The biggest thing they had going for them was the shock and awe of the Dream Team rolling in and demolishing everyone. It wilted good strong teams like Lithuania, the Yugos and Russia and completely stunted any performance by middle tier teams like Brazil. They performed much worse than they could have because they rolled over in the face of those guys.I agree that the 92 team would whoop some ass, but what competition did that team have? the 2012 team actually has other countries who can ball, the '92 team had absolutely no competition because no other country really gave a shit about basketball.
The world, to their credit, sacked the fuck up after that and refused to let the USA scare them into submission. It is much better competition now but I would argue only slightly better talent, though that talent is spread further apart in the world rather than just concentrated in the former Soviet countries and the Yugos. Brazil was a really strong team then but the South American torch has been passed to Argentina now.
The failures of the US teams after that wasn't merely because the world got better. It did, but the USA sucked ball and cock. Sort of an England soccer performance....
What I really like about this year's team is that they seem to really understand what is needed to win and have the right attitude to do it.
GO USA!