A Russian nightmare

VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - Russian basketball is reeling after the team's first round knockout at the EuroBasket Women.

The warning signs were there, though, long before the start of the event in France.

The Russian women's national team always had struggles in tournament play, be it EuroBaskets, FIBA World Championships or Olympic Games.

In 2009, Russia travelled to Latvia and finished runners-up to France, a team that had to go through qualifying just to play in the tournament.

In their last four games of the event, Russia lost to France, beat Latvia after overtime, thrashed Spain and lost to Les Bleues in the title game.

The next year, at the World Championship in the Czech Republic and under the leadership of new coach Boris Sokolovskiy, Russia crashed to a 70-53 defeat in the Quarter-Finals to Belarus.

In 2011, Russia rebounded by capturing gold, yet that success masked problems in a national side that had fallen to Lithuania and Belarus in the first and second rounds, respectively.

Cracks had really begun to show in their last Round 2 game against Great Britain, a team with no tradition of winning and one that was making its EuroBasket Women bow.

GB point guard Natalie Stafford's defense was so annoying to the Russian players that veterans Svetlana Abrosimova and Ilona Korstin decked her with elbows.

Russia scraped a 62-59 win, then won convincingly in their last three games to capture gold.

At last year's Olympics, Russia had a young team without iconic center Maria Stepanova, who missed the London Games because of a serious knee injury.

Russia finished fourth, a failure to everyone back in Moscow.

Instead of opting for continuity and keeping Sokolovskiy in charge, the federation removed him as coach and put Dynamo Kursk boss Alfredas Vainauskas in charge.

Stepanova, having returned to action at UMMC Ekaterinburg, decided to retire.

Olga Arteshina got hurt late in the season, EuroBasket Women 2011 MVP Alena Danilochkina made herself unavailable for selection and nationalized point guard Becky Hammon waved goodbye to the national team.

With shooting guard Epiphany Prince taking the nationalized spot and starting at point guard, Russia showed up at the EuroBasket Women and endured their biggest-ever humiliation.

Russia lost to Spain and Sweden, and then failed to beat Italy by at least seven points, and finished fourth in Group B.

They left the tournament in the first round.

Excuses aren't allowed at this level, especially for a country like Russia.

It's one thing if the national side falls in the knockout round, but to come up short of the Quarter-Finals?

Unacceptable.

The same could be said for Spain two years ago, when they fell short of the last eight.

To miss the second round, though, is complete and utter failure.

I remember sitting in Berlin in 1998 and watching Russia push the United States all the way in the Final.

It took an extraordinary effort from the Americans to beat that Russian squad.

In 2006, Russia beat the USA in the Semi-Finals of the FIBA World Championship for Women in Brazil.

Russia have been a team over the years that one could say, with 99.99% certainty, would win a medal.

Now, this is a team that has for two straight years missed the podium.

Russia have had no faith in their own point guards.

Explain to me why.

They have created a problem that didn't exist.

Lithuania's men apparently had this problem before the 2010 FIBA World Championship, too, when their coach announced Mantas Kalnietis was his guy.

Kalnietis has been terrific ever since.

In 2006, current Russia team manager Oxana Rakhmatulina was the point guard on the team that surprised the United States in Brazil.

She averaged 8.8 points and 3.1 assists at that tournament.

In the 75-68 win over the USA, the 1.80m Rakhmatulina had 18 points, four assists and two steals.

In the Final win over Spain at the EuroBasket Women the following year in Chieti, Italy, Rakhmatulina averaged 28.7 minutes per game.

Those incredible two summers of Russian basketball, during which Rakhmatulina was a vital part of the team, didn't convince the folks back in Moscow that their own guards were good enough at international level.

The team naturalized American Becky Hammon and made her their point guard.

Without Hammon in 2011, Russia had the difficult time in Poland yet still won the gold medal.

Last year, Hammon, more than eager to play at Olympic Games again, showed up in London and helped the team reach the Semi-Finals.

Even though Russia announced shortly before the EuroBasket Women that Prince had aggravated an ankle injury and wouldn't play, they took a u-turn and named her in the squad.

Prince played okay in France, but not well enough for Russia to advance from the first round.

It's too easy for those in Russia to blame the coach, or the players, for coming up short at the EuroBasket Women.

They had their faults.

The play on the court wasn't smart, due in large part to the absence of a true point guard.

They made bad passes, missed lay-ups.

Their overall execution was poor.

The fire was missing.

Without Stepanova, and without Arteshina, the team had a veteran presence in Korstin and Irina Osipova.

The team needed someone else, someone like an Abrosimova.

Russia shouldn't be on the outside looking in right now, but they are.

Silvia Dominguez told me after her team's win over the Slovak Republic that Spain value their victories more, now.

The early exit from the competition in 2011 showed Spain's players they can take nothing for granted.

Medalists at every EuroBasket Women since 1999, they are gone.

Silver-medalists at the FIBA World Championships in 1998, 2002 and 2006, Russia won't even be at next year's event in Turkey.

There should be crisis talks in Moscow when it comes to the women’s game.

Russia now know there is no sure thing in women's basketball.

Jeff Taylor

FIBA

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