Mike Brown: "Kind of the same old song" / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

After failing to earn a single victory in the Olympic basketball tournament, Nigeria's head coach Mike Brown pointed at the same issues that have been haunting his team. Despite having a strong pre-Olympic showing (Nigeria defeated Team USA), the African team couldn't put together consistent team effort, especially on the defensive end.

Player of the Game EFF 14 Achille Polonara Points 13 Accuracy 5-8 Rebounds 5 Assists 2

"It's kind of the same old song. We haven't done a good job of taking care of the basketball as evident, and that is the case right there. Don't let Italy score 27 points off our turnovers. We talked about that going into the game, we have to take care of the basketball. I think out of the 12 teams there might be only one other team that was worse than us. We told our guys going in, we got to take care of the free-throw line because we can't keep giving up 25 points a game off of turnovers," explained Brown after his team's last game.

"Then we got to get back in transition defense, and we did a decent job of it besides that first quarter, keeping them off the free-throw line. But we struggled with our turnovers and every time we turn it over they scored on us. On top of that, they really hurt us on the offensive glass. We gave up all those offensive rebounds in that fourth quarter, that was tough."

"You got to give Italy credit. We went on a run, we took the lead, but they stayed composed and they just chipped away at it. They played solid defense, they shared the ball, they moved the bodies and they got the win," finished former NBA head coach Mike Brown.

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