Russia NT 2011

[rikhardur]

Sergey Bazarevich may replace David Blatt as Russian National Team Head Coach - Jan 27, 2011 (by Eurobasket )
Decision on future of Russian National team coach will be on 1st February. In case that David Blatt t leaves the head coach position, it is possible to have a russian coach. President of Russian Federation mr. Aleksandr Krasnenkov said that if coach is having two duties, club and national team, he would prefer that he is a coaching a PBL (Russian Professional League). Rumors from Russia are that new candidate could be Sergey Bazarevich (agency: Alti Sport ). Sergey Bazarevich (agency: Alti Sport ) most promising russian candidate is coaching Dynamo Moscow, also known as a former russian basketball star, first russian player in NBA, all world tournament 5 in 1993. Dynamo Moscow the only team playing with only Russian players, last season big surprise with 4th place. This year with a smallest budget in the league managed to upset a leader of PBL Unics Kazan with a home win last week. Dynamo Moscow is having the last spot for the play off at the moment. Sergey Bazarevich (agency: Alti Sport ) is coaching four national team players who were playing in Turkey in the world cup.

http://www.eurobasket.com/Russia/bas...?NewsID=215954

[Billy Bounce]

It looks like Blatt stays.

Yesterday the board of Russian basketball federation voted unanimously for Blatt to stay.

src: http://www.basket.ru/news/article/on...ng/?newart=360

Blatt is expected to respond to the offer within 3-5 days.

[sagenas]

Today I've read that R.Kurtinaitis is candidate to coach Russian NT.

[goga78]

Regardless of whether Blatt decides to stay, I can't stop wondering about Russian coaches and functionaries contantly stating that they don't want a foreigner to coach the Russian NT as it would not be a good solution. This is so incredibly outlandish as it was a foreigner - Blatt - who came, saw and won the European Championship. The subsequent Olympics were a failure in a tough group as Russia was basically missing its key player in Khryapa and the next WBC and EBC Blatt squeezed more out of this team than could be expected. None of these "experts" has reached anything with a club team or a national team with the exception of Sergei Belov who brought home three medals (two silver and one bronze), when he could count on a very strong roster with All-European players on every position.

[wardjdim]

Regardless who the coach is, the starting PG and leader and go-to guy of the team should be no else than Aleksey Shved

[rikhardur]

01/02/2011
RUS – Blatt: ‘Russia will compete no matter which players show up’

TEL AVIV (EuroBasket 2011) - David Blatt knows what it takes to win a gold medal at a EuroBasket.

He led Russia to the top of the podium four years ago in Spain and would love to do it again in Lithuania this summer.

But to have a realistic chance of doing that, Blatt, who watched the EuroBasket 2011 draw on Sunday and saw Russia fall into a Group D with Slovenia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Georgia and Ukraine, needs his best players to represent the country again, just as Spain need Pau Gasol and Greece need Dimitris Diamantidis.

"All of the teams are one team with one group of guys, and another team with another group of guys," Blatt said to FIBA.com.

"You saw Spain last year without Pau Gasol.

"With all due respect to Spain, they're one of the very, very best teams in Europe, but where are they in Europe without Gasol and (Jose) Calderon? Let's be honest, and they have a lot of players.”

Spain reached the Quarter-Finals at the 2010 FIBA World Championship but lost to Serbia on a long three-pointer by Milos Teodosic at the buzzer.

"The reality is that at this level, if you want to be a top team, then you want to have the top players,” Blatt said.

For this reason, Blatt can’t venture a guess as to where Russia will end up at the EuroBasket in Lithuania.

If he has one group of his players, Blatt’s team would be among the best on the continent.

With another, like the squad that overachieved at the FIBA World Championship in Turkey, Russia are among a group of teams that would do well just to reach the last Quarter-Finals.

“I was very proud of what we did at the World Championship. To finish seventh without all of our players was great.

"We won six games out of nine games.

"That's not an easy thing to do at a World Championship.

"We beat better teams. We beat teams we were supposed to beat. We lost to the U.S. in a very well played game, and we lost to Turkey by nine points in Turkey which is as good as anybody did (except Team USA in the Final) and we lost to Argentina, which is a high-level team that finished above us in the standings.”

First things first

Blatt has not signed a contract extension with Russia, something that seemed unlikely last year at the World Championship, but Russia’s federation and the new president, Alexander Krasnenkov, have made no secret of their desire to keep the 51-year-old in the job.

"Right now, the direction is very positive and I am in serious discussions with the new president," Blatt said.

"I'll shortly be going back to Russia to meet with him.

"Right now, all the indications are very positive that I'll continue."

Therefore, he watched the EuroBasket draw in Lithuania with a lot of interest.

Bulgaria’s coach, Rosen Barchovski, said he was happy to have avoided Spain, Turkey and tournament hosts Lithuania in Group A.

Only the top three sides will progress from each group to the next phase.

Blatt doesn’t think it wise to become too excited about a draw.

"You know," he said, "because I've been doing this for a while. I've been at a number of EuroBaskets, an Olympic Games and a World Championship, and I think that the gifts of the winter time can turn out to be the punishments of the summer time, and vice-versa - you just don't know.

"You can't know at this stage.

“It's a little premature to either celebrate or to lament your condition at this point and I think that all coaches would do very well to be calm at this point and just see how the teams shape up, who comes and who doesn't, before they start getting overly concerned one way or another."

Nevertheless, Blatt wasn’t unhappy that the basketball gods had placed his team in Group D.

"Our draw is even,” he said, “a lot of evenly balanced teams.

“But it's a group that I would hope we'd find a way to advance from and that's the important thing in the First Round.”

Avoiding Israel

Blatt is the coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv and calls Israel home.

Arik Shivek's Israeli team ended up in Group B, and Blatt was relieved.

"Honestly, I am," he said.

"I didn't want to go against them again. I did in EuroBasket, Spain, 2007. It was not a comfortable situation for me."

He then laughed and said: "It wasn't comfortable for them, either, because we won by 35.

"I was happy at the end of the day that they qualified out of that group, by the way. That made me feel better. It wasn't comfortable playing them, nor beating them by 35.

"But it was a happy moment for me when they qualified."

So what can Europe expect of Russia at the EuroBasket? Might this team go on another great run and reach the Final, which would qualify the team for the London Olympics?

"For me, the most important thing is to see which team I have because over the last three years, even though we have played well and had good results, we have not had our top players come, or they haven’t been available because of injury,” Blatt said.

"I'll be very interested to see over these next few months who we'll have at our disposal and then I'll be able to comment more specifically on the draw that we had and whether or not we can advance and in what condition."

The return of naturalized point guard Holden would be celebrated.

He hit the game-winning basket against Spain in 2007 and remains a leading point guard in Russia with CSKA Moscow.

While he hasn’t played since the 2008 Olympics, the Pennsylvania native hasn’t retired.

"I asked him every year but he politely refuses so I don't know that he'll change his mind," Blatt said.

"I'll certainly ask him as I always do. I'm waiting anxiously to see what is going to happen with the NBA lockout because that will directly influence some of our players.

" I would strongly hope that Andrei would come back and join us after a few years of not participating and that Timofey Mozgov would come back and play as he has done the last two years.

"We have a big concern with Viktor Khryapa, who unfortunately has not played this year (at CSKA Moscow) except for a few minutes due to a very difficult and chronic ankle condition that he has.

"He may not play again this year, so I don't know what kind of condition that puts him in this year with the national team.

"So we're still waiting to see who is going to come and play with us. We could be one team in one group, or we can be a team that is the fighting, overachieving and fun team of the last few years without Khryapa, without Holden and without Kirilenko and just do the best that we can.

"I will say this, which is what we've done the past few years without the stars, that we will be a competitor. We'll come and we'll play and we won't be an easy match for anyone."

http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/new...5673/arti.html

[Mindozas]

Kirilenko confirmed that he'll play for Russia in EC and will be aiming highest places. He will join the camp after holidays, on the 1st of August.

[ip84]

I wonder if people here know/remember the story how Blatt became Russian coach instead of being Israeli NT coach... lol.

[goga78]

I wonder if people here know/remember the story how Blatt became Russian coach instead of being Israeli NT coach... lol.

OMG! It was bureaucratic stupidity at its best!

[vaslover]

OMG! It was bureaucratic stupidity at its best!

Don,t worry guys,once David eventually will lead Israel NT...

[goga78]

Don,t worry guys,once David eventually will lead Israel NT...

At least I was able to witness the 2007 run by his Russian NT

[vaslover]

[QUOTE=goga78;572926]At least I was able to witness the 2007 run by his Russian NT

[auris1]

I wonder if people here know/remember the story how Blatt became Russian coach instead of being Israeli NT coach... lol.

So ?
what was the story?
I do not know.

[vaslover]

So ?
what was the story?
I do not know.

As i remember, Israel Basketball Federation put in idiotic bureaucratic spokes in the wheel for David to get the israeli coaching diploma. Eventually, he chose the offer of our basketball federation,and i suppose he still doesn,t regret that eventually he chose our NT...

[CKR13]

Partial snips from the full article on The Salt Lake Tribune

Kirilenko feels optimistic, his mind is clear and his body has healed. The latter is key. After missing Utah’s final 10 games due to nagging injuries, the Russian native is healthy and plans to play for his home country in the 2011 European Basketball Championship. The tournament is scheduled from Aug. 31 to Sept. 18 in Lithuania.

“I feel pretty good,” said Kirilenko, who is set to fly back to Russia this week and doesn’t plan to return to the United States until August. “I was pretty close at the end of the year. But, obviously, we ended [the season] a little bit early.”

[Phoenix32]

blat will be watching PBL playoff games to look for candidates for nt

and Dinamo PG Hvostov will atend training camp even with youth team to get the palying form faster

[rikhardur]

Russia Can Do It Again, Says Kaun

Success comes in cycles. In basketball, as in life, rarely are the twin poles of joy and despair incessant.

Russia felt the elation when they swept to victory at EuroBasket 2007 in Spain, strangling the dreams of the hosts in the final.

Then, their power waned once more, back into the pack, wondering when the next surge would come.

Why not this year in Lithuania, Sasha Kaun asks? It is not a show of impatience from the CSKA Moscow centre, nor mere bravado.

Merely, he says, that there is no reason to discount the chance of a young squad which believes it can raise itself.

"Anything could happen," he states. Anything at all.

Mother Russia will march into the neighbouring Baltics in the hope of a bloodless conquest.

Theirs will be a team which is still headed towards its peak with totems like the Denver Nuggets' Timofey Mozgov approaching their best years.

Even if veteran duo JR Holden and Viktor Khryapa answer the call, the new generation, Kaun confirms, are motivated to surpass their predecessors.

"Especially considering that we didn't do as well as we wanted to at the (2010) World Championship. And we want to qualify for the Olympics next year."

The stars, perhaps, are aligning for Russia. Mozgov, liberated in mid-season from New York, has continued upon the promising break-out he enjoyed at last year's FIBA World Championship, announcing himself as a genuine NBA player.

"It's definitely helpful to have him getting that kind of experience," Kaun asserts. "He works hard. He's got better as he went along."

He might be joined by Andrei Kirilenko, the talisman of the triumph of four years ago, who has hinted strongly that he will re-join his country at a time when his decade-long spell with the Utah Jazz appears to be coming to an end.

"With him back, we're much stronger," Kaun adds.

Yet the biggest lift arguably arrived some months ago when David Blatt, the architect of '07, finally confirmed that he would remain as head coach.

Back for another run, chasing another European title, the Maccabi Tel Aviv playcaller has his team on side.

"He's a great coach," Kaun confirms.

"He has so many good tendencies, coming from the USA but also being a kind of adopted European as well.

"He's had so much success over the last few years, both with us internationally and also with his club teams. You saw this season with Maccabi how well they did to get to the Euroleague Final Four and then to the final. We're happy to have him back."

Kaun has an easy kinship with Blatt. Now into his third season with CSKA Moscow, the 26-year-old is a rarity: a Russian who 'defected' to the West before returning home.

Educated in high school in Florida, and then at the University of Kansas, the Tomsk-born giant has taken precious insights from each stop.

"You get the best of both worlds," he reveals. "I built up my body by playing in America. European basketball was then different. I had to become even smarter and learn the game more, how to position myself on the court and defensively."

The NBA scouts will watch him once more in Lithuania. His rights are currently held by the Cleveland Cavaliers who might hold an interest in his services.

Kaun will not rule out a second instalment of his American odyssey. "It's something I always look into," he admits.

"This year would be tough with the potential of a lock out. You can play more here. But if there were ever an opportunity, I'd consider it."

Pushing himself front and centre at the EuroBasket would broaden his fame.

Russia - in a first round group that includes 2009 semi-finalists Slovenia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Georgia - should expect nothing less than progress into the second phase.

One cycle at a time, Kaun counters. "There are a lot of good teams and you still have to win the game. Slovenia will definitely be strong. They have a good team. But you never know what to expect. Having the tournament expand to more teams makes it harder because you play so many games in a short period of time. You have to be ready."

If they weren't before, they are now.

http://www.fibaeurope.com/coid_qfba8...leMode_on.html

[Mindozas]

Russia announced it's preliminar roster:

1st camp (15th of June)


1. Semyon Antonov ("Nizhniy Novgorod")
2. Dmitriy Golovin ("Nizhniy Novgorod")
3. Maksim Grigoryev ("Lokomotiv-Kuban")
4. Petr Gubanov ("Dinamo")
5. Vyacheslav Zaytsev ("Khimki")
6. Viktor Zvarykin ("Krasnye Krylya")
7. Aleksey Zozulin ("Spartak")
8. Vladimir Ivlev ("Dinamo")
9. Anatoliy Kashirov ("Aris")
10. Aleksandr Korchagin ("Spartak")
11. Aleksey Kotishevskiy ("Spartak")
12. Valeriy Likhodey ("Triumph")
13. Ivan Nelyubov ("VEF")
14. Denis Polokhin (CSKA)
15. Dmitriy Khvostov ("Dinamo")
16. Artem Yakovenko ("Nizhniy Novgorod").

2nd camp (15th of July)

1. Sergey Bykov (CSKA)
2. Andrey Vorontsevich (CSKA)
3. Yevgeniy Voronov ("Dinamo")
4. Aleksey Zhukanenko ("Dinamo")
5. Aleksandr Kaun (CSKA)
6. Viktor Keyru ("Dinamo")
7. Andrey Kirilenko ("Utah Jazz")
8. Timofey Mozgov ("Denver Nuggets")
9. Sergey Monya ("Khimki")
10. Anton Ponkrashov ("Spartak")
11. Vitaliy Fridzon ("Khimki")
12. John-Robert Holden (CSKA)
13. Viktor Khryapa (CSKA)
14. Aleksey Shved (CSKA).

[wardjdim]

http://www.talkbasket.net/5805-holde...urobasket.html

Good point now who's starting at PG. Ponkrashov and Shved both provide them with good passing and size, but I am not sure they can draw enough attention to open up defenses or take over the clutch shooting at times

G- Shved, Ponkrashov, Bykov
G- Fridzon, Keyru

These are the two questionable positions which could be partly resolved if McCarty can take over the place of the retired Holden as a naturalized player in the NT. Also, when it comes to the pure PG position, Khvostov can be an option now for the back up PG, moving Shved at SG (although I think he is more useful at PG)

F- Vorontsevich, Monya
F- Kirilenko, Khryapa
C- Kaun, Mozgov, Zhukanenko

These are the strong positions

[madmax]

like usual Ryssia will be very physical team with some gritty hustle players - Kirilenko, Mozgov, Kaun. I'm not sure any european frontline will be able to match their intensity inside and physical play. Now the question mark are guards, which are not of the highest level and their shooting can go on and off depending on a moon phase. If everything is clicking, Russia can easily "upset" every favourite and repeat their 2007 performance