SACRAMENTO (FIBA EuroBasket 2017) - Omri Casspi and his Israel teammates will have the benefit of experience the next time they advance from the Group Phase of a EuroBasket because last year in France, things didn't go so well in the knockout round.

After progressing from Montpellier, the Israelis had their worst game of the tournament in the Round of 16 against Italy and crashed out of the competition.

Israel will try to make amends next summer as one of the host cities of FIBA EuroBasket 2017. Casspi, now in his second stint with the Sacramento Kings, has spoken about the challenge to FIBA.com.

Israel will host Group B and play against Ukraine, Lithuania, Georgia, Italy and Germany. What do you think about this pool?
It's tough. It's going to be fun to play in Israel, but the group we got included in is tough. We are going to play the first night against Italy, the team that beat us last year at EuroBasket, with talented guys such as Marco Bellinelli, Gallo (Danilo Gallinari) and Andrea Bargnani. We are going to play Georgia, with their tough guys, Lithuania, who have always been among the top four national teams in European basketball. Germany is great too. It's going to be a great competition, a great battle every night.

Israel lost pretty badly in the first game of the knockout stage against Italy. What did you guys learn from the campaign in France?
We needed to figure out how to play at the highest level you know. Playing in the first round, in the group stage, is different than playing in the knockout rounds. It was a good experience though, we learned a lot from it. Going to the second round was good, we all learned from it, the players, the coaching staff and we want to try to keep getting better.

What do you think about playing at home? What can we expect from the Israel national team at the tournament?
It's going to be great. I know our fans are excited about it. It's always fun to play in Israel, our fans are always so passionate about basketball, and good basketball. We are going to compete and give our best.

Do you think that playing at home will be a positive factor, something that can lift you guys up?
I think so. Obviously the competition level in Europe is very high, and playing at home will give us something extra, a good home crowd feeling that the fans will give us. It's going to be a tough competition, a battle every night and obviously the fans can lift us up in a sense, but we will still need to play good basketball to win.

What's the goal for Israel in the tournament? Have you and your teammates talked much about it yet?
I think it will come more into the conversation closer to the summer. Our goal would be to get over that first hump, pass the group stage and then compete at our highest level. I feel that when you get to the knockout round stage, every game is a winnable game, the pressure is on this one game and this can be a opportunity to pass to the next round for every team that qualifies for the knockout stage.

Is it a goal for you next summer? Are you already thinking about next year’s EuroBasket?
Yes, I am excited. When the Draw came out, it got me back thinking on the game we lost against Italy in 2015 as we are going to start the tournament against them. It's exciting. We have been waiting for this opportunity to play in front of our fans our whole careers and it's going to finally happen so, I am excited.

Casspi and Israel will get another crack at Italy

You have been playing for the senior national team since 2008 and in the NBA since 2009. What has each of these experiences brought to your game and to your growth as a player?
I feel like that playing at international level every year adds more and more experience to my game. I can work and bring my game back to the NBA. The fact that you play every night at the highest level against the best players from Europe and that the game is a bit different shows you different techniques and different mental approaches to the game, and it also shows you how to get better and be a better competitor as an individual.

The Israel national team has been having some ups and down in the last couple of years. For some, the lack of new young talents is one of the reasons of this recent dynamic. What do you think about this?
The level of European basketball is always growing, and you can see it for example at the NBA Draft where more than 15 international players were drafted in the first round last spring, which is a record. In Israel, we had a stretch of a few years where we kind of fell back but now we have some young talents that play at Euroleague level and for some of the best European teams and I am sure they can make a good impact for us in the future.

FIBA