BEIJING - They will cherish this moment in the way a family celebrates the happy things that inevitably coincide with the sad. Yet joy and grief have rarely collided so abruptly.

On Saturday, funeral arrangements were set in Minnesota for Todd Bachman, who was killed Aug. 9 in Beijing. On Sunday, his son-in-law, Hugh McCutcheon, coached the U.S. men's volleyball team to a gold medal at the Olympic Games.

"Obviously, this is the best of times and the worst of times," McCutcheon said.

The Americans defeated Brazil 20-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-23 for the gold medal at Capital Gymnasium.

It was the first U.S. volleyball gold medal since 1988, and its first medal of any kind since 1992.

It was a redemptive outcome for setter Lloy Ball, 36, of Woodburn, Ind. He was on teams that failed to medal at three previous Olympics. After Team USA went 0-5 at Sydney in 2000, Ball said maybe he was the problem.

McCutcheon took a risk in bringing him back, and Ball wanted to reward his coach's faith.

Then the coach wasn't there for the start of the tournament. McCutcheon left to be with wife Elisabeth, a member of the 2004 women's Olympic volleyball team. They were attending to Elisabeth's mother, Barbara, who was injured in the knife attack that took the life of Bachman, 62. The assailant killed himself.

Ball said McCutcheon encouraged players to focus on the task at hand.

"We didn't have a choice but to put it out of our minds when we get on the court," Ball said. "I think it would have been a real disservice to the Bachman family to let that drag us down."

U.S. player Scott Touzinsky said McCutcheon, 38, has had the calming influence of a father figure. The same could be said of Ball, a contemporary of McCutcheon; the two were collegiate rivals,

The bearded - and aged - Ball resembles a Biblical character. He would not have reached a personal promised land, he said, if not for supportive loved ones.

"Slowly, as I began to realize there are other things besides volleyball, like family, and I started to win some things overseas, started rebuilding my confidence, regaining my form . . . it was kind of no turning back at that point," he said.

Ball came back because his wife, Sarah, encouraged him to do so and he wanted son Dyer, 7, to see him play in the Olympics. He said setter is the one position in which older can be better. It certainly has been in his case.

He was MVP of the recent World League tournament in Brazil, and he directed Team USA to an 8-0 record at the Olympics. His quick sets and clever maneuvers kept Brazil off-balance.

"I think in this tournament, we had a little more desire, a little more heart, than everyone else," Ball said.

For years, his USA Volleyball biography has included the anecdote that Ball was once recruited by Bob Knight to play basketball for Indiana University. Knight coached the U.S. to Olympic basketball gold in 1984.

Now, this Hoosier has his own gold medal, even if it will take a few days to register.

"I don't think until I get home and sit down in my big sofa, in front of my TV, with the medal still around my neck, with a cold beer in hand," Ball said, "and realize that after this long time, I'm Olympic champion."