TBILISI (FIBA EuroBasket 2017 Qualifiers) - In the modern landscape of European basketball, with more countries competing at a high level than ever before, there are no guarantees for any of the teams that will enter the FIBA EuroBasket 2017 Qualifiers race on 31 August. Not even for a side like Georgia, who has taken part in three consecutive EuroBasket tournaments and maintains intact a hugely successful core of players.

"Only the winner of each of the seven groups and the four best second-placed teams qualify and even finishing among those four teams comes at a higher cost than any other time, since results against the fourth-placed team in your group will be discounted.  In essence, to stand a good chance to qualify from second place you need to beat the third-placed team both times and maybe get one win against the group winner."

Both Montenegro and Georgia are very strong teams and, in my opinion, we both deserve a berth at the next EuroBasket. - Zouros

Georgia were drawn in Group F of the Qualifiers, together with Albania, Slovak Republic and Montenegro. The latter, according to the Greek tactician, will be Georgia's fiercest opponent in this summer's campaign, even without taking into consideration Montenegro's determination to return to FIBA EuroBasket Final Round after missing out on the 2015 edition.

"Both Montenegro and Georgia are two very strong teams and, in my opinion, we both deserve a berth at the EuroBasket," Zouros offered. "I would say that Montenegro has the potential to be a special team, if there were a EuroBasket tournament this summer they could probably make the Quarter-Finals.

"Nikola Vucevic and Bojan Dubljevic are two of the most talented European big men, they have a great variety in their offensive game, and coach [Bogdan] Tanjevic is hugely experienced and obviously has achieved big success in the past. Logic says that first place in the group will be decided between us [Georgia] and them. I hope that our roster will be in full-strength, that Zaza [Pachulia] will be able to play with us, otherwise we will have to find ways to fill that void in the frontcourt."

Zouros has recently announced a preliminary squad which includes all of Georgia's big names, but at this point in time it is not yet 100 percent clear that every player will be healthy and available in late July, when preparations get under way. Those players who do join training camp however will find that not much is different to the previous eight years when Igor Kokoskov, now the head coach of Slovenia, was at the helm of the Georgian national team.

"I am not only a good friend of Igor but I also have enormous respect for him and his work as a coach, so we are not going to take out anything from what he's already built, but rather add some things," Zouros said. "We will maintain a lot of aspects of his philosophy and besides at national teams you don't have the chance to work with the players for 10 months a year, as you do at clubs, where you can change around anything.

Zouros hopes that Zaza Pachulia will be available to lead Georgia at the FIBA EuroBasket 2017 Qualifiers

"The two aspects of my own I would like to add are firstly to bolster the defence, where I want us to be tougher and more disciplined. Secondly, I want to instil a great team spirit so that the players really feel that they are playing for each other during the 40 minutes of each game and during an entire tournament. These elements would better represent my style of basketball."

Zouros already has the experience of a EuroBasket Final Round as he coaches his native Greece in the 2011 edition in Lithuania. He has also worked at elite European clubs such as Olympiacos Piraeus, Anadolu Efes, Zalgiris Kaunas or Paris Levallois. He has detected a path to the future potential of Georgian basketball beyond the well-known current generation of players.

"I have visited Georgia several times already and I have seen first-hand that players are very proud, they are willing to sacrifice and fight with everything they have and that's tremendously positive for the national team," he said.

"On the other hand though, the national league is not as strong as in other countries and it does not produce as many top players. The players who went to abroad are the ones who made the biggest progress. The good news is that the federation has a plan in place for the league to improve year after year, there are good coaches locally who can help in that direction and I think that progress will come soon."

FIBA