Coach K, USA Basketball moving to new levels together

"Mike Krzyzewski was explaining why he re-upped for three more years of volunteer service to coach the U.S. men's Olympic basketball team. He unconsciously fingered the gold medal ring he earned for coaching the U.S. to victory in Beijing while trying to sum up the experience," writes Lesley Visser in a piece on Coach K and the USA Basketball Men's National Team.

DT & Cappie Get Some Blogging Love, Other Olympians in the News

Wil Cantrell blogs about the Sun in "The Bright Side of the Sun." Until this week, he hated everything about women's hoops, even though he's got two talented U.S. Olympians in Phoenix in Cappie Pondexter and Diana Taurasi and a slew of other top-notch hoop stars. Well, he's now an admitted convert and writes about it in his "Man's Guide to the Phoenix Mercury." ... also today Lisa Leslie is noted for being the first person to hit the 6k point mark in the W. On of the original cornerstones of the league, Leslie is in the midst of her farewell season. Something tells me, however, that even after she hangs up her hightops at the end of the year, we haven't seen the last of LL. ... Sylvia Fowles and Candice Dupree, two USA gold medalists (Dupree got hers at the '05 World University Games playing alongside three future Olympic gold medalists in Seimone Augustus, Fowles and Pondexter), are meshing together and doing great things for the Chicago Sky, writes Mechelle Voepel.

Yo's No. 33 Should Be Retired

From Bill Bradley of the Sacramento Bee: When the Kings were preparing to retire the numbers of Vlade Divac and Chris Webber last season, some fans said they was undeserving of the honor because neither had won a championship in Sacramento.

If that's the crucial factor, then I have one jersey the Maloofs should hang from the Arco Arena rafters: Yolando Griffith's No. 33.

Battle Tested Summer

2009 USA World University Games Team member Talor Battle is back at Penn State a much-improved player than he was last year. Not to say he wasn't good before, but after playing with and against some of the toughest college players in the world, Battle will be more of a threat to opponents in the coming season.