Great Britain NT 2011

[TalkBasket]

[size="4"]Britain Still ‘New Kids On The Block’[/size]



One never knows just how strong a national team will be each summer because of player availability issues.



There is one guarantee for Great Britain, though, as they look to make it back to a second-straight EuroBasket.



A different coach will be in charge.



Chris Finch will still hold the reins, but it will be a different Finch, one with new ideas and perhaps a bolder approach, a transformation that has happened following his departure from Dexia Mons-Hainaut in Belgium's top flight for the Houston Rockets' NBDL side, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.



After a lot of careful consideration and advice from colleagues like another NBDL boss, fellow American Nick Nurse - the Great Britain assistant coach - Finch felt it was time to stretch his comfort zone.



"I was always too conservative," Finch said in an interview with the BBC's World Service.



"I am more of a practice coach, a preparation coach.



"I like the routine European basketball had playing twice a week.



"But Nick was right.



"He said it (joining the Vipers) would help my game and it has.



"I feel much more comfortable in game situations than before.



"I was a little reluctant to do or try things but now I realize there's nothing to lose."



The Brits lost all three games they played at the EuroBasket last year but that wasn't surprising and for different reasons.



They played in Group C, the toughest of the tournament with opponents Slovenia, Spain and Serbia all advancing to the Semi-Finals and two of them - the Spanish and Serbians - making it to the title game.



Another setback for Britain was the absence of leading man Luol Deng due to injury and that, Finch has revealed, also led to fellow NBA star Ben Gordon from making his British bow.



"Ben is saying all the right things as he always does," Finch said in a tone of frustration.



"I really believe with Ben, he would have played last year had Lu played."



Gordon was born in London but grew up in the United States and does not have a strong connection to anyone other than his former Chicago Bulls teammate Deng in the British team.



"People need to understand that Ben has very little familiarity with the team in what we do," Finch said.



"We have a good relationship with him. It's a good one, it's open, and honest.



"He just said ‘I don't feel like going over there as such a major piece of the puzzle without having some familiarity.'



"You know, Lu provides that and it's all the more important that Lu commits, comes and helps with the integration of Ben."



Another factor that worked against Britain was their inexperience, and not just in the tournament but also the preparations.



This is something that Finch, Nurse and the rest of British Basketball have been looking at since the end of their EuroBasket campaign.



"We do a lot of debating about the things we've done in the past," Finch said.



"We really are critical of ourselves to make things better."



So what needs to happen for Britain to be competitive again and have a chance to reach the EuroBasket?



"The first thing we've got to do is set our schedule," Finch said.



"This summer is tougher than ever because the competition's moved up into the summer calendar.



"It's going to affect our guys' off-seasons. We need to make sure they are fresh and prepared."



This means the players will not be together as long as Finch would like before they start playing.



"We'll have two to three weeks of preparation period, closer to two, playing four or five games in there," he said.



"But we'll have the benefit of having worked with our guys for the last three or four years. We didn't have that before.



"And we also have an early bye. After we play our first game, we'll get some quality practice time and that allows us to keep building after the competition starts."



Finch said something that all of the players and fans need to understand is that this summer is like starting over.



"The biggest thing," Finch warned, "is we need to guard against entitlement because we were there last summer. We have to prove ourselves all over again. That's really the biggest mission statement we have for our guys.



"We can't be spoiled. We're still new kids on the block."

http://www.fibaeurope.com/coid_tgmeh41jH...de_on.html