SAITAMA, Japan — Time for the knockout stage, where the stakes are higher, the competition tougher, and the opponents more familiar.

Well, maybe not that last one.

Winning Group D gave the United States two days off before a matchup against Australia on Sunday in the round of 16 at the world basketball championships. And the Americans planned to use much of that time to brush up on an unfamiliar opponent.

"The only thing I know about them is they got Andre Bogut," U.S. star Dwyane Wade said. "I mean Andrew Bogut."

Wade had simply misspoken, not been misinformed. He quickly showed that he knew who he was talking about by pointing out that Bogut was the No. 1 pick in the 2005 NBA draft.

But Wade also spotlighted one of the problems facing the U.S. team: The Americans don't really know much about what — or, more specifically, who — awaits them as they try to advance deeper in the world basketball championships.

Many of the U.S. players, and certainly the top ones, are well known throughout the basketball world. With the NBA All-Star game and finals shown in a number of countries, opponents have plenty of chances to get an early jump on learning about Wade and what he likes to do on the floor.

But it's harder for the Americans to be as knowledgeable about their foes. A team like Italy, which had a double-digit lead against the U.S. in a group play game, was essentially an unknown because it had no NBA players.

Even an experienced international player like Elton Brand, who played in the 2002 world championships and the following year in the Olympic qualifier, can't keep up with many of the potential opponents now.

"Not really," he said. "We beat Argentina twice in the qualifying rounds, so I know those guys a little bit. I knew Puerto Rico, but they're going home. So I don't know too many of the teams like Spain, and teams like that. Australia, I don't know them well."

USA Basketball has tried to eliminate that problem with the formation of a scouting department headed by Rudy Tomjanovich, the longtime Houston Rockets coach. He also coached the U.S. team in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney — the last gold medal in a major international competition for the Americans.

When U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski arrived at his postgame news conference following the victory over Italy, he was already carrying with him a folder that contained a detailed scouting report on Senegal, the following night's opponent.

"We're well wired with that," Krzyzewski said. "We've used resources with NBA scouting for all the international teams. So we're ready. They deliver it right away. It's like you finish your homework and they put another test in front of you. So we feel very good with Rudy in charge of that."

Still, the Americans are limited in how much they can learn on their own time — something point guard Chris Paul claims they want to do.

"We're basketball junkies," Paul said. "After each game, we get back to the hotel and we're looking at the box scores. We want to know what's going on."

But that's not easily done here, where tape-delayed showings of Japan's games are what has passed as TV coverage of the event.

Forward Shane Battier acknowledged that the Americans hadn't seen any live games from other cities during pool play.

"There are no grand illusions of this is going to be an easy road," Battier said. "We know there are some very good teams out there, some very good players."

Even if they don't know exactly who they are.