Today at 3 o’clock in the morning, Belgian and Georgian basketball national teams have arrived Tbilisi international airport from Brussels and Munich respectively. Georgia arrived after going through the tough battles in Poland-Bulgaria. Meanwhile, Belgium came to play one of the decisive games in the group from their capital. Take note that Belgians were resting the day Georgia played in Poland. Before that, Belgium were beaten by 20 points in the country where Georgia lost by 9 points in the last game.
Belgians as well as Georgian spent a little bit of time in the airport before they headed to the hotel. Team Belgium preferred to stay at hotel Court Yard Marriott which is, in fact, their technical sponsor. We have talked to the Belgian national team head coach Eddy Casteels who has stated that Didier Illunga-Mbenga (aka D.J. Mbenga) will play against Georgia. In despite of the fact that Mbenga is representative of Congo he apparently will play against Georgia, according to Casteels. Nevertheless, he is still in the United States and is in a process of finding a new team after his contract with Los Angeles “Lakers” has come to an end.
- Are there any changes in the squad?
- No. We have the same squad as we had in the past meetings.
- Do you lack D.J. Mbenga?
- Mbenga did not help your team in a four previous games but will help now, which is great.
- So that means he will play against Georgia tomorrow?
- Yes. He was not in Belgium and therefore will arrive later on.
Upon the next question we asked Belgian head coach, we have faced a stunning fact. Later on in the day, when team Belgium arrived in hotel, we asked Belgium team roster from their team manager. One of the guests’ delegation representatives gave us 12-men squad list, in which Mbenga was not included. We asked if there was going to be changed something in the list before the game. The answer was negative.
It seems that delegation members do not know about the arrival of D.J. Mbenga, but coach does. In order to confirm this information we have asked another two delegation members about this issue. The answer was that Mbenga is not with the team so it is not possible for him to be on floor in tomorrow’s game.
Going back to the interview -
- Did you watch Poland – Georgia game?
I would not miss the match between the group leaders. While watching it I have convinced myself that it is hard to play away in Poland. If not Markoishvili, hosts would have won by a solid margin.
- Basically, you think that Georgia did not produce a team play?
-I do not say it. The fact is that Markoishvili dropped-in some very important shots which prevented Georgian from losing with a big gap. I know Manuchar since he was 15 years old. During the campus in Treviso, he grabbed attention of all the scouts there. Afterwards he placed himself in “Benetton” Treviso, where his mate Nickoloz Tskitishvili was playing also.
- What can you say about a twenty point defeat in Poland?
- Poland played a really strong game. We opposed them three quarters however did not manage to continue on doing so in the last one and the hosts did their job.
- The situation in our group is that nobody really knows who will qualify…
- We have arrived in Tbilisi to win. In case we succeed – we will be in the first place.
- Just to remind you, Poland who beat you by 20 points lost by 19 points in Tbilisi…
- That does not bother us. We do not look on previous results.
Here is the list that was given to us by one of the visitor teams’ manager:
4. Roel Moors
5. Sam Van Rossom
6. Christophe Beghin
7. Alex Hervelle
8. Randy Oveneke
9. Jef Van Der Jonckheyd
10. Dimitri Lauwers
11. Yannick Driesen
12. Beye Tabu-Eboma
13. Guy Muya
14. Thomas Van Den Spiegel
15. Marcus Vondell Faison
Belgians have scheduled their practice today at 17:00 in Tbilisi Sport Palace, while tomorrow they will have a relatively short practice which will last from 10 to 11 in the morning.
Standings:
1. Bulgaria 3 2 392:350 8
2. Poland 3 2 381:353 8
3. Georgia 3 2 362:342 8
4. Belgium 3 1 299:295 7
5. Portugal 0 5 313:407
Calendar:
August 20
Georgia- Belgium
Portugal - Poland
August 23
Poland - Bulgaria
Belgium - Portugal
August 26
Bulgaria - Belgium
Portugal - Georgia
August 29
Georgia- Bulgaria
Belgium – Poland
