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Leading up to the Senior Men's and Women's Olympic qualifying tournaments in South America later this month and in early September, the Development Men's National Team made up primarily of CIS players lost to Serbia today in China but still come away with the Silver Medal. As I had commented earlier to a Twitter reader, that is one more medal than a certain southern neighbour is not getting in this event. Big shout to all the athletes and coaches on the team for bringing one back for us.

The United States continued their run through the World University Games unblemished, racking up their 6th win in so many competitions in China. The gold medalists were the only team of the 15 to go undefeated in the games, and outscored their opponents 587-317. The women reached the 100-point mark in three of their six games, including the 101-66 win over Taipei for the gold. The US team was led over the smaller Taipei team in the gold-medal game with overpowering interior play coupled with the shooters' touch from outside to secure the easy victory. The superior play by Elena Delle Donne of Delaware, the Ogwumike sisters of Stanford, and Skylar Diggins of Notre Dame were the standouts of the day, amongst a total team effort of domination. In international play this summer, the US women have won three gold medals (U16, U19, WUG) and gone 19-1 in total showing their place as the strongest country in the world for women's basketball.

The USA women have gone 5-0 in competition thus far in the World University Games, played in Shenzhen, China. In the semifinal match with Australia, their closest contest, the US was led by Elena Delle Donne's 22 points and 11 rebounds, followed by Skylar Diggins' 17 points and four assists. Delle Donne, a junior at Delaware, has made a name for herself in World University Games competition. In the five contests, Delle Donne leads the team with averages of 15.2 points and 8.0 rebounds in 21.2 minutes. "We are going to go from the biggest, strongest team we’ve seen to the shortest, quickest team we’ve seen," US head coach Bill Fennelly said of their final match with Taiwan, scheduled for 9:30 p.m. local time on Aug. 21. "It will be an interesting game, and we have one day to prepare. There are only two teams that have a chance to win a gold medal, and we are one of them."

The 12-person roster that will seek to defend the USA's World University Games gold medal has been finalized by USA Basketball and head coach Bill Fennelly. Perennial college powerhouses Stanford, Tennessee and Notre Dame have multiple selections on the roster, with the Fighting Irish accounting for 25 percent of the selections. Some notable names included for the US are Skylar Diggins and Stanford sisters Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike. Fennelly, head coach at Iowa State, has one Big 12 player on the final roster, Odyssey Simms of Baylor. Two players on the initial 14-person roster did not make the final team, Shenise Johnson of Miami and April Sykes of Rutgers. The group will travel to Shenzhen, China to compete Aug. 14-21. The US is slated to play Brazil, Slovakia and Great Britain in the preliminary round.