It's good to see the US improving, as I've now watched the US barely beat Germany, and decisively beat Serbia and Montenegro. And they did it by playing to their strengths: use superior athleticism to play pressure defense, and get most of their offense through the transition game. In fact, they looked a lot like a Roy Williams coached Kansas team: getting the "secondary break" as announcers referred to it.
And that's exactly what they need to improve on further. Kansas was known for managing to fast-break even after made shots by the other team. The US team must take full advantage of their superior speed and depth. And I think we can mark the loss to Italy as being due to jet-lag. Not to insult the Italian team: with the way they shot, we still would have lost. Just not by so much.