VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - One concern for national team coaches heading into the upcoming international window has to be the energy of their players.

The competitive juices will be flowing, yet with FIBA EuroBasket 2022 Qualifiers being played in bubbles, the atmosphere is going to be a lot different.

"Without the crowd, there is no home court advantage so it evens the playing field," a national team coach told me. "The team that plays with more energy, enthusiasm and teamwork has a great chance to take momentum."

So while coaches must continue to search for the right tactics that will carry them to victory, they also must make sure their players are ready to go, all guns blazing.

There should be an abundance of nervous energy for winless Turkey and Latvia as they go into their respective games against Croatia (2-0) and Greece (2-0).

In February, Turkey suffered seven-point defeats at home to the Netherlands and then at Sweden, a country that has been a thorn in its side in recent years, while Latvia lost in Riga to Bosnia and Herzegovina (62-61), and then at Bulgaria (110-104), a contest that was knotted with 2:00 remaining.

The plights of Turkey and Latvia show the extremely competitive nature of the Qualifiers. There are no easy games.

Three teams from the groups of Turkey (Group D) and Latvia (Group H) will qualify for the EuroBasket, which will be staged in Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy and Georgia. While a third consecutive loss would not be catastrophic, it would definitely put those teams' backs against the wall at the halfway point of qualifying.

Latvia face Greece in Sarajevo on November 27 and then square off against bubble hosts Bosnia and Herzegovina on November 29.

Turkey will be a bubble host at the Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul, where the national team made it to the Final of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2010, just over a decade ago.

The 12 Giant Men will face Croatia on November 27, and two days later the Dutch, who have their own specific challenges these days.

The league in the Netherlands was stopped in mid-October because of tightened measures to combat the coronavirus. That has left some of their players, like captain Worthy de Jong of ZZ Leiden, short of games.

"I AM EXTREMELY MOTIVATED TO BE WITH THE DUTCH NATIONAL TEAM."

"It is a bizarre situation, unprecedented, unknown territory for everyone," De Jong said. "Nobody has experienced anything like this before, everything is completely different than usual.

"Fortunately, we can train with contact with the Dutch (national) team and play five-on-five, so you can simulate games. It is an advantage, now that the competition (Eredivisie) has stopped, that we are together longer than usual in advance, even if it is with part of the final selection.

"I am extremely motivated to be involved with the Dutch team."

Poland reach a different level under Mike Taylor

One storyline ahead of this window that has been understated is the quantum leap taken by Poland since their disappointing FIBA EuroBasket 2013, when Marcin Gortat and Maciej Lampe showed they simply could not be good in the same team. The presence of the two giant Poles even seemed debilitating.

The team hired American Mike Taylor and with less star power, Poland has played better, rocketing up the FIBA World Ranking Presented by Nike from No. 42 in 2014 to its current spot at No. 13. Their biggest achievement was to first qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China and then reach the Quarter-Finals.

The Polish players buy in to the upbeat approach of Mike Taylor, the national team coach since 2014

After falling at home, 75-71, to Israel in their opening game of the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 Qualifiers, Poland did what no other team has been able to achieve since the national team windows were introduced in 2017. They won at Spain (80-69).

Since 2014, in all official FIBA games, Poland have won 27 times and lost 18. They will play in the Valencia bubble against Romania (0-2) on Friday and Israel (2-0) on Sunday - Taylor's 99th and 100th at the helm when you consider friendlies.

Taylor's father, Richard, is a well known coach in America. He worked as an assistant to the legendary Bobby Knight at Army when Mike Krzyzewski was a player there. Richard Taylor was also an assistant to Willis Reed at the New York Knicks and at Creighton University before becoming the head coach at Clarion University in Pennsylvania (1983 to 1988).

An exciting development in this window will be Lithuania's introduction of Rytas Vilnius guard Augustas Marciulionis to the senior national team.

Marciulionis is the son of Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and FIBA Hall of Fame point guard, Sarunas Marciulionis.

Augustas Marciulionis has shone for Lithuania's youth teams and will now play for the senior side

We were also preparing to see American-based high school prodigy Paolo Banchero (he turned 18 on November 12) in Italy's squad but sadly on Monday, the FIP tweeted he would not be coming because a member of his family had a fever.

The FIP medical staff, being extra cautious because of concerns about COVID19, recommended that Banchero not travel. His first Italy appearance will have to wait.

Banchero, who is set to play for former USA coach Mike Krzyzewski at Duke University next season, could end up being a lottery pick in the NBA Draft.

Jeff Taylor
FIBA

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