Rautins' FIBA Criticism Has Merit

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 Apparently Canada coach Leo Rautins had a few criticisms of FIBA and it’s tough to disagree with them.

E-mail Matt at MediaZone’s MailbagRautins was critical of the 12-man rosters, saying that’s too few players for teams in this tournament. The issue has come up because Andy Rautins, the coach’s son, suffered a serious knee injury, tearing his ACL and MCL. Canada must go the rest of the way with just 11 players.

Another issue Rautins brought up was the short period of time between games. There are four games in a day and they’re running on a tight schedule. Teams aren’t getting a lot of time to warm up before games.

It’s impossible to know whether or not that kind of thing had anything to do with the younger Rautins’ injury.

Leo Rautins also talked about the schedule: 12 games in 10 days. Rautins said that’s a big reason why a lot of pros skip the tourney. In Canada’s case, they’re without Steve Nash and Jamaal Magloire.

But Manu Ginobili and Fabricio Oberto aren’t playing for Argentina and Anderson Varejao is not playing for Brazil.

Makes perfect sense from here. If you’re going to have to play 10 games in 12 days you’ve got to have a bigger roster. … or, if you’re going to limit rosters to just a dozen guys, you can’t play 10 games in 12 days.

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