ITA - Italy's Maifredi looks to the future with optimism

ROME (FIP) - Italy are trying to pick up the pieces of from a failed mission at last year's FIBA Europe Championship in Spain when the Azzurri exited the competition at the quarter-final stage.

Having won a silver medal at the Athens Games, Italy were hoping to return to the Olympics for another run at glory but the national side underperformed in Madrid and not only failed to reach Beijing but also missed out on a place in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

On Saturday in Venice, Italy's task of returning to the elite in Europe was made even harder. They were drawn in the same qualifying group for the 2009 FIBA Europe Championship in Poland as Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland.

"It's very clear that for us not to have qualified for the Olympics had done serious damage to our basketball," said Italian Basketball Federation president Fausto Maifredi.

"But that's what happened. We must accept it and turn the page. Now we must focus on the European qualifying rounds and hope that both our men's and women's teams reach the EuroBasket.

"It's obviously not the aim of what we had hoped for but we must look ahead with optimism."

In his interview with Basketball World News this week, Maifredi said the country has good reason to hope for a return because of the presence of three outstanding talents in Andrea Bargnani, Marco Belinelli and Danilo Gallinari.

Bargnani is in his second season with the Toronto Raptors and has overcome a slow start to help keep the Raptors on the path to the NBA Eastern Conference post-season for the second year running, while Belinelli has received only limited playing time with Golden State as a rookie.

Gallinari plays with Armani Jeans Milano in Italy and competed in this year's Euroleague.

"I think the mixture of young talented players (at last year's EuroBasket) who are playing in the NBA and the more experienced players just didn't work," Maifredi admitted.

"We failed in that respect, although we did have problems with injuries, such as Danilo Gallinari being unavailable."

Gallinari, who made a huge splash in the Italian game last year with Armani Jeans Milano, is being widely tipped to reach the NBA with Toronto's assistant general manager Maurizio Gherardini - formerly the GM of Benetton Treviso - among his admirers.

"In all honesty, I consider the future of Italian basketball as positive," Maifredi said.

"We have two players in the NBA in Andrea Bargnani and Marco Belinelli and one who will probably join them in Danilo Gallinari. These players will be stars in world basketball.

"We cannot deny that competitiveness has increased in Europe, though, and it makes it all the more challenging."

The question that everyone wants answered is this.

Will Italy have Bargnani, Belinelli and Gallinari for the qualifying campaign?

"We are working on this," Maifredi said. "Next month, coach Carlo Recalcati will travel to the United States to talk to Belinelli and Bargnani.

"We hope to have them available. Gallinari was unable to play at last year's EuroBasket through injury but even if he is chosen in the NBA draft, we hope he will also be with us."

FIBA