus 85 in 1936 and plus 86 in 1976).

The United States’ FIBA roster was strong last summer, but only two players – Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Halliburton – were named to the Olympic team. LeBron James, Steph Curry, Anthony Davis, Joel Embiid, Devin Booker, Kevin Durant (who has been sidelined by a calf injury), Jayson Tatum and Edwards headline a star-studded roster.

“Just a tremendous group of incredibly established players and people, and just icons of modern-day basketball pretty much,” Few said.

Tatum was joined on the All-NBA first team by Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece), Luka Doncic (Slovenia), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada) and MVP Nikola Jokic (Serbia).

Few mentioned Germany, Canada and Serbia – three teams the U.S. is quite familiar with – as teams with gold-medal aspirations. Germany is led by FIBA World Cup MVP Dennis Schroder, center Daniel Theis and the Wagner brothers Franz and Moritz.

Canada’s roster includes former Zags Kelly Olynyk and Andrew Nembhard and a starting backcourt of Gilgeous-Alexander and Jamal Murray. Serbia has three-time NBA MVP Jokic and former GU forward Filip Petrusev.

France, No. 3 in the FIBA power rankings, features NBA Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama and four-time NBA defensive player of the year Rudy Gobert. No. 6 Greece is led by two-time MVP Antetokounmpo.