What’s coming up? Greece vs United States, Semi-Final

SAITAMA (FIBA World Championship) – Team USA boss Mike Krzyzewski built his reputation as one of the best coaches in basketball at Duke University where he emphasized defense and turned the Blue Devils into one of the top college teams in the land.

Now he will have to overcome Greece, one of the top defensive teams in international basketball, if the United States are to reach the gold medal game at the FIBA World Championship.

Led by Panagiotis Yannakis, a legendary player and now the national team coach, Greece have relied on their tough-as-nails defense to march through the field here in Japan without losing a game.

"The semi-finals will be a heck of a game," Krzyzewski said.

"The Greek team plays defense about as well as anybody in the world.

"Their coach (Yannakis) is a very good friend of mine. We knew each other as young men and now we're a little bit older.

"He's someone I admire. They are a championship team. They play with that type of solidarity, and we're going to have to play older, because they are a strong and mature basketball team."

Greece, with Yannakis as their point guard, won the European Championship in 1987 by upsetting the old Soviet Union.

He was at the helm of the Greek team when they reached the semi-finals of the FIBA World Championship in Athens eight years ago and he also led the side to the quarter-finals at the Greek Olympics in 2005 before steering them to the gold medal at EuroBasket 2005 in Belgrade.

"The Greece team is a very good one," said LeBron James, one of the USA captains.

"They’ve played together for a long time now. We have to have the same mindset we had in the second half against Germany but play that way for 40 minutes."

Team USA only led Germany 40-39 at half-time in their quarter-final before forcing six steals at the start of the second half to build a lead and storm to victory.

"It will be a win or die game, and we'll have to take care of business and win that game," James said

Greece could suffer against the US without Nikos Zisis, who has not played since suffering three broken bones in his face after a nasty collision with Anderson Varejao of Brazil in Group C competition.

What the Greeks do have is man mountain Sofoklis Schortsianitis, the 2.06m, 125-kilogram Olympiacos center who was not in last year’s EuroBasket team.

He played well against Yao Ming of China and the French youngster Ronny Turiaf.

Now Sofo is gearing up for a battle against Team USA.

"They are a fantastic team and they have great players," he said.

"We will have to wait and see until game day. I hope we can go all the way. Against USA, we know we will have to give 100% on defense and hope our offense works."

By Jeff Taylor
FIBA