Playing for the Bronze

I'm a little shocked that Team USA lost. In a semfinal (to Russia). In a final, I could deal with. But in the semis?

(We're talking about the women's FIBA World Championships, currently ongoing in Brazil.)

It also irks me that it takes a loss to immediately hit the front page of ESPN. All the winning they've done, and it's the loss that makes the news.

The U.S. women no longer rule the world of basketball. Team USA lost to Russia 75-68 in the World Championship semifinals Thursday, snapping a 50-game international winning streak. It was the first loss by the Americans since the '94 Worlds.

Dang, I'm disappointed. I didn't actually watch the game, but the word is there were very questionable substitution patterns on the part of our coaching staff. And Russia didn't even play that well. We just played that badly. The phrase of the day is, "At least it's not the Olympics."

Dang.