GBR - Coach Finch sees great future, feels good about present

PANEVEZYS (EuroBasket 2011) - Great Britain's basketball program may still be in the development stage, but national team head coach Chris Finch is nevertheless pleased with the results at the moment. "Whenever you're in the process of building a program, everything's about the future," he said, following a EuroBasket practice session, "but we feel good about where we are at the moment."

Not long ago, British basketball experienced a level of pressure even beyond the everyday stresses of international competition on the court. Feeling that this team might not be competitive against top-level teams and that the infrastructure for development of basketball in Great Britain was simply not strong enough, the International Olympic Committee contemplated withholding the team's traditional automatic entry into the 2012 Olympics as hosts of the event.

Yet even in these past two years, Finch has seen remarkable progress in his squad - even going into the FIBA European Championship tournament without noted veterans Ben Gordon and Pops Mensah-Bonsu. "I think this team shows the depth in the program, but we are trying to give opportunities to the younger players."

Great Britain is in fact loaded with youth, and in tandem with development of the national basketball program itself, this team must also foster the growth of up-and-coming players under 23 years old: Players like Ogo Adegboye, Devon Van Oostrum, Andrew Lawrence, Daniel Clark and Kyle Johnson are receiving quality minutes in high-level games that will surely boost their ability while creating a strong nucleus for the future.

Growing pains still exist, of course, as Finch explained that prior to the 2011 Eurobasket tournament, "We played well in the warmup games, but closing out has been a problem" - a problem ascribable to the veteran experience other programs may take for granted. Said the coach: "A great result for us in this tournament would be getting out of the group. We're going to have to raise our level to do that."

As for the immediate present and next year's Olympic Games, Finch stated that "We haven't defined exactly what our goals are, but we do want to better our results of 2009." In that EuroBasket tournament, Great Britain's most notable game was an eight-point loss to eventual winners Spain in which the underdogs put a scare into the champions by coming back to briefly take a lead in the fourth quarter.

If Finch has his way, his team will be winning games like that before long.

FIBA