Greece, A Tall Order
Tagged in: National Teams, Tall Blacks
As if facing sixth-ranked Greece on their home floor wasn’t enough.
While manning-up with a team full of European superstars on court, the New Zealand Tall Blacks will also have to deal with 20,000 home fans and the pressure of playing for their Olympic lives when they meet Greece in the quarterfinals of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Athens (7am NZ time).
“Greece is one of the top teams in the world at the moment, certainly the top four, and it’s the toughest place to play on earth. The game is sold out, 20,000 tickets are gone. It’s going to be a very good atmosphere, a loud crowd behind them,” said Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic.
“It’s a tough task, we all know that, especially with the new and inexperienced group and I don’t think New Zealand has played in front of 20,000 home fans before.”
Greece - ranked behind only the USA, Argentina, Spain, Serbia and Lithuania - features guards Theo Papaloukas and Nikos Zisis, part of the 2007-08 Euroleague champions CSKA Moscow, with the majority of the squad pulled from Greek powerhouses, champions Panathinaikos and Olympiacos.
Clearly this is going to be one of the - if not the - toughest challenge for a Tall Blacks team that had only centre Craig Bradshaw playing in Europe last season.
“We’re just going to get into our bubble, put five guys on court, prepare well for the game and go out there and try to win the game like any other.
“Every time we go on court we go in with that attitude, to leave everything on the court. It’s a great opportunity for us to play in this sort of environment. None of the players have played in front of 20,000 opposing fans and very loud fans. It’s a great environment to play in and a challenging environment, but this team isn’t afraid of challenges.”
With a spot in the Qualifying Tournament semifinals – against either Slovenia or Puerto Rico - and moving just one win away from Beijing at stake, Vucinic and the Tall Blacks were only thinking positive.
“We think on any given night anything is possible and that’s the attitude we’re taking for this game. It’s not just about giving them a run for their money, it’s to beat them.
“We have to go into the game thinking we can win it. The Tall Blacks have always been known for that kind of attitude and we’ve beaten some very very good teams before, and who’s to say that can’t happen tomorrow.
“There is five of them, five of us. If we play good basketball, we have a chance to win. We intend to play good basketball, so we’ll see what happens.”
Playing good basketball will be a minimum against Greece.
Panagiotis Yannakis’ squad has gone 7-0 this summer, including tournament wins at the Super Cup in Germany and Acropolis Tournament in Athens, with an average winning margin of almost 19 points per game and wins over top-20 teams Australia, Puerto Rico, Croatia, Brazil and Slovenia.
Tall Blacks hooting guard Kirk Penney leads the scoring averages after the preliminary round, with 27.0 points per game, and the Tall Blacks will again call on his outside shooting, but will also need large performances from captain Pero Cameron, Bradshaw and point guard Lindsay Tait to have any chance.
New Zealand, who have no injury concerns, qualified for the quarterfinals following a 77-50 win over Cape Verde and 89-71 loss to Germany in group B play. The Tall Blacks have a 4-6 record this season, with wins over Lebanon, Canada, Iran and Cape Verde.
