GRE - Strong Olympiacos flavor in squad for Caracas
ATHENS (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament) - The great run of Olympiacos to a Euroleague and Greek league double this season removed any doubt that the club would have several players in Greece’s preliminary squad for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT). On Monday, players gathered for the first time together at the Olympic stadium ...
ATHENS (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament) - The great run of Olympiacos to a Euroleague and Greek league double this season removed any doubt that the club would have several players in Greece’s preliminary squad for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT).
On Monday, players gathered for the first time together at the Olympic stadium (OAKA) and among them were Vassilis Spanoulis, Georgios Printezis, Kostas Papanikolaou, Kostas Sloukas and Evangelos Mantzaris, all major contributors to the Reds’ success and each has a chance of making the team that will travel to Caracas, Venezuela, for the OQT.
Spanoulis and Printezis played for Greece at the 2008 OQT and helped the side reach the Beijing Games and then played in China.
Neither was in the Greek side last year in Lithuania where the team met the pre-tournament aim of a top-six finish at the EuroBasket to stay in the hunt for the London Games.
Printezis, 27, hit the game-winning shot for Olympiacos to cap the team’s comeback from 19 points down against CSKA Moscow in the Euroleague title game on 13 May, while 29-year-old Spanoulis was the Final Four MVP.
Greece national team coach Ilias Zouros will rely heavily once again on the Olimpia Milano duo of Ioannis Bourousis and Antonis Fotsis, two other veterans who were leaders in the 2011 side, as well as Montepaschi Siena’s Nikos Zisis.
The three will be late arrivals since their clubs have reached the Italian Lega A play-off finals, which Siena lead, 1-0.
Panathinaikos players that are in the Greece squad are Nick Calathes, Kostas Kaimakoglou and Ian Vougioukas.
Kostas Vasileiadis, Dimitrios Mavroeidis (both Bilbao) and Michael Bramos (Gran Canaria) played in Spain this season after competing at EuroBasket 2011, but Maccabi Tel Aviv big man Sofoklis Schortsanitis and Denver Nuggets center Kostas Koufos are out because of injuries.
The Dimitris Diamantidis era looks to be well and truly over with the Panathinaikos point guard not in the squad.
Diamantidis announced his retirement from the national team after Greece’s exit from the 2010 FIBA World Championship.
Despite many calls for him to reconsider, Diamantidis has elected to focus exclusively on his club commitments.
At the OQT in Caracas, 12 teams will battle for three tickets to the London Games.
As part of their preparations, Greece will take on OQT-bound teams Russia and Lithuania on 16-17 June, respectively.
FIBA