PODCAST: Are you happy with Team USA and Olympic Basketball?

The medal round of Olympics basketball started today, with Matthew Dellavedova scoring 15 points to help Australia steamroll Lithuania 90-64 in the first game of the day.

Team USA takes on Argentina later this afternoon, but following the United States' narrow 94-91 victory over Serbia on Friday, Frank and I got together to discuss Team USA's lackluster performance thus far in the competition and Olympic hoops more broadly.

(Since we recorded the podcast on Saturday, Team USA struggled in its final game in the group stage, hanging on for a 100-97 win over a French team playing without Tony Parker. The struggles meant that almost all of our points from the podcast were still relevant. Hooray!)

Episode 17: Olympic hoops and Team USA's likability problem

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In our discussion of the team's performance, we discussed the following topics:

• As Team USA plays, do you find yourself cheering for the Americans or are you tempted to root for their underdog opponents?
• Which player(s) on Team USA have you actually enjoyed watching during the tournament?
• Should the tournament become an Under-23 tournament? Should the United States send their U-23 squad even if the rest of the world doesn't?
• Is the rest of the world catching up in basketball like we had all predicted after the 2004 Summer Olympics?
• If Khris Middleton took Harrison Barnes spot, would your interest in Team USA dramatically change?
• If you could bring one aspect of Olympic basketball to the NBA, what would it be? (The answer here is so obvious. This isn't even really a teaser. It's just us telling you exactly what we're going to discuss.)
• Are we, as a podcast, completely unpatriotic?