If you haven't been living under a rock, you should be well aware of the Olympic games taking place in Beijing, China this month. I know that I have caught "Olympic Fever" and my television hasn't left NBC, MSNBC, or USA since last Friday night. I have a hard time explaining why I am so interested in the Olympics; I'm not overly patriotic, in fact, I'd say I'm rather cynical of the United States' position in the world. Perhaps it's the idea of thousands of the world's best athletes coming together to compete on an international stage. Or maybe it's Morgan Freeman's inspiring words in his VISA commercials. Of course I'm going to cheer for the United States, but I think I'm more interested in the idea of the Olympics rather than seeing the US win gold medals.

Everyone is watching Michael Phelps on his quest to win gold in all 8 of his events. He "only" won 6 gold medals in 2004, so the big story this year is of course "will he beat Mark Spitz' record of 7 medals?" Now that Phelps has won gold in his two toughest events, it seems highly likely that he will reach the coveted 8 gold medal mark. The guy is truly amazing at what he does. NBC has been running human interest stories about the Olympic athletes and by his own words, Phelps admits that all he does is eat, sleep, and swim. That's some dedication, people.

Another story that is of particular interest to me is the US men's basketball team. After a disappointing showing in 2004, the team desperately wants to make a comeback on the international level, even going so far as to call themselves the "Redeem Team," a play on the 1992 "Dream Team" moniker. They played well against China in their first game on Sunday, defeating the host country 101 to 70. Consensus is that the US played well in the opening game, but has areas in which it needs improvement.

After a day off, the men picked up Angola Tuesday night. Despite a win to the tune of 97 to 76, the victory was decidedly not solid. The United States should have been able to run the score up on the Angolans through the course of the game, but instead dropped a 30 point lead down to 21 through sloppy play. I will admit that I am not a basketball expert nor am I an analyst, but I believe there are three key areas in which the US men's team needs work:

1. Making the shots - The US shot 55.1% (38-69) from the field but could only manage 23.8% (5-21) attempts from beyond the 3 point arc. Kobe put up 4-13 from the field but couldn't drop a single 3 point shot out of 8 attempts. The rest of the squad didn't do much better, although Anthony and Wade managed to put together a combined 10-15 from the field and 3-5 from the outside. What makes these stats even worse is that the US managed to miss the easy layups and jumpshots from 6-8 feet out. No one expects the team to make every shot they take, but they can't keep missing the easy shots.

2. Covering open shots - Angola had so many open shots that I lost count of them by the end of the first half. They moved the ball around quickly and found their open man for the quick jump shot, most of which were for three points. Yes, Angola had more 3 point attempts, but they had a higher percentage of shots made, mostly because they were unguarded on the perimeter. This is bad, bad, bad and teams like Greece and Spain are going to drop tons of points if left open anywhere near the basket.

3. Getting complacent in the second half - Anyone would get lazy when playing teams like China and Angola. No one wants to completely blow out another team, especially in the Olympics where sportsmanship is held in high regard. You don't, however, want to blow a 30 point lead in the second half. These games aren't going to be won in the first quarter; rather, by wearing down the opposition, the US men will rack up the points over the duration of the game. Winning by 20 is still a large margin of victory, but it could have easily been 40 points if they hadn't let up. I am not condoning murdering teams for the hell of it, but I am suggesting that the US men should treat every game as if it is their last. They should use the comfort of a 30 point lead to practice the fundamentals of their game rather than needlessly turn the ball over on broken plays. I know they want to show off a little, but showing off isn't making them better. The US men need to stay focused going in to their next game against Greece and messing around on the court isn't going to do anything to maintain their intensity.

The US men's national team is more than capable of taking this all the way, but it's going to take some more work for them to regain their stature on the international level. I would imagine that most of their opponents view them as the bronze medal winning team from four years ago rather than the determined squad they are now. This slight underdog status can work well for them, but they need to make it clear that they are in China to win and they can do that by completely dominating their competition.