SPLIT (Croatia) - In two games in Spaladium Arena, Russia committed a horrifying total of 41 turnovers. But all of them will be for a greater good, if the transfer to the new guys proves to be a success.

Playing without a lot of their stars - but most importantly the three guys who could've taken the role of the point guard in Alexey Shved, Dmitry Khvostov and Dmitrii Kulagin - Russia decided to turn the next page and call up two youngsters. Anton Kardanakhishvili is only 19; Grigory Motovilov just a bit older at 23.

"Our guards are young, and it's really difficult to play without a true point guard", coach Sergey Bazarevich told us after the elimination. He should know a thing or two about the true point guard position as he played it for 20 years, from 1983 to 2003, on a professional level.

"Being without a true point guard, that's why we wanted to force the tempo a little bit in these two games. We had a lot of unforced turnovers in the first half against Germany because they had the same amount, but we had more steals. That's why I say ours were unforced turnovers."

After the unexpected defeat to Mexico in their first game in Split, Bazarevich's boys had their backs against the wall against Germany, knowing they must not just defeat their rivals, but also do it by seven or more points to advance to the next round. They flirted with that margin for a long time, but could not break away to a double digit lead and cruise home.

Instead, Germany had the upper hand in the fourth quarter. Russia's last chance was to force overtime to get five more minutes to chase that magical seven-point gap. They had their chance, came up with a steal in the final minute, and set up a two-on-one fastbreak. In a small sample of a couple of seconds you got the entire Russia-in-a-nutshell Split experience: aggressive defense, crafty steal, powerful guards running, fast basketball...all of it, just to see their hopes evaporate with yet another - потеря.

"If we could've played with the same intensity (against Mexico), we would've been in the Semi-Finals," Bazarevich said. "We were trying to reach overtime, but unfortunately, after the final steal we had a very disappointing turnover.

"We believe that speed is our strength. Sometimes you commit those turnovers because you're trying to play uptempo. It definitely hurt us."

You can only imagine the disappointment that the Russians will feel once they land in Moscow late on Friday night. Maybe they weren't the favorites to reach Tokyo, but nobody expected them back at Domodedovo airport before the weekend began.

"It's sad that we lost," Timofey Mozgov said. "However, I'm just proud of the game against Germany. I have no questions about us as a team, because we fought to the last second of the game, and I think this is the most important thing."

"Bad experience is also experience," Bazarevich said with optimism. "Sometimes better than the winning experience, it forces you to think more. We had some new names. In Russia, everybody thinks that basketball is dead. I don't think so. We had a campus with Russian youngsters, there is talent, but they have to play. A play on a high level."

The see-saw swinging continues for Russia. All seemed right when they won bronze in London in 2012. But after losing to Mexico and Germany in 2021, Russia will miss consecutive Olympic Games for the first time ever.

FIBA