More Illini move overseas & US Basketball

It looks like Randle is going to play in Israel and Pruitt is going to the Czech Republic.

http://media.www.dailyillini.com/media/storage/paper736/news/2008/08/28/Sports/Randle.Signs.Contract.With.Israeli.Team-3406769.shtml

http://media.www.dailyillini.com/media/storage/paper736/news/2008/08/28/Sports/Pruitt.Follows.Wave.Across.Atlantic-3406751.shtml

The popularity of the game has opened up many new markets around the world. I watched pretty much every USA basketball game in the Olympics (besides US vs. Argentina, the one I really wanted to see, but it was during work). It seemed apparent that while other teams can compete with the US for a while, the pure athleticsm and depth of the US seems to dominate. That assumes that they play as a unit as well. Spain stayed with the US until the final minutes of the game so all of it wasn't a cake walk.
Other things to I noticed....

• Wade looked really good. Watch out for the Heat this year, Wade looks back to his NBA finals form.
• LeBron was a force. LeBron just dominated the game at times on both sides of the court. We stole the ball, blocked it passed it well, and muscled shots through. I saw one play where the opposing team just hacked him while he was shooting and he went on to muscle through it and make a shot. Not like Jordan did, when he would make a miracluous shot out of nothing, but he just lifted his arms up and shot it like no one had hacked him at all.
• International teams couldnt handle the athleticsm of our big men, particularly Dwight Howard.
• The US definitely took advantage of Intl rules, by taking shots off the rim and pressing their defense harder.
• Chris Paul looked good, but he wasn't able to penetrate as much as he does in the NBA.
• Carlos Boozer must have somehow wronged Coach K because he barely got in.
• How will this effect these players later on in the season? Will there be fatigue issues?