ITA – Pianigiani’s Italy to think big but ‘work as if small’

ROME (EuroBasket 2011) - Simone Pianigiani doesn't lose often, and that was the main reason why Italy pulled out all stops to make him their national team coach.

Twelve games into the Lega A campaign and Pianigiani's three-time defending champions Montepaschi Siena are unbeaten.

Eight games into the Euroleague season and Montepaschi have just one defeat.

For Italian basketball fans, whose team has missed out on the big international competitions the past two years, the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and EuroBasket 2009 in Poland, the naming of Pianigiani as the replacement for Carlo Recalcati was like waking up on a cold January morning and discovering the Three Wise Men had paid a visit.

"I am delighted and very proud but that goes without saying when you have the possibility to coach the national team of your own country," Pianigiani said.

"Since the first meeting with (Italian Basketball Federation president) Dino Meneghin, I have witnessed the enthusiasm and the passion.

"I also feel pressure as it should be, but I like it."

The pressure is indeed on Pianigiani because Italy are effectively starting over.

The national team that won gold at EuroBasket 1999, bronze at EuroBasket 2003 and silver at the Athens Olympics, has to prove it can be among the top 16 teams in Europe this summer in order to play at the European Championship in Lithuania in 2011.

After failing to reach the last eight of EuroBasket 2005, Italy received a wild card to play at the 2006 FIBA World Championship but the following year they again missed out on the EuroBasket Quarter-Finals in Madrid.

That forced Recalcati's team to go through qualifying for EuroBasket 2009 and without NBA trio Andrea Bargnani, Marco Belinelli and Danilo Gallinari, the Italians finished third in qualifying Group A behind Serbia and Bulgaria.

In the Additional Qualifying Round last year, they did have Bargnani and Belinelli but France defeated them in Group B and went on to reach the tournament in Poland.

Some of the best coaches in the business have been Italians in recent times.

Ettore Messina once led Italy to a silver medal at EuroBasket 1997 and has enjoyed even more success as a club coach at Virtus Bologna, Benetton Treviso, CSKA Moscow and now Real Madrid.

Sergio Scariolo is an Italian who has excelled in Spain, at Real Madrid, Tau Ceramica and Unicaja Malaga. Now coaching in Russia with BC Khimki Moscow Region, Scariolo was also appointed coach of Spain's national team and he led Los Chicos de Oro to their first gold medal at the EuroBasket last year.

Recalcati was also a great coach.

"I am convinced that Italian basketball has excellence, especially when it comes to coaches," Pianigiani said.

"Therefore, as coach of the national team I will take advantage of this, asking them for their support.

"For example, Ettore Messina is happy to put at his disposal his immense experience and his great professionalism.

"I have a technical idea that will bring together all the Italian coaches."

What will Recalcati's former assistant at Montepaschi Siena, Pianigiani, be like as the Azzurri boss?

"I am not a politician but a man of the court," Pianigiani said.

"I like to create a team and to build a group without too many words or magical recipes.

"I want my team to do things the best way possible, like a good block, an assist, a shot."

In Pianigiani, Italy have a coach who is ambitious, but also realistic.

He will set the highest goals, but knows to achieve them he and his players must clear many hurdles.

"I've always said that you have to think big but work as if you were small," he said.

"That is exactly what I want to try to do with the Azzurri.

"We are Italy and we have to think as a great power of European basketball but if we start dreaming of Olympics, then perhaps we will lose our first official game on August 2.

"We will do the best we can on a daily basis, taking one step at a time."

A challenge of every national team is to know when it's time to blood new players.

This was an area in which the Azzurri struggled, especially in 2007 when Belinelli and Bargnani were called upon to lead despite the presence of more senior players.

Chemistry that year was absent.

The following year, Belinelli and Bargnani remained in the United States to focus on their NBA careers and Italy finished third in EuroBasket qualifying.

When they did show up, last summer, it was too late.

All of that is in the past for Pianigiani.

What matters is that he has the best squad possible for the future.

"I will monitor all of the Italian players," he said.

"With regards to those who play in the NBA, we will choose individual physical training programs with those that are in charge in order to have them at their best when they are with us.

"We have to think from the start that we are not great but neither are we terrible."

None of this would be possible had Montepaschi Siena not given their blessing for Pianigiani, the winner, to share his expertise with Italy.

"I want to thank the president of Montepaschi Siena Ferdinando Minucci who has granted me the opportunity to join this adventure and I thank Carlo Recalcati, who has given me his blessing," Pianigiani said.

"I feel a lot of trust surrounding me and I am convinced that we can do it."

FIBA