updated 6:22 p.m. ET Sept. 2, 2004

DURHAM, N.C. - Gail Goestenkors saw the looks in the eyes of her players every day as an assistant on the U.S. women’s basketball team. Each felt as if she’d reached the pinnacle of her sport.

That passion and drive to win — along with some of the top players in the country — were lacking from the men’s team.

“I don’t know if it’s the money or what,” Goestenkors said Thursday. “I know all of these women grew up dreaming about playing in the Olympics, and I don’t think men do that.”

The Duke women’s coach helped the United States win its third straight Olympic title in Athens with a 74-63 victory over Australia. On the court, veterans Dawn Staley, Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes led the way, just as they did in the previous two gold medal performances.

And they left the team in good hands with younger teammates Diana Tauriasi, Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Ruth Riley and Tamika Catchings.

One of Goestenkors’ former players, Alana Beard, also figures to get a shot in 2008. The Associated Press women’s player of the year in 2004 is a rookie with the Washington Mystics of the WNBA.

“She’s dreaming about making the team right now,” said Goestenkors, an assistant under U.S. coach Van Chancellor. “She’s going to make it happen.”

That is quite a contrast to the long list of star NBA players who refused to go to Athens, including Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Garnett, Mike Bibby, Ray Allen, Kenyon Martin and Ben Wallace.

Without them, the men’s team lost in the semifinals to Argentina, then slipped past Lithuania to win the bronze medal. U.S. coach Larry Brown has been criticized for losing the gold for only the third time ever, but Roy Williams, the head coach at North Carolina and Brown’s assistant at the Olympics, defended his longtime friend.

“That is so unfair that it’s laughable,” Williams said at a news conference. “We had some holes on that team. This is not just a coach sticking up for another coach. He did a great job.

“You could put coach (Dean) Smith out there — and everybody knows how I feel about coach Smith — and those holes are still going to be there.”

Williams also noticed how important the Olympics were to the teams playing the Americans. He watched a handful of Argentinian players lingering on the court after beating the United States and crying uncontrollably.

“You’re never going to have the passion those other teams have for the Olympics,” Williams said. “Whether I like it or not, that’s just not the biggest thing for us.”

While not faulting the effort of the team that came to Athens, Williams did offer suggestions for improving the player selection process.

“You need to have trials, because in a five-day trial, you can put enough adversity on them to see how badly everyone wants to be out there,” he said. “Or you could go back to the old, old school days and take the NBA champions and give them three more players.”

Those changes are among those being discussed by USA Basketball in preparation for the Beijing Games in 2008.

Tom Jernstedt, president of the organization, conceded the Americans might have been too slow to adapt to changes in the world basketball landscape by sticking too long with the formula first used in 1992 — picking the 12 best players they can find and throwing them out there in the belief that sheer talent would overwhelm the opposition.

“We’ll go back and review and figure out if there’s a better way of doing it,” Jernstedt said immediately after the Olympics. “Leaving with a gold and a bronze is not quite what we expected.”

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