The road to Eurobasket Women in Poland is nearing its final destination for Great Britain, Latvia and Germany. It’s a different story for Cuba though, as they begin their preparations for the FIBA Americas event in late-September.

This past week saw all four teams desend upon Guildford in the south of England for a four-team tournament played over three days.

For Great Britain and Latvia, they have another 27 days to prepare for the summer’s main event in Poland, while Germany have to wait-and-see if they’re Eurobasket-bound, as they begin their Additional Qualifying campaign against Italy, Romania, Belgium and Serbia in the beginning of June.

“You can really call it a challenge, being the first out of ten,” Germany coach Bastian Wernthaler admits. “But we’re just building on our style of play and trying to improve on that and see what our results are. We want to qualify though.”

For Great Britain, like their male counterparts two years ago, they will be heading to Poland for their first-ever Eurobasket. Coach Tom Maher is realistic about his team’s chances, but states that this is all part of the growing experience.

“We’ve got to put our time into this like the other teams and we’ve got to build the game in Britain and build our national team. We’ve got to set an example to British basketball players of how we want to play the game, so what we want to do is set an example,” Maher states.

“We want to play with a style and a character that the British people find acceptable.

“And if we can win a couple of games (at Eurobasket) that would be great too,” Maher said.

It certainly will not be easy for the Brits, as they do battle against Belarus, Israel and World Championship silver-medalists Czech Republic in Group B.

Latvia take a fairly new team to Poland in under three weeks. Where they face Greece, Croatia and France in Group D. Coach George Dikeoulakos will be without key player Anete Jekabsone-Zogota, as the Fenerbahce guard has decided to take the summer off.

“Many players have just come and haven’t been with us even for a week,” Latvia’s Greek coach pointed out. “They’re starting to get it, but taking it slowly along with our philosophy and we need better conditioning.”

Cuba, who are relative unknowns to many in Guildford have a young and energetic squad that can be very exciting to watch at times. They came to Guildford as the highest ranked FIBA nation, at 10. And are heavily fancied to go far in their FIBA Americas event, scheduled in Columbia.

The Cubans are one of the first nations in the Americas region to begin preparations for their respective tournament which starts on the 24th September against Puerto Rico. They are drawn in Group A, alongside Puerto Rico, Chile, Argentina and hosts Columbia.

This invitational tournament, hosted by Great Britain and their main title sponsors Standard Life was a great success, and important to each team’s progress headed to Eurobasket and FIBA Americas.

“It’s huge, I mean there’s only a certain amount you can teach in practice, and to play against high-level teams is just crucial to experience and to gain knowledge, and that’s the stuff that you can’t really teach in practice,” Great Britain forward Julie Page said.

TOURNAMENT

Despite arriving less than four hours before their first game, Cuba emerged victorious over the three days. Defeating Latvia, Great Britain and Germany by seven points or more. Germany were pushed into second, with the hosts Great Britain finishing third and Latvia last with no wins and three defeats.

“It’s absolutely great for us here – everything is organised perfectly – the hotel, the training facilities and the gym is great,” German coach Wernthaler said.

Despite the lack of fans attending the tournament, Saturday being a slight exception. The fans that were there seemed to enjoy it.

“I was born in the province of Villa Clara in Cuba, but moved to England some years ago, and have always enjoyed basketball. So to see Great Britain and Cuba in the same basketball arena is quite special for me and something that I hope happens again,” said a Cuban national with a Great Britain jersey on.

Note – Unfortunately, none of the Cuban National team were able to be interviewed as none of the players, nor coaching staff could speak English.