BRA – No Iziane for women’s team

LILLE (Olympics) - Brazil haven’t backtracked on last week's decision to release veteran guard Iziane for what the confederation described as indiscipline off the court.

The legendary figure Hortencia, Brazil's leading player in their gold-medal triumph at the 1994 FIBA World Championship for Women in Australia, is now the Brazil Basketball Confederation director for women’s national teams and she took the decision to drop the 30-year-old Iziane after having talks with the technical committee.

The action has left Brazil with only 11 players for the London Games.

It is understood that Iziane has apologized and asked to be reinstated to the team.

Iziane has a checkered past with Brazil.

She was dropped by former coach Paulo Bassul during the 2008 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Women following a disagreement.

Bassul did not bring her back into the squad when Brazil competed at the Beijing Games.

When Hortencia was given her position at the confederation, Iziane was welcomed back into the fold and she competed at 2010 FIBA World Championship.

Now she looks set to miss her second straight Olympics after making her Summer Games debut in Athens eight years ago.

Iziane averaged 15 points at those Olympic Games, helping Brazil to a fourth-place finish.

The team would be allowed to replace Iziane had she been injured, but that is not the case so as it stands, they will have just 11 players at the London Games.

Over the weekend, Brazil played in three friendly games in Lille, France.

They fell to France, 67-57, and Australia, 78-75, before defeating China 71-62.

Coach Luiz Claudio Tarallo said: "We took a major step towards London as the team has evolved a lot during three tough games, both on offense and defense."

FIBA