BELLEVILLE, Ill. – Taking the wheel of the Team Ripper No. 21KS Friday night at Belle-Clair Speedway, Jake Neuman delivered a long-overdue first win of the year for car owner Steve Reynolds and crew chief Flea Ruzic.

After taking the lead on lap six, Neuman fended off mid-race pressure from Austin Brown and survived a late charge from Logan Seavey to score his third win of the season and the fifth of his POWRi National Midget career.

Making his 179th career appearance with the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League, Friday’s attempt aboard the No. 21KS marked the first time in his seven-year career that Neuman drove for anyone other than his father, Jim Neuman.

A series of severe crashes and recent motor trouble over the past month in his own No. 3N contributed to the decision to make a one-off appearance, a decision that paid dividends.

For Team Ripper, the eighth time was the charm, as Neuman became the eighth driver to pilot the No. 21KS in 2019, but the first to park it in victory lane.

The list of racers before Neuman is a who’s who of today’s motorsports landscape. Karter Sarff, USAC sensation Jason McDougal, modified driver Nick Hoffman, micro sprint star Joe B. Miller, Triple Crown champion Tracy Hines, USAC Sprint Car points leader C.J. Leary and California gasser Maria Cofer all tried, but it was Neuman who got the job done first.

Starting the 30-lap feature from the fourth-spot, Neuman earned his slot in the outside of row two after jetting away to a dominant heat race win from the pole. However, it was Daniel Robinson who led the field to green after snagging PAC Racing Springs High Point Man honors courtesy of a seventh-to-second charge in the opening heat.

Leading the charge into turn one, Robinson quickly assumed the point while Neuman went top shelf to jump from fourth-to-second in the first lap. A lap five caution for Holley Hollan, Andrew Felker and Jesse Colwell halted the action and threw a wrench in the championship battle, sending Colwell to the infield with a DNF as he watched his points lead diminish.

Going back to green, Neuman saddled up and drove flatfooted into turn one with a big slider heading for Robinson as he mounted a bid for the lead. Unable to come back at him, Robinson settled into second as Neuman took the point and focused on clear track ahead on the sixth circuit.

While the high side came in and proved to be the prime place to play, the ultra-fast fifth-mile surface became tough to manage in the pack as the speed ramped up lap after lap.

Essentially a cowboy up atmosphere on the lip, it was slide or be slid to take position, making for intense mid-race restarts.

The final restart roared to life with 13 laps left as Neuman maintained a strong pace ahead of Austin Brown, who won the May showing at Belle-Clair, and Logan Seavey, who was hungry for his 10th win of the season after starting in the tenth spot.

While Neuman put his head down and ran away with the lead, Seavey shot by Brown with eight to go and immediately began cutting into Neuman’s 2.6 second advantage.

Eating into the gap each lap, Seavey snuck closer and closer to Neuman’s rear bumper as the race came to a close. By the time the two-to-go signal was given, Seavey had the No. 21KS in sight and was only behind by one-second, but the time was running out too fast.

Seavey’s late-race charge did not come fast enough, as the checkered flag dropped, and Neuman won over Seavey, Austin Brown, Zach Daum and Cannon McIntosh, who recovered from a spin on lap 11 to complete the top five.

Daum made a massive gain in the hunt for the title, as his fourth-place finish narrowed Colwell’s advantage from 350 points to 180 points.

Sarff, Tanner Carrick, 14-year old Daison Pursley, hard charger Ace McCarthy and Shelby Bosie were the balance of the top 10.

The finish:

1. 21KS-Jake Neuman (4); 2. 67-Logan Seavey (10); 3. 17-Austin Brown (2); 4. 5D-Zach Daum (11); 5. 08-Cannon McIntosh (3); 6. 37X-Karter Sarff (14); 7. 71K-Tanner Carrick (15); 8. 9-Daison Pursley (9); 9. 28-Ace McCarthy (23); 10. 3B-Shelby Bosie (19); 11. 11-Daniel Robinson (1); 12. 5F-Danny Frye III (21); 13. 86C-David Camfield (18); 14. 21X-Steve Stroud (22); 15. 5H-Danny Frye (20); 16. 97K-Jesse Love (6); 17. 20G-Noah Gass (16); 18. 1T-Thomas Chandler (24); 19. 55-Nick Knepper (13); 20. 17C-Devin Camfield (12); 21. 67K-Holley Hollan (8); 22. 44S-Andrew Felker (5); 23. 71-Jesse Colwell (7); 24. 103-Broc Hunnell (17).

Lap Leader(s): Robinson 1-5; Neuman 6-30.

Hard Charger(s): McCarthy (+14)

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Justin Grant won the 20th running of the Jim Hurtubise Classic for USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Cars Friday night at the Terre Haute Action Track.

It was his first victory at the historic half-mile dirt track where he first raced in 2010.

“In my first race here in 2010,  I sailed it out of the park in turn one and I smashed a guy’s Buick or Plymouth, or something, whatever it was,” Grant recalled. “I made it a long way out there too.  Terre Haute had my number for quite a while and it’s taken me nine years to finally get a win here, but we did it, and it feels really good. At one point, it was probably my worst track on the tour. To come here and win, it means a lot to me personally.”

Grant, a 2018 Sumar Classic Silver Crown winner at Terre Haute, had a topsy-turvy turn of events to begin his night. Shortly after racing from fifth to first to win the first heat race, on his cooldown lap, Grant encountered trouble, without warning, that nearly spelled disaster.

“We had a left front radius rod come apart, and you can’t steer,” Grant explained. “The axle rolls back and falls off the arm.  I lifted off of (turn) two, and halfway down the backstretch, it started squirrelling all around and I thought ‘Whoa, we got a problem here.’ I knew the front end was falling out, and when you get on the brakes, it just folds them up.

“I was just trying to coast it to a stop; I got it whoa’d down pretty slow, then it dropped, and the frame rail dug in and it just turned me right into the inside wall. Luckily, it just front-bumpered into it. No harm, no foul. We brought it back, put a bolt in it and we were ready for the feature.”

Grant rolled off for the 30-lap feature from the third position, but it took no time flat for him to race his way into the lead, grooving the bottom past pole sitter Nick Bilbee in the first turn to secure the lead while seventh starting Jason McDougal charged all the way to second by the conclusion of the opening lap, but a full second behind Grant.

Kevin Thomas Jr., Brady Bacon and Tyler Courtney worked their way around McDougal and formed a triumvirate in their pursuit to run down Grant with seven laps complete.

Grant was introduced to lapped traffic by the 10th circuit, allowing Thomas to close the gap to under a second. The lapped cars of Dustin Christie and Aric Gentry battled for position in their own right, but Grant escaped from Thomas for the time being, maneuvering around the outside of Christie off turn four, then dove low, sliding by Gentry at the entrance of turn one.

Thomas kept Grant in check, and as Grant slid into the fluff on the outside of turn two on the 11th lap, Thomas used a massive run to drive by Gentry and charge into turn three side-by-side momentarily to the inside of Grant.

Grant withheld the challenge and remained in control past halfway, until lap 18, when Thomas went on the attack once again, throwing a monster slider on Grant who was able to stand his ground and firm his grip of the lead as he split the lapped cars of Steve Thomas and Dustin Smith to sneak away and increase the interval to 2.5 seconds.

Grant stood up in the seat and regularly entered above the cushion as he began to assert his authority and rebuild his advantage.

With just five laps remaining, however, Grant’s two-plus second lead was deleted when two-time Jim Hurtubise Classic winner Brady Bacon encountered trouble and heavy right-side damage, coming to a rest against the turn-one wall.

“I didn’t want to see that,” Grant said of the yellow flag. “I knew I had gotten through lapped traffic pretty quickly for as thick it was. We were honestly in a pretty good rhythm.  Here, you never want to see a yellow when you’re leading. The frontstretch is so long and so slick and if you slide yourself, there’s nothing off of two and you’re a sitting duck. You can’t block the slider; you just hope you get a good enough restart and you can beat the slider to the center.”

Grant was fully prepared for the challenge that was going to be presented to him at the drop of the green flag from Courtney.

Courtney reared back on the start and fired his machine to the bottom in hope to slide up in front of Grant by turn two.  Grant never wavered, kept his right foot on the throttle and squeezed through to the miniscule peak of daylight between Courtney to his inside and the concrete wall.

Courtney took his shot and sold out for the lead in the process, as Grant shot back out to a half-second advantage while Thomas took advantage of Courtney’s loss of momentum exiting the second turn to move back to second.

In the final laps, Thomas utilized a line lower than Grant’s top side ride but wasn’t able to get close enough to fire off a slide job for the top spot.

Grant, meanwhile, raced to his third USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car win of the season by .925 seconds over Thomas, Courtney, fast qualifier Chris Windom and point leader C.J. Leary.

To see full results, turn to the next page.

STOCKTON, Calif. — Logan Schuchart could see victory at the Stockton Dirt Track with three laps to go. He could see his opportunity to sweep the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series races at the track. And he could see collecting the $20,000 award for winning the NOS Energy Drink Showdown.

However, he could also see his Shark Racing teammate Jacob Allen leading, searching for his first World of Outlaws win.

Cruising down the backstretch, he saw Allen’s Drydene No. 1a car power into turn three, heading for two laps to go. When Schuchart exited turn four, he no longer saw Allen in front of him. The white-and-blue No. 1a slowed and pulled into the infield.

The lead was Schuchart’s. And after two clean laps, so was victory.

“It’s a tough deal,” Schuchart said. “I’m happy to get the win. It’s awesome to have these cars up front. Whatever happened, this team works really hard to keep these cars on the race track.”

The victory was Schuchart’s seventh of the year — further breaking his record of winning at most four wins in a season — and 15th career World of Outlaws win overall.

While he celebrated in victory lane with his Drydene cladded Shark Racing team, Allen was back at the trailer diagnosing an engine failure with his crew under a full moon Friday the 13th night.

“Pretty much a heart break,” said Allen, trying to find the words to describe the loss. “It’s kind of tough.”

The Shark Racing duo was fast all night. Schuchart qualified third and Allen fourth — both setting times that broke the previous track record. Ten-time series champion Donny Schatz set quick time and a track record with a time of 12.543 seconds.

Schuchart and Allen went on to both finished second in their Drydene Heat races. Then finish third and second, respectively, in the DIRTVision Fast Pass Dash won by Austen Wheatley.

Wheatley and Allen made up the front row of the 30-lap feature — both attempting to win their first World of Outlaws race.

On the initial start, Wheatley hit the throttle and wheeled onto the frontstretch, allowing Allen to get the jump on him and pull away with the lead into the first turn.

His comfortable lead was eliminated in two laps when the first caution came out for Shane Stewart going off track in turn two. On the restart, Allen launched back to the lead, but Wheatley stayed close and got side by side with Allen through the first corner. Allen had the better grip on the high groove and drove away from Wheatley down the backstretch.

While Allen led, David Gravel worked his way around Schuchart for third and after dueling with Wheatley for eight laps moved into second. By that time, Allen had found himself in heavy lapped traffic. Gravel was able to gain yards on him every lap.

However, once Allen found clean air again, he left Gravel searching for speed by pulling away to about a straightaway lead.

With nine laps to go Allen caught more traffic, including Brad Sweet, and got loose exiting turn two. He lost traction exiting turn four, too, unable to hold his line. That allowed Gravel to go from being a straightaway back to being at Allen’s tail tank.

Allen continued to run the low line into turn one and Gravel darted high to try and get a run around him. However, the move cost Gravel a chance at a win. Going high opened the door for Schuchart to dive underneath. The two almost made contact at the apex of the corner, hurting Gravel most. Schuchart accelerated away from the Mesilla Valley Transportation No. 41 car down the backstretch.

“I kind of punched myself in the head there after that,” Gravel said. “I tried to pass Jacob on the top going into one and two, ended up giving the spot to Logan.”

Now, the only car Schuchart saw in front of him was his teammate. With seven laps to go inches separated the Shark Racing drivers due to a caution for Tim Kaeding going off track in turn two.

On the final restart of the night, Allen rocketed ahead of Schuchart. Schuchart couldn’t keep pace with his teammate and in the closing laps found himself having to hold off a hard-charging Schatz, who got around Gravel for third.

With three laps to go, Allen wore the appearance of a first-time winner. While driving through turns three and four his fairy tale turned into a horror movie when the engine let go.

“After that last restart, it felt like it was kind of starting to lose power a pinch,” Allen said. “But it’s hard to say. You know, you’ve got a lot on your mind. There’re only a few laps left. You’re just trying to finish it and win the race. It’s a pretty shitty deal really. I don’t know. It sucks. I guess it’s just part of it.”

Allen’s misfortune became Schuchart’s gain as he inherited the lead and drove to his second straight win at the Stockton Dirt Track.

“He was way faster than I was,” Schuchart said about Allen. “It showed after the restart. It’s tough. Once Jacob got to the lead, he was gone. I couldn’t really hit my marks there for a few laps. I was just trying to make myself wide. I was happy to run second in this race. But I’m a competitor at the same time. I was going to try and pass him if I got the spot.

“Jacob, he’s been working really hard at this deal. It’s tough. It takes a lot out of you. Especially when you get beat all of the time. But he’s right there. We’ve seen it in the past. I hope he can get his spirit up and win one of these things. I’ve never been so big as a fan as I was running second tonight.”

Schatz finished second and Gravel had to settle for third. With Schatz’s runner-up finish he was able to retake the points lead over Brad Sweet, who finished 10th. The reigning champion is now 14 points ahead of Sweet heading into the final California race of the year.

To see full results, turn to the next page.

Big Picture

South Africa's Vision 2019, their grand plan for 50-over World Cup success, went completely awry. World Cup hangovers aren't easy to shake off, but South Africa will now have to quickly shift their focus to the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia. They are set to trial a new set of players - largely plucked out of the Mzansi Super League and the South Africa A sides - under a new captain in Quinton de Kock.

A few of these players were also part of a spin camp in Bengaluru last month, held to help them come to grips with Indian conditions ahead of the three T20Is and three Tests. And, while some of these players have also been part of the IPL, South Africa's squad lacks T20I experience on the whole. All told, their squad has a collective experience of 220 T20Is while India's potential top three - Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and captain Virat Kohli - have a collective experience of 219 games in the format.

ALSO READ: The T20 game: India haven't figured it out yet, but they are willing to change

Hashim Amla, Imran Tahir and JP Duminy have all retired from international cricket following the meltdown in England and Wales, while Faf du Plessis will tune up for the Test series with an extended spell at Kent. In their absence, the onus is on de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen, who has established himself as a well-travelled and versatile franchise T20 player - to lead the way with the bat.

ALSO READ: 'I'm going to feel 21 again' - Bavuma awaits dream T20I debut

Kagiso Rabada, who was troubled by injury in the World Cup, will test out his hamstring, and 25-year-old tearaway Anrich Nortje, who had been sidelined from the entire World Cup with injury, will be awaiting his international debut. South Africa have at least nine matches to figure out their combination ahead of Australia 2020 while India have the bigger cushion of at least 17 games to work with.

The hosts have already begun their build up, having swept West Indies 3-0 in the Caribbean last month. They are now going to have to adapt to the changing T20 landscape, a departure from their safety-first approach in the previous T20 World Cup in 2016. This series is another chance for the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey and Rishabh Pant to settle in the middle order.

With India's premier spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal swapped out for this series too, finger-spin-bowling allrounders Washington Sundar and Krunal Pandya and legspinner Rahul Chahar will look to push their cases for a longer stint in the team.

Form guide

India WWWLL (completed matches, most recent first)
South Africa WWTLW

In the spotlight

Around this time last year, 19-year-old Washington Sundar was at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, recovering from an ankle injury sustained while playing football during training in England. Washington doubted if he could be effective with the white ball on return, but he overcame that and posed a threat to the left-handers in the Caribbean and then was among the wickets in the one-dayers against South Africa A. South Africa could have at least three left-handers among the batsmen - de Kock, David Miller and Andile Phehlukwayo - and Washington will relish bowling to them.

Rassie van der Dussen stood out with his nous and middle-order gears amid South Africa's World Cup rubble, and even had du Plessis earmarking him as a future captain. He has also been there and done that in domestic T20 competitions at home, CPL, MSL and Global T20 Canada, and also has a reputation of being a good player of spin. Now, it's over to him to replicate that form in T20Is and take full charge of the middle order as South Africa rebuild for another World Cup.

Team news

Having been rested for the Caribbean tour, allrounder Hardik Pandya is set to slot back into the side. It remains to be seen whether KL Rahul or Shikhar Dhawan partners Rohit Sharma at the top.

India: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan/ KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Ravindra Jadeja/Rahul Chahar, 9 Washington Sundar, 10 Deepak Chahar, 11 Navdeep Saini

South Africa's XI following the World Cup shake-up is hard to predict. Temba Bavuma, who has been widely perceived a red-ball player, might make his T20I debut, while allrounders Andile Phehlukwayo and Dwaine Pretorius are likely to fit into the lower-middle order.

South Africa: 1. Quinton de Kock (capt & wk), 2 Reeza Hendricks, 3 Temba Bavuma, 4 Rassie van der Dussen, 5 David Miller, 6 Andile Phehlukwayo, 7 Dwaine Pretorius, 8 Bjorn Fortuin/Anrich Nortje, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Junior Dala, 11 Tabraiz Shamsi

Pitch and conditions

The pitch, too, is hard to predict, considering the rain threat. The pitch had to be covered because of afternoon showers on Saturday. Some rain has been forecast for Sunday too. The last time India faced South Africa in Dharamsala - it was the first T20 at this venue, in 2015 - South Africa hunted down 200 as Rohit's hundred went in vain.

Stats and trivia

• There is a case for South Africa to pick Junior Dala and let him have a crack at Rohit with the new ball. The seamer has dismissed Rohit three times in seven balls in T20s.

• Since his T20I debut in December 2017, Washington has claimed nine wickets in the Powerplay. Only Sri Lanka's Akila Dananjaya, England's David Willey, and Australia's Billy Stanlake have taken more wickets in the first six overs in T20Is, but they have all had the benefit of playing more games than Washington.

MS Dhoni is there. He is also here. While being at places that are neither here nor there.

We don't even know where he is physically, but he sits in the minds of important people and rest of Indian cricket even as a home international season starts. His absence, and yet his presence, is all the more significant as this season begins with T20Is, a format that will remain India's focus for the next year or so, leading up to the T20 World Cup at the start of the Australian summer next year.

And Dhoni is not here as India begin their planning for the world event. Nor is he retired. Or injured. He is not rested; that happened during the West Indies tour. Nobody dares utter the word "dropped". All we know is, he is not here, and yet he is.

He is on captain Virat Kohli's mind. He often is. He tweeted about him out of the blue two days ago. He is on Indian cricket Twitter's mind: retiring one day because Kohli tweets about him out of the blue, and trending on another as #12yearsofcaptainDhoni. He is on the minds of the selectors, who want to focus on Rishabh Pant as the T20 wicketkeeper, but have to keep fielding questions about Dhoni, who hasn't yet retired or disclosed his plans. Not to the selectors at least.

On the eve of the first T20I against South Africa then, it was natural Kohli would be asked about where Dhoni sits in his mind. Not in the mind of Kohli the person, who is not surprisingly fond of Dhoni, but in the mind of Kohli the captain. This is what Kohli had to say:

"Look experience is always going to matter whether you like it or not. I mean there are a numerous number of times people have given up on sportsmen, and they have proved people wrong, and he has done that many times in his career as well. So one great thing about him is that he thinks for India cricket. And whatever we think, he is on the same page. The alignment is there. The kind of mindset he has had is to groom youngsters and give them opportunities, and he is still the same person."

Make what you will of it. One thing remains, though: that basically he is not here but he is still here.

"It was a lesson for me, that the world doesn't think the same way as I do." Virat Kohli, after his tweet on MS Dhoni

There can be more than one interpretation of this, but the likeliest one is that the team sees there might be a need to move on from Dhoni, but is still not 100% satisfied with the replacement. And that Dhoni knows it. He understands that the replacements be given ample opportunity, will live with it if he is not required, but will be ready if he is. There are about 27 matches before the World Cup so there is time to go back to Dhoni if Pant doesn't convince the team management.

This is not too dissimilar to what happened when Dhoni was left out of the home ODIs against Australia, the last ones India played before the World Cup. Except that right now they have time. Pant has time. Taking both of them to the World Cup can't be ruled out either, depending especially on the performance of other middle-order batsmen. The temptation to use Dhoni's experience still remains. It might be fair to assume his mind is not made up yet, and he has a two bob each way.

As far as the retirement talk goes, Kohli believes it is Dhoni's prerogative, and Dhoni's alone. "When you decide to stop playing is an absolutely individual thing, and no one else should have an opinion on it, that's what I think," Kohli said. "As long as he is available and continues to play, he is going to be very very valuable."

And, he said, he has learnt his lesson after his tweet the other day assumed monstrous proportions. It was a photo from their World T20 win against Australia in Mohali in 2016, when he and Dhoni had a match-winning partnership. Indian cricket Twitter went into meltdown thinking Kohli knew something about an announcement around the corner. "It was a lesson for me," Kohli said. "That the world doesn't think the same way as I do."

It is a game Kohli is fond of. It is a man he is fond of. The meltdown must be a reminder to him how much what he thinks about Dhoni matters to Indian cricket right now. If Dhoni doesn't make the decision himself, it is Kohli who will be instrumental to the call on whether Dhoni is still there or not. For now, though, Dhoni is still there even though he isn't.

BEIJING -- Donovan Mitchell scored 16 points and handed out 10 assists, Joe Harris scored 14 and the U.S. defeated Poland 87-74 on Saturday for seventh place at the World Cup. Khris Middleton had 13 points, six rebounds and six assists for the Americans, who will head home with a 6-2 record -- yet their worst placing ever in a World Cup, world championship as it used to be known, or Olympics.

Derrick White scored 12 and Harrison Barnes added 10 for the U.S.

Mateusz Ponitka scored 18 points, Adam Waczynski had 17 and A.J. Slaughter finished with 15 for Poland (4-4), which was in the World Cup for the first time since 1967.

The Americans put together a 10-0 run in the first quarter to take a 28-14 lead. Poland started 0 for 13 from 3-point range, not getting one from beyond the arc to fall until Michal Sokolowski connected with 1:28 left in the half -- and by then, the U.S. lead was 18.

There was little to play for except pride -- and the Americans were playing with the realization that, for some of them, it easily could be their last time wearing the red, white and blue uniforms with "USA" across the chest. The roster for the U.S. trip to the Tokyo Olympics next summer is likely to look considerably different than this one.

It had much meaning to Poland coach Mike Taylor as well. He's an American, who lives in Florida, and mouthed along with the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" when it played pregame.

His team wasn't eager to quit, either.

Down 17 at the half, Poland made it a very serious game after intermission. Waczynski's 3-pointer from the right corner late in the third got Poland within 54-47, and Lukasz Koszarek had a 3-point try that would have gotten his team within four with 8:21 remaining.

TIP-INS

U.S.: Kemba Walker (neck) didn't play, joining Boston Celtics teammates Jayson Tatum (left ankle) and Marcus Smart (left hand) on the U.S. injured list. White started in Walker's place at point guard. ... Timing is everything -- the 6-2 record for the U.S. here was better than silver-medalist Serbia (5-4) and bronze-medalist France (6-3) at the last World Cup. But losing in the quarterfinals doomed the U.S. medal hopes.

Poland: The team had three players who played at the Division I level -- Slaughter was a four-year player at Western Kentucky, guard Karol Gruszecki spent two years at Texas-Arlington and center Dominik Olejniczak started his career at Drake, then played two seasons at Ole Miss and will play this year at Florida State as a graduate transfer. ... Poland started 4-0 in China, then dropped its last four games.

GIVEAWAY ITEMS

Mitchell was the last U.S. player to leave the court in the pre-warmup period, ending about 45 minutes before game time. He took off his sneakers and tossed them to a couple of young fans in the crowd.

UP NEXT

U.S.: Has already qualified for 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Poland: Will participate in qualifying for 2020 Tokyo Olympics next year.

BEIJING -- After finishing seventh in the FIBA World Cup with a victory over Poland on Saturday, Team USA coach Gregg Popovich issued a rebuke for those criticizing his team for its worst-ever showing in a major event.

"Some people want to play the blame game, there's no blame to be placed anywhere," Popovich said. "They want to play the shame game, like we should be ashamed because we didn't win a gold medal? That's a ridiculous attitude. It's immature, it's arrogant, and it shows that whoever thinks that doesn't respect all the other teams in the world and doesn't respect that these guys did the best they could."

Team USA played with just nine players in their 87-74 win after Kemba Walker missed the game with a neck injury. Walker said he thinks he'll be ready for Boston Celtics training camp at the end of the month. His Celtics teammates Jayson Tatum (ankle) and Marcus Smart (leg injuries) also missed the game. Tatum missed six of the eight games in the tournament, Smart missed three.

Much has been made about 31 of the 35 players who started last summer on Team USA's roster pulled out of playing for the team. Another handful pulled out after being added to the roster. From 2018 when the group was announced as Popovich took over as coach, only Walker, Khris Middleton, Harrison Barnes and Myles Turner were in China.

"Their effort was fantastic. They allowed us to coach them," Popovich said. "You give people credit for what they did and that's it. But it's not a blame and shame game, that's ridiculous."

After the team flies home on Sunday, they players and coaches will return to focus on their NBA teams. But the clock is already ticking on USA Basketball. The Tokyo Olympics are next July and significant changes to the roster are likely.

"This isn't really the time to even think about that," Popovich said of the Olympics. "It's 10 months away."