BARCELONA — From the betcha didn’t realize category …
Guess who is the defending FIBA-Americas champion in tomorrow’s USA-Mexico game in the Round of 16 at the World Cup? That would be the team that is a 37 1/2 point underdog — Mexico.
One year ago, Mexico pulled off one of the unlikeliest tournament victories in FIBA history by winning the FIBA-Americas tourney in Caracas, Venezuela, as Gustavo Ayon was named the tournament MVP. It was the first time in 40 years that Mexico qualified for the World Cup. (The United States did not send a team, having qualified for the WC by winning the 2012 Olympics in London.)
Mexico went 2-3 in pool play, defeating Angola and South Korea to get out of Group D — the weakest group aside from Group C, which was won by the Americans. In other pool play games, Mexico lost by 13 to Lithuania, by 21 to Slovenia and by 8 to Australia.
The tournament should get interesting now (aside from this game and the Spain-Senegal game, in which the host nation is favored by 34 1/2), as teams are playing to stay alive or go home. Once we get to the quarterfinals, the penalty for losing is playing in the qualification bracket. Yeah, nothing gets your pulse beating like a relegation game to determine whether you are 5th or 7th in a tournament.
For those needing to get caught up on team USA, some notes of interest:
_ Anthony Davis is the team’s leading scorer at 15.8 ppg — two points better than Kenneth Faried, who is leading the team in rebounding with 7.8 per game. Did you hear the one about Manimal and Uncle Mo?
_ No one is getting more playing time than Kyrie Irving, who is averaging a team-leading 23 minutes per game, shooting 52.6 percent from the field, including 50 percent from 3-point range. His backup, Derrick Rose, is shooting 8-for-32 for the tournament with 12 assists and 8 turnovers. For some reason, whenever these types of Rose stats are mentioned, Chicago Bulls fans think we are picking on him. Only Kobe Bryant’s fans take things as personally as D-Rose Nation.
_ Guess who leads the team in steals? It is James Harden, whose defense is famously non-existent — unless you talk to the Team USA coaches, who were raving about it back in training camp in Las Vegas. Harden has 13 steals and 22 assists — both team-highs.
_ Andre Drummond is the only player to register a DNP-CD. He got it in Thursday’s pool play victory over Ukraine, the Americans’ third game in three nights. One thing Drummond has done better than expected is make free throws. He has attempted three and made two, giving him a higher FT average than Mason Plumlee (2-for-6), DeMarcus Cousins (10-for-16) and Rudy Gay (3-for-6). Plumlee is the only player on the wrong side of the plus-minus ledger, registering a minus-6 for the tourney. The team leader in plus/minus is Harden at plus-106.
_ Kenneth Faried is shooting 79.1 percent from the field, which leads the tournament. (So far, he is my tournament MVP). Jonas Valanciunas is right behind him at 78.1. (ICYMI, Lithuania had a great fourth quarter to defeat Slovenia on Thursday to win Group D, which saves them from facing Team USA until the semifinals. Australia also found a way to stay out of the US side of the bracket, tanking its final game against Angola.
_ Mexico has two NBA players — free agent Ayon, who is averaging team-highs of 15.8 points and 7.5 rebounds, and Brooklyn Nets backup point guard Jorge Gutierrez, averaging 9.6 points, 2.4 assists and 2.4 turnovers.
Finally, one last note from Barcelona as a reward for reading down this far (probably wondering why Catherine Bach is pictured above). After 12 hours of observation, it appears Daisy Dukes are back in style — at least over here. Nothing wrong with that.
Chris Sheridan is publisher and editor-in-chief of SheridanHoops.com. He has covered every senior U.S. national team since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Follow him on Twitter.