Varejão in Brazilian NT (this summer)

[linelson13]

When Splitter played in Europe was a good defensive player (basketball FIBA baby). In offense, Tiago had a good footwork, but jump shoot...

In NBA, Vareja and Nene >>>> Splitter in defensive end.

Brazil best defensive team? Ruben Magnano ftw!

[linelson13]

by Fiba

04/08/2012
Comments: 0

OLYM - Varejao living the Olympic dream
LONDON (Olympics) - After suffering an agonizing one-point defeat at the hands of Russia on Thursday, Brazil bounced back in the best possible way on Saturday by trouncing China 98-59.

The result saw the South Americans improve to 3-1 in Group B, allowing them to punch their ticket for the Quarter-Final stages in this, their first Olympic appearance since 1996.

A vital part of Brazil's success in recent years has been Anderson Varejao. The 2.11m big man first broke onto the world stage for his country at the 2002 FIBA World Championship and playing at the Olympics has been a dream of his ever since.

Now the dream has turned into reality and the 29-year-old is enjoying every moment of the experience in London.

Following his team's comfortable defeat of China, Varejao took time out to talk to FIBA.com

FIBA: Anderson, congratulations on the win. Can you talk about the mindset you had for today's game?
Varejao: It's great. It was a good game, it wasn't an easy game. We made it look like it was easy because we played hard from the beginning. We played very aggressively on defense and we held Yi Jianlian to four or five points something like that and he's averaging almost 20 points a game. I believe our defense was the difference today.

FIBA: With the win you can look ahead to the Quarter-Finals.
Varejao: It feels great but we still have to think about the next game which is against Spain. We know it's an important game for us. We're going to have to see what we're going to do to play against them. And then we're going to start thinking about the Quarter-Finals, which is great. It feels good to know that we're going to the Quarter-Finals and try to fight for a medal.

FIBA: It's been a long time since Brazil last played in the Olympics. What has your experience been like so far?
Varejao: It's a great feeling not just being here but being here representing your country. For us we know what happened before and that's why it's been 16 years - we always had injury problems in all of the pre-Olympics. So now we're here and we have a chance to fight for a medal which makes it even better.

FIBA: Is there any team that you fear?
Varejao: When you come to a competition like this, you have to beat everybody to win. Our goal is to get to the Final.

FIBA: What's the difference between this Brazil team and the one we saw last year at the FIBA Americas Championship or the one from the FIBA World Championship in 2010 ?
Varejao: I'm healthy now. (In Turkey) I was hurt. It's a lot different being healthy and just helping the national team. We have other big bodies with Tiago (Splitter) and Nene (Hilario). It feels good to finally be 100 percent and be able to help the team.

FIBA: How important is it to exploit that height and size advantage that the three of you present?
Varejao: We need to play hard for the whole game. We know that if we get in foul trouble we're going to have another guy coming off the bench and playing at the same level or maybe even higher. It's a good thing to have big men like that.

FIBA: Finally, in head coach Ruben Magnano, you have a former Gold Medal wiinner. Can you talk about his impact on the team?
Varejao: He's our leader, he's a great coach who know a lot about the game. He gives us a lot of shortcuts in the game, what to do. He studied the game a lot. He makes it easier to play the game.

OLYM - Varejao living the Olympic dream*|*FIBA.COM

[Pioneer10]

Splitter doesn't fit the mold of tough brazilian big men like AV and Nene. The dude is soft and if he was tougher would be a good starter in the NBA.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

[supermario21]

Even though I wanted them to lose, Brazil sure looked impressive in an 88-82 win over Spain. Varejao had 7 pts, 7 rebounds (5 offensive) and 2 steals in just over 22 minutes of play (4 fouls). Splitter played well as well. What made the victory more impressive was they rallied from a 10 point deficit in the 4th quarter with all bench players (who had struggled previously and against the USA in exhibition play). That loss at the buzzer against Russia now cost big time, as Brazil will play Argentina then the USA most likely. Brazil surely must be confident though, and Doug Collins had nothing but praise for Magnano and was especially impressed with Varejao.

[melecoaze]

This win against Spain is gonna get us fucked later. But i'm proud of the guys, they played they're hearts out

[Tornicade]

Just in case anyone confused about seeding . unless Argentina pulls of a 4th quarter 20 point comeback. US will move into spot 1A. France 2A and Argentina 3A, Lithuania 4A,

Group A

Rk	Team	GP	Pts
1	France	5	9
2	United States	4	8
3	Argentina	4	7
4	Lithuania	5	7
5	Nigeria	5	6
6	Tunisia	5	5

More details

Group B

Rk	Team	GP	Pts
1	Russia	5	9
2	Brazil	5	9
3	Spain	5	8
4	Australia	5	8
5	Great Britain	5	6
6	China	5	5

Quarter-Finals

The eight (8) teams qualified from the Preliminary Round will play the direct elimination as follows:

Game 31: A2 (France) vs. B3 (Spain)
Game 32: B1 (Russia) vs. A4 (Lithuania)
Game 33: B2 (Brazil) vs. A3 (Argentina)
Game 34: A1 (US) vs. B4 (Australia)

The winners of the above games will qualify for the Semi-Finals. The losers will be eliminated and will not play anymore.

Semi-Finals

The winners of the Quarter-Finals will play for places 1-4 in the following format:

Game 35: Winner 31 vs. Winner 32
Game 36: Winner 33 vs. Winner 34

The winners of these games will play in the Gold Medal Game; the losers will play in the Bronze Medal Game.

Finals

The Finals will be played in the following format:
Game 37: Loser 35 vs. Loser 36 (3rd- 4th)
Game 38: Winner 35 vs. Winner 36 (1st -2nd)

A win Guarantees a medal game for Brazil.

[linelson13]

http://london2012.fiba.com/pages/eng...6232/game.html

[Snowblind]

http://london2012.fiba.com/pages/eng...6232/game.html

Such an ugly looking form on his jumper/freethrows.

[Daniel89]

Brazil playing now... http://www.thefirstrow.eu/watch/1345...ina,-mens.html

Argentina hits almost everything lol

[JawJuttinAsasin]

Brazil is out and it seems Varejao came away unscathed. Good as it gets for the Cavs.

[supermario21]

I was curious why Varejao sat out much of the second half. Going with Splitter more was a mistake IMO, especially considering Splitter can't shoot FTs or anything past 3 feet. Magnano also should have played more small ball in the first half because Nocioni was able to burn Varejao/Splitter because they aren't used to defending out beyond the 3 point line. Overall though, Andy came out healthy and looks improved, quick on his feet, and his 15 footer seems solid as well.

[Pioneer10]

I was curious why Varejao sat out much of the second half. Going with Splitter more was a mistake IMO, especially considering Splitter can't shoot FTs or anything past 3 feet. Magnano also should have played more small ball in the first half because Nocioni was able to burn Varejao/Splitter because they aren't used to defending out beyond the 3 point line. Overall though, Andy came out healthy and looks improved, quick on his feet, and his 15 footer seems solid as well.

Yeah, I noticed the same thing. There has been a couple of games including the Russian loss where Magnano seems to forget he has the Wild Thing on the bench. Not that impressed with Splitter these olympics and Nene isn't a good defensive player

[linelson13]

Sad

[Pioneer10]

MVP OF THE GAME: For Argentina: Brazil's coach, Ruben Magnano, who buried Barbosa in the first half (just six minutes) and Varejao in the second half (just four minutes), leading to Varejao storming off as quickly as possible after the game. In Magnano's defense, anytime you can play Guilherme Giovannoni as many minutes as Anderson Varejao in a do-or-die Olympics game, you have to do it. I'm already dreading the day when Magnano is named the next Clippers coach.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...pic-hoopalooza

[mds]

Such an ugly looking form on his jumper/freethrows.

Yeah, his form is awful.