GRE - Greek vets put youthful future on hold

ALYTUS (EuroBasket 2011) - Before EuroBasket 2011 Greece coach Ilias Zouros stressed that his team in Lithuania was "for the future and not for now". Why that be the fact, the 2005 European champions are figuring why not give it a shot already this summer?

Many of Greece's biggest stars did not make the trip to the Baltic state this summer, among them Dimitrios Diamantidis, Theo Papaloukas, Vassilis Spanoulis, Sofoklis Schortsanitis.

Instead there is a core of a young group of Greeks who won numerous European titles in the youth ranks. Kostas Koufos and Nick Calathes were both born in 1989 while Kostas Sloukas and Kostas Papanikolaou are a year younger and also into the national team. And there are more talents from the 1990 generation on the brink of the national team.

During the preparation tournament in Bamberg, Germany, Zouros said he was pleased with his young guys and their enthusiasm though they lack experience and still need to acquire that.

"It's important to work and to be in the team and have these games to improve. This team is for the future. It's not for now, it's for the future," said Zouros.

And the coach reiterated that fact after Greece's loss to F.Y.R. of Macedonia in the third game of the Group C first round in Alytus.

"We are a new team and I have to repeat this many times because people think we can do miracles. It is a team only built during this summer with many young and new players," said Zouros, who also has Greek-American Michail Bramos making his national team debut at this tournament.

Helping Zouros in is his effort is the experienced trio of Antonios Fotsis, Ioannis Bourousis and Nikos Zisis - all three of them European champions from 2005 in Serbia & Montenegro.

That trio - in that order - are Greece's three top leading scorers as the team needed to win their final Group C game to ensure their spot in the second round - and with it a chance for the 2012 Olympics.

"Winning games, qualifying to the next round is very important for such a young team. As I say also, it's important to learn from every game and get better for next games," Zouros said.

Lessons are one thing though and don't always translate to wins. That's when guys like Fotsis, Bourousis and Zisis are needed.

"In the end, our three experienced players stepped up and gave us a win," said the coach.

While Koufos and Calathes - and to a lesser degree Papanikolaou - are already integral parts to Greece's game plan, this team is clearly led by those veterans. And while it may be true that this team is built more for the future, it will be up to Fotsis, Bourousis and Zisis to say when that future starts.

And the way they are playing, the trio seems not yet ready to give up the successes of the past to the bright promise of youth exuberance in the future. Zisis and Fotsis would love to play at a third Olympics and Bourousis a second before finally handing over the reigns.

FIBA