Georgian national basketball team which gained right to compete at final stage of EuroBasket 2013 (Slovenia hosts) really deserves appreciation, it brought a big happiness to Georgian nation which is having a lot of problems. It is newsworthy that “Crusandars” will compete at final stage of Eurobasket 2013 the second time in a row. First time, Georgian went through the final stage because FIBA increased the number of participants at Euro-2012 and instead of 16 teams, 24 teams took part in it. But the second time they managed it themselves. Georgian team as well as Bosnia gathered 8-8 points in group D, where the participants were Latvia, Holland and Romania besides them. Bosnia took the first place in the group and Georgia the second place, but it is newsworthy that Georgia deserved the first place, but the second place is not bad also. It is already a serious success. Start five players (Giorgi Tsintsadze, Manuchar Markoishvili, Viktor Sanikidze, Tornike Shengelia, Zaza Pachulia) played the biggest role in this success.
American naturalized basketball player Jacob Pullen is quite better than the former naturalized American players (Green, Heynes), but Georgian national team deserves better player. He even could not gain place among start five players. After a long-time trauma , Giorgi Shermadini could not took back a good physical condition. Maybe other players (Levan Patsatsia, Anatoli Boisa, Nika Metreveli, Beso Lejava, Richard Matiashvili, Akaki Dvalishvili) are given little time by chairman of the time to play, but they also deserves appreciation. As for chairman of the team Igor Kokoskov, I have never said that he is a bad coach, if he were bad coach he would not work as a assistant of chairman in NBA, but I still think that Georgian national team deserves better coach (why, I tell the reasons in the future), but it does not mean that we have to fire Kokoskov and appoint worse coach. I am sure, that a lot of people work in Georgian national team and stronger coaches than Kokoskov would agree with me that there are very good high-class sportsmen in the team…
Georgia played the last qualifying match of Euro-2013 against one of the outsiders of the group, Holland. The result of this match could not decide anything but in spite of this fans showed a big interest to this match and there were very few vacant places in tribunes. Captain of “Crusandars” Zaza Pachulia did not participate in this match, because he played several match with injury. Tonrike Shengelia the youngest player of the team and very prospective sportsman was called up for this match but he also did not take part in it. As far as you know Shengelia who had a difficult match will continue his career in NBA (Brooklyn Nets). Richart Matiashvili played the first match in Georgian national team. Unfortunately, Kokoskov again did not let Akaki Dvalishvili another debutant of the team participate in this match. I could not guess why it happened. During this qualifying tournament he was not given chance to play.
Both teams were focused on offence. According to it, the match was very spectacular. During the whole match, hosts were leaders and they gained victory convincingly 97:89.
Jacob Pullen naturalized American player gained the most points in this match, he earned 23 points. Viktor Sanikidze scored double-double, he had 22 points and 13 rebounds.
Robin Smiukders member of host team also had the same result (22 p, 12 r), he was one of the best among the teammates.
It was the last official match for “Crusandars” in 2012. Our team will hold the next official match at final stage of Euro-2013 in Slovenia. Ballot will find out our opponents. We wish national team to have better result than last year, to get place minimum among top 8. Good-bye, see you in Slovenia..
Tbilisi. September 11. Sports Palace. Qualifying tournament of European championship
Group D
Georgia – Holland 97:89
(25:21, 29:22, 18:16, 25:30)
Georgia: Tsintsadze (14p. 6a.), Markoishvili (22), Sanikidze (22p, 13r.), Metreveli (4), Shermadini (8); Boisa (11), Patsatsia (3), Matiashvili, Pullen (23)
Head coach: Igor Kokoskov
Holland: Jiensen (18p. 6a.),Smiulderes (22p. 13r.), Akerbum (7), Norel (8), Slagter (19); De Yong (5), Hulzebos (2), Tiukens (4), Kaningham (4)
Head coach: Vilhem Jansen
Comissar: Branoko Lozanov (Serbia)
Referees: Stener Radovic (Croatia), Gily Coen (Israel), Serkan Elmek (Tukey)
Roland Labuchidze
