NIEUWEGEIN (FIBA U17 World Championship for Women) – Meindert van Veen knows his Netherlands team is not expected to compete for the title when they host the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women.

The goal then for the home nation's head coach is to advance from the group stage in Amsterdam while also getting more people involved in the game through the competition.

“During the draw, FIBA put us as the last country, and that says enough,” said van Veen of his team being put into Group B with Australia, Brazil, Japan, Spain and Turkey.

“Our goal is to reach the first four in the group and that would be a hell of a job. To do that, we really have to play as a team and be smart. We have to adjust to situations and make the right decisions.”

The main part of van Veen’s team will be playing at the U18 European Championship in Romania from July 26-August 5 in Romania.

“We don't have enough good players in the Netherlands to fill two national teams. So we will have short preparation for the World Championship,” explained the head coach, who will have less than two weeks after the U18 European tournament to get his team ready for the Amsterdam event from August 17-26.

That fact is not dampering the spirits of van Veen about his nation hosting the World Championship – especially since it hopefully will bring more Dutch to the game.

“We are delighted to have the World Championship in Amsterdam. We want to get as many Dutch coaches as possible involved in this tournament,” he said.

“Out of this tournament we hope more girls are going to play basketball and we are organizing all kind of events to make basketball more popular.”

The tournament will take place at the end of the Dutch summer school holidays, with some parts of Holland already have school start back up.

“Hopefully a lot of spectators come to help us to reach our goal.”

FIBA