2. Will star players actually get cut?

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Yes and no. While it is true that Krzyzewski and his staff will have to whittle the list to 12 players for the World Championship squad, the rest will remain on the U.S. team as standbys and reserves. Any of the 23 original invitees could be called up at any time in the future. USA Basketball also says it might add players next summer, meaning a breakout NBA star next season could find himself in the mix for the '08 Games. The idea for now is simply to identify a core of 12 players who play the right way together and who can help the U.S. try to bring home the gold medal at the World Championships later this summer. After that, pieces can be added and subtracted to fit certain needs or fill absences due to injury. Will there be hard feelings among some stars who don't make the initial cut? Perhaps. But Colangelo individually interviewed all the players selected to make sure they understood the situation. Sixers guard Allen Iverson, for example, gracefully accepted the news when he was informed last summer that he would not even be invited to the tryout camp.

3. Why Coach K?

The choice of Krzyzewski was not without controversy. Nobody questions his credentials. After all, he is one of the winningest college coaches of all time and a Hall of Famer. He also was an assistant to Chuck Daly on the '92 U.S. Olympic team. But his experience with international play is limited, and as a college coach he has not had to deal with NBA superstars. Some believe the U.S. would have been better served with Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, a proven manager of NBA egos and a trailblazer in scouting foreign talent. However, Popovich was an assistant on the last two U.S. squads that failed under George Karl ('02) and Larry Brown ('04). Apparently USA Basketball, which also passed over Jerry Sloan and Pat Riley among others, decided it needed a fresh start. Also, it probably didn't hurt Krzyzewski's chances that he had such a good relationship with Bryant going back to the days when Coach K recruited the Lakers superstar out of high school in Pennsylvania. Bryant clearly was viewed by USA Basketball as the centerpiece of this next Team USA, even though he will sit out this summer to recover from minor knee surgery.

4. So what are Team USA's chances?

On paper, Team USA should be the favorite at the World Championships. Even with Bryant and Pierce out with injuries and Billups not available for the actual games in Japan because of the birth of a child, the U.S. team will be loaded. But as the cliché goes, these games are not played on paper. If Team USA's experience at Indianapolis and Athens proved anything, it was that it no longer can just throw five superstars on the floor and expect to win. The rest of the world has closed the gap in terms of talent. More importantly, many of the top foreign teams have more experience playing together and know how to excel within the framework of the rules and nuances of the international game. Among Team USA's biggest threats in Japan (and some of the NBA players who might play for those teams) include defending Olympic gold medalist Argentina (Manu Ginobili, Andres Nocioni, Carlos Delfino), France (Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, Mickael Pietrus, Johan Petro), Brazil (Leandro Barbosa, Nenê, Anderson Varejao) and Slovenia (Beno Udrih, Rasho Nesterovic, Primoz Brezec, Bostjan Nachbar).

5. Will there be any fights over jersey numbers?

Just like in high school tryouts, one of the fun wrinkles is seeing which surviving players get which jersey numbers. After all, some NBA stars favor certain numbers. They might even be superstitious about it. Also, there are marketing factors to consider since USA Basketball can make money off jersey sales. But FIBA rules allow jersey numbers to run only from 4 to 15, according to Team USA spokesman Craig Miller. Thus, we probably won't know which players get which numbers until a few days before the competition begins on Aug. 19. Until then, Team USA players will be assigned practice-jersey numbers starting at 20 and running alphabetically (i.e., Anthony number 20, Arenas number 21, etc.). Once the final team is selected, Miller said, Team USA will try to accommodate requests, with priority given to those who have seniority and past experience with the national team. "It's never really been an issue in the past," Miller said. "Usually what you find is nobody gets his number. There aren't a lot of 4 to 15s in the NBA."

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