Argentina clubs U.S. in title tilt

By The Associated Press     Jul 24, 2000

? Kansas University’s Drew Gooden and Nick Collison are headed home with silver not gold medals.

The Jayhawk sophomores combined for 12 points and eight rebounds Sunday as the United States fell to Argentina, 92-77, in the Confederation of Pan American Basketball Assns. World Championship for Young Men Qualifying Tourney championship contest.

The USA, Argentina and third-place Dominican Republic qualified for the 2001 FIBA World Championship for Young Men Tourney, to be held in Japan.

“I don’t think silver is great. Gold is the best,” Gooden told the Journal-World Sunday after his five-point, four rebound effort in the final.

Collison had seven points and four boards.

“Knowing we are Americans and have a little more talent than other countries, you expect to get a gold medal,” Gooden said. “We thought we’d win it, but these last few games have been close. I knew it’d be a close game and they ended up winning.”

The U.S. had defeated Argentina on Friday, 83-78.

“I don’t think we had that team chemistry like the other teams. Argentina and Brazil played together four years. We had guys come in from different schools in an all-star setting,” Gooden said.

“It’s nice to get the U.S. qualified, but you don’t want to give Argentina that motivation and confidence for next year.”

Collison averaged 8.8 points and 7.2 rebounds for the USA, which posted a 4-1 record in the tournament. Gooden averaged 8.4 points and 3.0 boards.

Carlos Delfina scored a game high 29 points for Argentina.

The United States, which had shot 51.7 percent and 41 percent from three-point range through its first four games, shot 36.2 percent from the field and 30.0 percent from beyond the arc against Argentina. Argentina shot 50 percent (28-56) from the field and 62.5 percent (10-16) from three-point range.

Argentina also out-rebounded the U.S., 37-29.

“They shot well and had a good game plan,” Gooden noted. “I think the thing I learned here was to play hard and try to learn to play with a team in a short period of time. I don’t think it was a matter of improving a great deal as a player or anything. It was another all-star experience for Nick and myself. It was great to represent the United States and go to another country, especially for free,” Gooden quipped.

Add a new name to KU’s basketball recruiting list. Erroll Knight, 6-foot-5 from Seattle, Wash., tells Fox sports that KU has already made a scholarship offer. Knight, who played well at the adidas camp in New Jersey and Big Time Tourney in Las Vegas, says KU and Washington lead Oregon, UCLA, UConn, Syracuse, Iowa State, Texas, USC and Utah. He averaged 15 points and eight boards a year ago.

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