Loss=Win?

When is a loss a win? Sometimes in FIBA play. We played Ukraine in Ukraine last night with a win assuring GB a first place finish in group B. It would give us a 7-1 record best in all three groups and a spot in the third tier in next years EuroBasket tournament in Lithuania (See last blog for more info about tiers). However Ukraine had others ideas as they were fighting to stay out of last place. They got up on us by 10 points at halftime and we had an up hill battle the rest of the night. We made a run in the second half cutting the lead too two points but we could never get over the hump. It was a tough loss, even though we had accomplished our goal of qualifying for next years EuroBasket we wanted to end on a high note and win our group.

But wait...............There was still one more game to be played that night. Macedonia at Bosnia. If Macedonia wins they will be 6-2 just like us but because we had both beaten each other in group play the tie would be broken by the point difference in the Losses. We beat Macedonia by 8 point but they beat us by 18 points. They would win the tie breaker. Macedonia is a very good team so it was interesting to see them get behind to Bosnia while I watched on my computer in my hotel room in Ukraine. As the game went on the lead grew and by the end Bosnia had a big win and Great Britain was first place in the group! In FIBA basketball not only does one game make a difference but every point matters. On the last night of group play we were the only team with a spot for next years EuroBasket rapped up. One 3Pt shot, one tip in, one bad call and all your hopes could be dashed.

Here is how everything worked out:

Already in next years EuroBasket Tournament are the 10 European teams playing in the Worlds in Turkey this summer. In no particular order.

Spain

Serbia

Greece

Slovenia

France

Croatia

Germany

Lithuania

Russia

Turkey

Teams getting in from our group play:

First place teams in their groups

Belgium 6-2

Montenegro 6-2

Great Britain 6-2

Belgium and Montenegro get the top two spots over us because of "goal coefficient" what ever that is. I told you ALL points matter.

And the two top second place teams

Macedonia 5-3

Israel 5-3

Georgia 5-3 loss out because of the "goal coefficient"

Next year will be a huge year for GB basketball. Looking to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.

I have been on the road for 88 of the last 90 days and can't wait to get back to the good old US of A! Nachos, ESPN, my own bed. After I get back and catch my breath I will put together a re cap of this crazy summer. And hopefully if our son Michael helps me pictures. So stay tuned.

QUALIFIED!

Big,Big,Big...............Big win for GB basketball Last night! What turned out to be one of the most exciting wins for GB Basketball is one of the biggest wins for GB Basketball. Playing in front of a good home crowd that just saw the GB women qualify for next years EuroBasket play with a big win over Germany we were ready to roll. However we could never get total control over our game against Bosnia. Bosnia is a team fighting to stay out of the bottom of our group so it does not move down to a lower division next year. They have a tough team that never gives up and we had out hands full. Every time we made a run and got up eight or nine points they would come back at us hard and make a push to keep the game close. We did tend to shoot ourselves in the foot at times by making unforced errors. A silly foul here a bad shot there and even at times dribbling the ball off our own foot. Only monster games from Loul Deng and Pops Mensu-Bonsu who combined for 70 points and 35 redounds got us over the top in a scary overtime win. Sometimes you never know how you will win a game and this summer we have won games in a variety of ways. Tonight it took a missed free throw and an offensive rebound and foul to give Pops an opportunity to shoot two free throws to tie the game up. We have told the team all summer an opportunity means nothing unless you take advantage of it. And like all summer we did! Pops made his free throws, got us to overtime and we got another hard fought victory in the books. It has never been easy but we just keep fighting and find a way to win. That is a sign of a good team in any sport. With the win we are assured a spot in next years EuroBasket Championships and a chance to qualify for the 2012 Olympics! But first we have one more game to play. If we win we will be 7-1 in our group and get a better spot for next years play. Coach Finch will take it from here:

Sixteen teams from Europe qualify for next summer's EuroBasket Championships in Lithuania. The 16 will be comprised of the 10 European teams currently playing in this summer's World Championship which begin today in Turkey. Five more teams qualify from this summer's Qualifying Round which is what we are competing in and the final team gains entry after winning an additional qualifying tournament made up of the squads that missed out on qualifying this campaign. 10+5+1 adds up to 16 for next summer.

The draw for that tournament will be held in November and just prior to the draw FIBA Europe will rank the teams from 1 to 16 based on this year's performances. Those 16 will be divided into 4 tiers of 4 teams each. The 10 European teams from the World's Championships will be ranked 1 through 10 based on how they performed in Turkey. The top 4 will all be grouped into the top tier (Number 1 seeds), the next four (places 5 through 8) will make up the second tier (number 2 seeds) and the final two (teams 9 and 10 in the ranking) from Turkey along with the top two teams from this year's qualifying tournament (which is what we are competing in) will make up the third tier (number 3 seeds) and the remaining 3 teams plus the winning of next summer's additional qualifying round make up the final tier (bottom seeds).

What were are trying to secure is one of the two open spots in that third tier. The reason for this is because when FIBA Europe makes the draw to form 4 groups of 4 teams they will draw one team from each tier. Being ranked in the higher tier significantly reduces the chance you will draw the tougher teams. We learned this first-hand last summer when the draw gave us Spain, Slovenia and Serbia - quite possibly the toughest group ever to be assembled at the Euros. Spain won gold, Serbia won silver and Slovenia finished fourth last summer in Poland. So, as you can hopefully better see.....there is still a lot to play for tomorrow.

That explanation comes to you from our head coach, Chris Finch who has been through this many times before. Thank you coach. As you can see the higher seed you get the better chances you have of moving on next summer and getting into the 2012 Olympics.

First Loss

Tough loss last night to a good Macedonia team in front of a VERY loud, cheering, whistling (booing), singing crowd of 9,000. The atmosphere in the arena was electric even an hour before the game. Most of the crowd wearing team (red) color and waving their country flag. Macedonia was on top of their game from the beginning and we could not get on track, struggling to score for most of the game. Couple that with 25 turnovers and we hand our hands full all game. Ending with a very tough to take 75-56 loss.

We will have to put this loss behind us and move on quickly as we have a very busy week ahead of us. We travel back to England today and play Bosnia Thursday then go back on the road to end group play in the Ukraine over the weekend. If we win one of the last two games we will qualify for play next summer.

Showdown

After a long (12 hours) of travel yesterday Team GB gets ready for a showdown with the second place team in our group tomorrow, Macedonia. We were delayed out of London for a couple hours but finally got on our Croatia Airlines flight and after a short stop in Zagreb we landed in Macedonia and got to our hotel a little after 1am. Our hotel, Hotel Aleksandar Palace, here in Skopje is very nice. It is new and is located right next to the Arena we play in which is also new and holds about 9,000. Tomorrow night we expect a packed, loud and pumped up crowd. We are 5-0 in our group and in first place. Macedonia is 4-2 alone in second place after a slip up earlier in the week, losing to Hungary in Hungary 85-82. It is a must win for them because if we win we will lock up first place in our group with no one able to catch us! We have had some big win so far this summer but this will be the biggest challenge for us and would be our biggest win. They are a very good team with their star player, Bo Mccalebb a 6'4" high level guard in Europe averaging 25 points a game. They also have 6'11" veteran center Pero Antic who averages 16 points and 7 rebounds a game. He is a classic big for Europe shooting 45% from the 3Pt line. Looking forward to a great game tomorrow night and a big win for GB basketball!

5-0........Barely

We just avoided a major set back with a sloppy 66-64 home win vs Hungary last night. I know all the sayings, "a win is a win", "take it anyway you can get it" and "there are no ugly wins". But after the game last night were we just escaped a horrible loss those sayings really don't seem true. It WAS an ugly win. We had control of the game early having a 15 point lead at halftime 37-22. We should have been up by 20 points or more but we failed to put our foot on the gas when we had Hungary on the ropes. We held them to only 22 point at the half but that was fools gold as they missed 10 layups and they had 8 unforced errors turning the ball over for no real reason. We let them go on a 7-0 run to start the second half and now we had our hands full.

As I have said before basketball is a game of runs and confidence. Anytime you have the chance to put away a team early you need to take advantage of it. Let them know that there is absolutely NO way they can get back into the game! Because in the game of basketball if you give a team hope or a reason to play it will more than likely come back to haunt you. And we were one lucky shot away from that happening. We were up by 2 points with 5 seconds left as they came down the floor with the ball. One of their guards was dribbling the length of the court and I had visions of him pulling up for a 3pt, one leg, bank in jump shot to win the game. But he dribbled too deep and took an off balance 2pt shot that hit the side of the rim and fell harmlessly to the ground. After we all took a deep breath we looked up and we were 5-0! The only undefeated team in our group and in the whole competition.

I am not one of those people who think you can learn more from a loss than a win. I think you can do just as effective teaching after a win as after a loss. Especially after a scare like we had last night. Coach Finch did just that as he talked in the very quiet locker room after the game about how we have a once in a lifetime opportunity, playing for your country and working hard to qualify for the 2012 Olympics in you home country. We cannot afford to take anything for granted. We must play every possession of every game like it was the most important play of your life. We have 3 games left and they will be the toughest games of the group. It's starts with our next game on the road against Macedonia the second place team in our group at 4-1.

One last point to make that was brought up at our team meeting today. In FIBA competition all points can count. What I mean by that is if there are any ties in the group the team with the best point differential moves on. That means that our 2 point win last night can come back and cost us. There is a huge impact of 20 point blow out wins in group play. If we take care of business in our next game there will be no worries.

English/American

From our all knowing, (Queen V) Virginia Tuckey. Operations Manager of GB Basketball, some English sayings and American meanings:

"half past"- 30 minutes after- "Half past 9"= 9:30

"Tube"- the underground subway in London ( shaped like a tube)

"Mind the gap"- Watch your step as you get on the Tub or a train. The gap between the train and the station.

"Dodgey"- Dicey, shady,unpredictable.

"Cheers"- Good bye or thank you

"Queue"- A line

"Loo"-Bathroom

There is a queue for the loo. Line for the bathroom.

"bangers and mash"- Sausage and mashed potatoes

"biscuit"-Cookies

"Blow off"- Fart

"Bobby"-Policeman

"Bonnet"-Car hood

"Boot"-car trunk

"Bubble and squeak"- Cabbage and potatoes fried together

"car-boot sale"-Flea market

"chips"-French fries

"coach"-Bus

"Cotton buds"-Q-tips

"Crisps"-Potato chips

"Elevenses"- Coffee-and-biscuits before lunch break

"Fell"-Hill

"Fortnight"-Two weeks

"Geezer"-Dude

"Holiday"-Vacation

"Ice Lolly"-Popsicle

"Jacket potato"- Baked potato

"Let"-Rent

"Lift"-Elevator

"Moggie"_cat

"Noughts and Crosses"-Tic- tac- toe

"Pissed, bevvied, wellied, popped up, merry, trollied, ratted, rat arsed, pissed as a newt"

I hope you guessed it..................................Drunk

More to come later.

We play Hungary tonight looking to go 5-0 in group play!

4-0 and rolling

Another tough game and another hard fought victory! Playing at our home for the next 7 days in Birmingham England, before a good/loud crowd against a very talented but inconsistent Ukraine team was quite a challenge. Like all the teams in our group Ukraine is a team that loves to drive the basketball, keep the floor spread with good 3Pt shooters all over and play the "draw and Kick" game to perfection. They want your defense to collapse in on the man driving so they can "kick" pass the ball out to players at the 3Pt line. Ukraine started the game this way and took an early 12 point lead by going 5-5 from the 3Pt line and scoring 27 points in the first quarter. We settled down as the game went on and with better defense, going to a lot of zone we limited them to 30 points in the whole second half we got a solid 90-76 home victory. After going 5-5 from the three in the first quarter the ended up shooting 7-22 for the game from the three, 31%.

Luol Deng had a big game 28Pts, 7 reb 4-8 from the three

Pops 15pts 8 reb

Nate Reinking 14pts

Dan Clark 13 pts 9 reb

Ogo Adegboye 10pts

Solid team effort

We have a day off today, Sunday and I am going to use it to do some site seeing. My wife Linda and I are taking a train to Stratford Upon Avon the home of Shakespeare. Even though it is still summer here the weather has not been great. 60's and rain but it looks like we will have a nice day to take in the sites today. Still may have to invest in an umbrella though.

3-0!

YESSSSSSSSS......... We are 3-0 in group play! Another big road win for GB basketball. Road wins are hard to come by in the Euro basketball world and we have two of them in the first three games of group play. They are hard to come by because of a lot of factors. Tough travel to some of these countries (you can't get there from here), Hotels and food are not what most of the players and coaches are use too, older/hot/crowded/small gyms to play in with very loud aggressive crowds and we will not get into referees. Team GB has shown a toughness and determination to fight through all that and keep our focus on the prize. Winning the game. The arena in Bosnia was a good size holding about 6,000 and although it wasn't completely full it was a loud, excited crowd that greeted us as we came out for warmups. The building is very old with seats that go almost straight up from the court. It seems at times that the crowd is right on top of you. They also have the "old school" benches with plastic shields behind you to protect the team from any flying objects. That wasn't really a problem until late in the game when an object that looked like a lighter was thrown on to the court after what the crowd thought was a bad call by the refs. Fortunately no one was hit and the game went on.

Bosnia jumped on us early with some tough shots made by their Bosnian/American Henry Domercant, the only player who's name does not end in vic. Nesovic, Dedovic, Milosevic....... He is a 6'4" guard who is a very good Euro player who has played at the highest levels over here. Greece,Russia and Spain making about $1,000,000 a year. We clamped down on him defensively after he scored the first 8 points of the game and he only ended up with 16 points for the game. Luol Deng did a great job defending him most of the game. We came back at them in the second half as our defense really picked up, allowing only 32 point in the second half! We came away with a hard fought, very rewarding 84-80 road victory.

Luol Deng had a solid game with 16 points and 7 rebounds.

Pops Mensah-Bonsu had another solid game with 16 points and 12 rebounds (5 offensive)

Flinder Boyd gave a solid minutes at the point guard position

But the two stars of the game were:

Dan Clark, 23 points 8-10Fg and 5-5 from 3Pt line

Nate Reinking, 21 points, 3-6 from 3Pt line

Now it back home for 2 games against Ukraine and our second game against Hungary. We are close to taking control of the group but we must stay focused and not be satisfied. The games do not get any easier. All the teams in our group are capable of beating every team in the group.

Bosnia

I have a few hours before our game tonight (very late 8:45PM start) so I thought I would share some comments. Besides, It is warm here and there is no real air conditioning or internet in my room. So I have taken refuge in the lobby where it is cooler and I can get on the internet. It is kind of weird though, seeing ash trays on the tables in the lobby. Yes there is smoking in the hotel. I guess I got spoiled in America with all the no smoking areas. Our staff here at GB has started calling the lobby the internet cafe as we all gather here in one area to get on the internet. Landing here yesterday took me a little by surprise. We are up in the mountains and they are very green looking very much like the mountains in Colorado. We are playing in Sarajevo home of the 1984 Winter Olympics. The city is full of life with lots of young people walking through the streets either on their way to work or window shopping. The traffic is not too bad but we have a police escort anyway as it is a little drive to the arena. On our drive to the arena for practice yesterday it brought us all down to earth seeing the bullet holes still remaining in the building walls from years of fighting in this area. All sizes of holes from single rifle holes to bigger machine gun fire holes. On all kinds of buildings. Government buildings, store fronts and residents. No matter how important the game is tonight, and it is a big game for us, it puts everything in perspective. We all have the opportunity to represent Great Britain and the game of basketball all over the world. Well it's time to go upstairs and get ready to go to the game.

Game two group play

We are now 2-0 in group play! We had a big home game (our first) here in Newcastle today against a very good team from Macedonia. Playing before a good crowd of over 3,000 we gave them a game to remember. We jumped out to a nice 11 point led in the first quarter with some good fast break basketball and some flying dunks by Pops Mensah-Bonsu! We tripped up a little at the end of the second quarter but still had a solid 4 point lead going in at halftime. the second half was a wild ride with both teams going on runs and the lead changing leads over and over. With the game looking like it might be out of reach, with less then two minutes left and being down by seven points some crazy things happened. We got what turned out to be a 5 point turn around when a player macedonia fouled Dan Clark intentionally. He made both free throws and we got the ball out of bounds. We ran a misdirection play and knocked down a open 3pt shot to pull within two points. With 6 seconds left in the game we were down by 3 points with two free throws to shoot. Pops missed the first free throw then intentionally missed the second free throw, Dan Clark tipped the ball back to Luol Deng who calmly swished a 3pt shot to tie the game! We got a big defensive stop in the last 5 seconds of the game to send it into overtime. Once in overtime with momentum and a very loud crowd on our side we took over in the 5 minute overtime period and out scored them 17-9 and came away with a spectacular 104-96 home win!

Great team win with a lot of players stepping up. Our big two Mensah-Bonsu and Deng had 27 and 23 points. Now it is on to Bosnia to play game 3 in group play Wed.

Newcastle

After our victory on the road in Hungary we flew back to London and then on to Newcastle. We have a bye this week so we set up camp here at the Hilton. Great city and great hotel. We will practice here for the next few days then play Macedonia. We are practicing and will play our game at Northumbra University. It is a classic looking college with Red brick buildings and about 18,000 students. The Gym and athletic buildings are brand new. You can still smell the wet paint. It reminds me of a big Division 2 school or small division 1 college in the States. Nice size gym holds about 3,500 people. I hope we can fill it for our game and stir up some interest in the basketball team here at home. We are going to play a very good veteran team, FYROM or Former Yugoslovia Republic of Macedonia. They have a team full of SHOOTERS or more to the point MAKERS. When a coach says he needs a "shooter" he really means he wants a "maker"! There are a lot of "shooters" out there but not many "makers". I am finding that a lot of the "shooters" and "makers" are playing here, overseas. They have 2 big players that really shoot the ball well from 3pt range. Pero Antic and Todor Gecevski, both are 6'11" And very skilled basketball players. It's kind of crazy but I remember sees both of them workout 6 years ago at the Euro basketball camp in Treviso Italy. It was a workout for all the NBA GMs and scouts. I was one of the coaches that worked them out and I remember thinking afterwards.... These two could be good back up bigs in the NBA in a couple years. It will be interesting to see them years later. It looks like they have become good players overseas.

Newcastle is a pretty city on a river. It reminds me a lot of Portland. Nice downtown but not too busy with lots of shops and pubs. The weather has been cool, in the 60's and it is starting to rain a little today. Kind of weird for August. It fells like we should be going to a college football game. Maybe Kansas vs Kansas State in Memorial Stadium on a nice cool Saturday. Memories........ Well back to watching tape and working on my scouting report.

P.S. To let me know anyone is reading this feel free to add any and all comments. I would love any feedback. Please no comments on my spelling I get enough hassle from my family. Hi Michael and Bryan. Your mom is having a great time site seeing while I am stuck in a gym.

Group play

We won game 1 vs Hungary on the road 91-82! It was our first game in group play as we try to qualify for the World Championships next year on the road to the Olympics. Playing on the road in a hostile environment and getting a win for a young team like us was huge. We landed in Budapest Hungary on Sunday and took a 45 minute bus ride to the small town of Szolnok. It is a beautiful little city on a river in the country. Very green, with rolling hills. The ride there reminded me of the fields in Iowa. The reason they played our game there is because they wanted a real home court advantage. They could play in a bigger gym in Budapest but the small (2,500) seat arena with no air conditioning is a better home court advantage. And wow was it! It was packed in the gym. I think they crammed 3,000 in there. They were chanting, singing and banging drums for most of the game. What a great atmosphere!

We quieted the crown a bit early by jumping out to a quick 8 point lead but their hot 3pt shooting in the first half 5-10 50% kept them in the game. We battled shot for shot in the second half and although they got a short lived 4pt lead we fought them off and came up with a huge win. Any win on the road is big in group play. It was great seeing how passionate the people of Hungary are about basketball. They take the game very seriously and appreciate good basketball. They have a good young basketball team. Adam Hanga is a good penetrating 6'5" point guard who had 20pts and 10 rebounds.

We got a big game from Loul Deng playing for the first time this summer, 32pts and 9 rebounds. Most of you know he plays in the NBA for the Chicago Bulls. He has been practicing with us for a few weeks but because of insurance reasons he didn't play until this week or first game in group play. It was great seeing him in a GAME uniform! We also got a good game from Pops Mensah-Bonsu 14pts and 18 rebounds. Nate Reinking and Dan Sullivan also had solid games but it was a team win with everyone chipping in.