ITA - Hackett an important piece to Azzurri puzzle

SIENA (EuroBasket/FIBA Basketball World Cup) – The doom and gloom that had enveloped Italian basketball when they failed to qualify for EuroBasket 2009 has gone.

The men’s team, led by coach Simone Pianigiani, gained a place at EuroBasket 2011 when the tournament field was expanded to 24 teams and they made sure of their presence next year, too, with a perfect 8-0 mark in this summer’s Qualification Round.

Italy will travel to Slovenia for the Final Round looking for continued improvement, and maybe even to grab a spot at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

For the Azzurri this summer, when they won two games each against Turkey, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Belarus, NBA players Marco Belinelli and Andrea Bargnani were absent, yet there was Daniel Hackett, a point guard who has been moving from strength to strength since leaving the University of Southern California in 2009 and launching his professional career in Italy with Benetton Treviso.

Hackett will play for six-time defending Lega A champions Montepaschi Siena in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague this season.

Pianigiani, who turned Montepaschi into a powerhouse as their coach the past several years, has parted with the club and is now the coach of Fenerbahce in Turkey.

He says his old club is getting a great player in 24-year-old Hackett.

“Daniel is a true player and person,” Pianigiani said.

“There are players that go out on the court to take part in a game and others that go out with one idea only, that of winning.

“In recent years, Daniel has proved to everybody that his only aim is to bring home the result.

“It doesn't matter if he takes two or 15 shots.

“Siena will find a solid, consistent and developing player.”

Hackett played an average of 20.2 minutes per game for Italy in the Qualification Round campaign for Slovenia.

The impression that he and his teammates left was a very good one.

Still, there is an acknowledgement from Pianigiani that Italy must make big strides if they are to have the sort of impact on international basketball as they did before when winning EuroBasket 1999, clinching bronze four years later when the Final Round was held in Sweden and then silver at the 2004 Olympics.

“The technical values are there, obviously, but we are still far from the top teams in Europe,” Pianigiani said.

“Our added value is the will to win that, for example, has allowed us to twice beat Turkey when coming from behind.”

Italy trailed by 18 points in Istanbul but battled back to stun the Turks on 5 September.

There is nothing that creates self belief in a team and fuels hope for the future like winning.

Equally important for Italy has been the experience of games, and all the hard work that goes on around the competition.

"The experience achieved in recent months has an enormous value,” Pianigiani said.

“How many of these players were accustomed to travel, playing with so much pressure, having to travel at strange times and the next day having to go to training with tiredness to prepare for a game only after three days?”

There is now more of a feeling of togetherness with Italian basketball.

Pianigiani says more players now identify with the Azzurri colors.

What made his job a lot easier was the support network of the federation, and its overall ability to organise a terrific preparation.

“I want to underline the enormous work that the federation is doing and I'm not just referring to the senior national team,” he said.

“This year, we had a training camp with an experimental team in the month of June and it's an idea that we will follow again in the future, perhaps after the Mediterranean Games.

“The idea is to increase the Azzurra family, give the biggest numbers of players a prestigious experience on the international scene.”

Italy, as Pianigiani admitted, aren’t at the top yet but they are certainly on a journey where success is the likely outcome.

FIBA