It would've been easy to pack it in. With Jimmer Fredette on the shelf with a groin injury and having lost its first three games of the men's 3x3 basketball tournament, it seemed like Team USA's gold-medal ambitions had already gone up in smoke. 

Canyon Barry, however, had other ideas.

From the moment Fredette went down, Barry has shouldered the overwhelming majority of the U.S. scoring load, and done it without the benefit of substitutions as the U.S. play down a man. The even crazier part? It's actually worked: The Americans pushed reigning gold medalist Latvia to the brink in a 21-19 loss, then ripped off consecutive wins over France and China. 

Barry's numbers since Fredette went down are downright comical in a 3x3 context that usually sees statistics pretty evenly spread out. Scoring double-digits is a rarity, and yet Barry has done it in each of his team's last three games. He scored 10 against Latvia, then one-upped himself with 16 against France on 8-of-14 shooting, including the game-winner off glass.

Then came 14 against China on 9-of-18 shooting in another victory in which none of his teammates had more than five attempts from the field. The U.S. strategy right now is pretty simple: With no help off the bench, give the ball to Barry and get out of the way.

Of course, teammates Kareem Maddox and Dylan Travis have roles to play as well, and each has come up big at various points over this improved stretch. Maddox, especially, does yeoman's work inside as Team USA's lone big, hoovering rebounds and swatting shots. 

Without Barry, though, it's hard to see how the U.S. would be keeping its head above water. He's up to second in points and points per game in the tournament, and he's done it with entire defenses keyed on to him.

Now, with Fredette still unlikely to return, the question becomes: Can he keep it up? The U.S. has one more game of pool play remaining, coming Sunday afternoon against a tough Netherlands team. Win that, and its spot in the play-in games is secure, a team that was left for dead suddenly just one win away from the semifinals. 

Not bad for an engineer who spent his free time in between 3x3 games calling in to meetings from halfway around the world.