ARG - Argentina aiming for quarter-finals

PANEVEZYS (Global Games | FIBA U19 World Championship) - Argentina's head coach Enrique Tolcachier has his eyes set on the quarter-finals. However, first things first, and as the coach says himself - the most important thing now is to make it out of the group.

Despite numerous losses to other teams that will be participating in the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship coach Tolcachier is happy about the preparations and how the Argentinean side was improving throughout the whole process.

One thing that still needs tinkering is to get the team to play more consistently. Especially the shooters, the Argentinean coach points out, who thinks that the side, which finished fourth in the 2010 FIBA Americas U18 Championship, can reach a lot if they play with the determination, energy and toughness they've been showing in tune-up games for the big event.

We caught up with coach Tolcachier after Argentina's last game in the Global Games tournament, which they lost 59-63 to the Lithuanian U20 team, to talk about the World Championship and Argentina's expectations for the event.

FIBA: Could you run through how the preparations went?

Enrique Tolcachier: We had a good preparation for the World Championship. We've been working hard for two months when we played some games in our country. Now we had a couple of games against Serbia, both against U19 and U20 teams, against Brazil, both teams of Lithuania. I think we played really well. We didn't come out with great results, but I'm happy that we played all of the games with energy and toughness. There were a lot of good things both on offense and on defence. In general, I think the preparations were good and we're ready to play in the World Championship.

FIBA: What do you think are the strengths of your team?

Tolcachier: We have a deep roster - a lot of players that can actually play. We have a really good inside player in Marcos Delia is one of the best, if not the best player we have. I think that we also have good shooters, but they weren't consistent in the last games - sometimes they were hitting everything, sometime they couldn't make a shot, but I would say that the shooters are one of the strengths of the team.

FIBA: What could you say about other teams in Group B?

Tolcachier: It's a tough group. Australia are one of the best teams in the world. They're working with the players the whole year because they are all together. Latvia are the home team and they also have a good team. We don't know a lot about Chinese Taipei, but Asian teams are becoming better and better every year.

FIBA: What are your expectations and goals for the World Championship?

Tolcachier: We have high expectations for the World Championship. First of all, we need to make sure we pass to the second round with as many victories as possible. And then we'll see, if we go to the second round, I'm sure we'll play with Brazil, Russia and Poland. All of them have very good teams too, but I think we can compete with them and advance to the quarter-finals. We'd be very happy with a position among the eight strongest teams in the World. I think it would be very good for us. If we can do more, we'll push to do that.

FIBA