ORLANDO – The U.S. Men’s Senior National Team won’t be taking any easy route to London this summer to defend their Olympic gold medal.
Their training camp and five-game exhibition schedule, announced here Friday morning, includes games against Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Great Britain and Spain, and training camps in four cities in a 15,000-mile global grind. It will be the most rigorous process they have undertaken since Jerry Colangelo took over the top job seven years ago. And that’s exactly the way Colangelo said he and coach Mike Kzryzewski wanted it.
“There was a time when I inherited the program, I learned a lot about how things were done in the past and there may have been easier ways to go,” Colangelo said. “There may have been easier ways to go. Personally, Coach K and I feel the best way to go is to play the best competition in advance of the Olympics and that’s exactly what is taking place. I think this is the best way for us to get ready.”
Colangelo said it was an easy buy-in for all involved because the attitude around the world has changed in the 20 years since the original Dream Team took the world by storm.
“I don’t think anyone had any second thoughts,” Colangelo. “Play the best. That’s how you get better. That’s how you get prepared. I think we all shared the same philosophy.”
