Slovenian National Team (part V.)

[velik_m]

FLINDER BOYD INTERVIEW
09/06/2009

THIS Monday, Team Great Britain will carry the hopes of all British basketball fans on their shoulders when they play their opening game of Eurobasket 2009.

It's the latest step in a new era for British basketball and although we'll have to make do without the inspirational Luol Deng on the court, we're all hoping the 12 guys who suit up for Team GB will make us proud.

One of those 12 who is off to Poland is Flinder Boyd, a guard who broke into the national team just over a year ago and spent the second half of last season with the Leicester Riders in the BBL.

Boyd may have been born in San Francisco and raised in Los Angeles, but he's proud of his British roots.

"My father was born and raised in Britain, and my parents lived here for a while," he said. "I've lots of aunts, uncles and cousins living in Britain."

Playing in the UK has been a good experience for Boyd, especially as lot of relatives have been able to see him in action, although the occasion they saw him play for the Riders was memorable for the wrong reason!

He explained: "I had some family come down to the game in London against the Capital which was actually pretty embarrassing as I think they doubled the attendance!

"So I'm glad they got to go to the o2 and see a real basketball game.

"I had about 20 people come to the game at the o2; it was very exciting."

Boyd originally came to GB Coach Chris Finch's attention when his agent contacted Finch and told him of Boyd's eligibility. Boyd attended a training camp in Florida and despite making the squad, his then Spanish club refused to let him play.

After that setback, Boyd eventually made his debut in August 2008 and we asked him what it's like playing for Team GB?

"I've loved it, it's been great," Boyd replied. "You get to travel all over the place and representing GB for my father and his family is really special.

"The team is made up of some really good guys and we've spent every day of the last six or seven weeks together.

"It's been a really enjoyable experience."

It's been a tough preparation for Eurobasket; Team GB have suffered from injuries (most notably Luol Deng), the will he or won't he saga with Ben Gordon, and the absence of Pops Mensah-Bonsu while he sorted his NBA future.

Without a full squad for Finch to work with, it's probably no surprise the team only managed one win in their warm-up games.

So ahead of Monday's crucial opener, we asked Boyd for his thoughts on them and what the feeling was around the camp ahead of that Slovenia game.

"I think it's been difficult because we didn't have some of guys from last summer; Pops didn't play any of the games and Luol obviously isn't playing this summer," he replied. "We've played better compe ion than last summer, playing against some of the best teams in the World.

"So I think it's been a learning experience and we've struggled, but overall I think the addition of Pops now and having spent 5-6 weeks together, I hope we'll be able to win one of these games and advance to the second round."

He added: "We know ultimately that we have nothing to lose, we are the big underdogs and we're going to try [and cause an upset].

"We're optimistic even though we struggled a bit in the friendlies and we know it just takes one good game, one win to move to the second round and there anything can happen.

"We kind of knew it would be a learning curve, playing against the top teams in Europe and we didn't expect to come in, run through these teams and beat them.

"We knew there'd be some bumps in the road so I don't think the morale is low.

"I actually think we're fairly optimistic and that if anything, it might prove that while we haven't won too many friendlies, we are capable of playing with these teams and ultimately I think it's a great experience."

Not only is Eurobasket a chance for Boyd to help his team-mates take the team as far into the tournament as possible, it's also a chance to put himself in the shop window.

Despite having some good games for club and country last year, he was as of Friday, still looking for a club for this coming season. Therefore he's hoping a few good games on the big stage will help him get a contract next year and that's crucial for remaining part of the GB squad.

With a number of British basketball fans making the trip to Poland, Boyd hopes to see "many Union Jacks in the stadium", and for those fans who'll be watching back home in Britain, his final word was; "I hope as many as that can watch, watch it and tell their friends, to help get as much interest as possible."

Boyd has been blogging about life with the GB team, amongst other things, and you want to follow what he's got to say, head over to his blog page:

http://iwishiwasalittlebittaller.wordpress.com

http://www.basketball247.co.uk/featu...00000119.shtml

[velik_m]

...
The second thing which really hit home was the size of the press area. Basically one whole side of the Arena. My mate got his accreditation and we moved up to the press benches to watch the practice game. 2 hours spent watching a meaningless game in an empty arena, priceless.

We had established that Slovenia were on first for practice at 4pm followed by GB at 5.30 and with nothing better to do on a temperate Warsaw Sunday decided to hang on. SamoUdrih was the first on court followed by Lakovic and the rest.

And the rest seemed to included half of the Slovenian secret police. As they scanned the empty press benches their gaze settled upon two generously girthed Geordies. What directed their attention to my GB basketball jumper wearing colleague I simply cant understand. Attempting to look busy I immediately grabbed a pen and pad and started pretending to make notes. Probably not the smartest move.

The language barrier was jumped and we made out way out at reasonable pace I thought although clearly not quickly enough for the female Slovenian security guard who followed us 20 yards behind the whole way and probably shut the door on us as well.

Kicked out of the Slovenian practice in what must have been about the worst attempt at espionage ever.
...

From http://www.gbbasketball.net/

[velik_m]

WE'RE READY TO PLAY - MENSAH-BONSU
6 September 2009, 6:27 pm
by British Basketball
Pops Mensah Bonsu
With less than 24 hours until they open their EuroBasket campaign Pops Mensah-Bonsu insists Britain are ready and raring to go.
A fully fit Standard Life GB men's roster completed two training sessions at the Torwar Arena on Sunday, much to the relief of Chris Finch, who has so far this summer had his hand forced on selection owing to injuries and illness. Indeed Mensah-Bonsu was a late addition, only joining the team last week, but he is adamant GB are not simply in Poland to make up the numbers. "We are ready to go; we've anticipated this for a while now and I'm glad we are finally here, especially on a personal level as I've had to wait for my time to be with the team," said the Londoner. "You could look at each game one at a time, but at the end of the day they are all going to be tough. Obviously people have been saying this is the hardest group here and there's a reason for that. "We will just try and go out and go hard. To get out of this group you're looking at needing a couple of wins and there's no doubt that not only would that be a great achievement within the group and within Europe, but also in the world because of the calibre of opposition we are up against. "We've come out here with a couple of notable results, particularly the win against Slovenia, but the guys know they have to put those games behind them. Everything pre Poland we have to put behind us and focus on the road that lies ahead. "I haven't played with the team yet, but from what I've heard we've had one too many turnovers and we can't do that now. We just need to play hard and try and get some easy baskets." Britain play Slovenia at 17:15 BST on Monday 7 September, while the other Group C game will see World Champions Spain play Serbia at 20:00.

http://gameongb.com/news/1496.php

[velik_m]

SLOVENIA IS MUST WIN GAME - FREELAND
4 September 2009, 10:12 am
by British Basketball
Joel Freeland
Joel Freeland
Action Images
© Action Images
While Britain may face a tough task of qualifying from the group of death, when EuroBasket tips off on Monday, Joel Freeland has highlighted their opening game against Slovenia as the key to their success.
World champions Spain will be favourites to top Group C, if not lift their first European le, after they pushed the USA all the way in the Beijing Olympic final before settling for silver. And although Serbia have only made one European Championship appearance, in 2007, it is Slovenia whom Freeland believes the Standard Life GB men must beat.

The two sides have already met and it was GB who took the early scalp, beating the Slovenians 63-56 in a test game in Seville. The result was even more significant given Britain triumphed without Freeland, Rob Archibald or Pops Mensah-Bonsu.

Slovenia have competed in every European Championship compe ion since their debut in 1993 and this summer their roster boasts two NBA players; Goran Dragic of the Phoenix Suns and Beno Udrih of the Sacramento Kings, while LA Lakers' Aleksander Vujacic was cut from the squad last month, despite having turned out against Britain.

"Slovenia will be huge because we have got them first game and I think it will be our one chance to get out of the group," said 22-year-old Freeland.

"With it being our first game we will be fresh and won't be tired as if we had two or three games under out belt. From the other game I felt we played so well and that is already giving us confidence.

"As long as we give 110% and go all out I feel confident we will win. Beating them the way we did in Spain was a massive boost and it means that we already know we have it in us to win.

"I really feel like Slovenia is our one chance. They will have their players coming in, but we already beat them when their NBA guys were playing.

"If you look at their team they are unbelievable. It's packed with high level players from NBA and ACB which is why it was incredible how we came together and came up against compe ion like that and showed professionalism in the game.

"I feel that if we can get that win against Slovenia then it would give us real momentum moving into the next game, even if that is against Spain."

Freeland, who will play alongside Archibald at Malaga next season, admits it has been a tough summer so far for the British side. With the level of compe ion considerably higher GB have only recorded one win in nine games, but Freeland believes results aren't important at this stage.

"It's been a tough campaign so far, we've had to deal with a lot of things going against us while at the same time taking on better opposition. Even Israel, whom we beat last year, was a tough game.

"Obviously we would love to have results on our side but the main reason we play these games is to get better and try to achieve goals for Poland. I feel comfortable looking at those games we have done wrong in and keep working on what we need to.

"Nothing has been going in our favour much; now most of the guys have been ill. I couldn't play two games in Turkey because of this bug. It's just made it tougher because for all the games we have not had a full squad, but that means Poland will be exciting to see what we can finally do when everyone is fit.

"If teams don't treat us with respect then it will be to our advantage. Any team that acts off us we will jump on them.

"The team is different from year to year but I feel there's definitely more chemistry going into this year to last. Everyone knows everyone and everyone knows the way we each play. We will definitely cause some shocks; we're ready to play that's for sure."

log on to bbc.co.uk/basketball or hit your TV red button at the following times to watch the games live:

Monday 7 September, GB v Slovenia, 17:15
Tuesday 8 September, GB v Spain, 20:00
Wednesday 9 September, GB v Serbia, 20:15

http://gameongb.com/news/1492.php

[Pero]

What's the word on Smodis? Will he play the group stage? He's been having contact practices?

He started doing two on two and three on two practices, they plan to use him in the second part of the tournament if he has no back pain.

[velik_m]

Macedonia and Greece on Šport TV 2 right now.

[velik_m]

I expect a lot of zone from the Brits. If our outside shot is falling it will be a blowout, otherwise we're in for a long night.

Go Slovenia!

[angel_luv]

Go Slovenia!

[velik_m]

I hour till game time.

All i ask for is 9 wins. :P

[Texas_Ranger]

They are keeping Smodis in the team and we still don't know if he'll play. And when Vujacic was less injured they kicked him away. Just stupid.I know we need Smodis more than Sasha, but if he wont play at high level then it. Vujacic at 50% is still better than Klobucar at 110%.

[angel_luv]

I hour till game time.

All i ask for is 9 wins. :P

http://dts.ystoretools.com/1025/imag...guyvishbem.jpg

[velik_m]

They are keeping Smodis in the team and we still don't know if he'll play. And when Vujacic was less injured they kicked him away. Just stupid.I know we need Smodis more than Sasha, but if he wont play at high level then it. Vujacic at 50% is still better than Klobucar at 110%.

Shut - the - - up and get with the program. You'll have plenty of time to about that after the championship. Lets focus on the players we have.

[Slo spurs fan]

They are keeping Smodis in the team and we still don't know if he'll play. And when Vujacic was less injured they kicked him away. Just stupid.I know we need Smodis more than Sasha, but if he wont play at high level then it. Vujacic at 50% is still better than Klobucar at 110%.

Your statment is EPIC FAIL. Sasha is just like the pain in the ass for team chemistry.

[velik_m]

SLOVENIJA!

http://www.rtvslo.si/sport/kosarka/e...e-barve/211748

[10-tka]

allgreens gooo

[angel_luv]

I wish I was there to watch in person!


Dajmo Slovenija!

[Slo spurs fan]

I wish I wouldn´t be so nervous.

[angel_luv]

http://img.rtvslo.si/_up/upload/2009...4620188_44.jpg

I really want my face painted like that! How cool!

[Slo spurs fan]

Great start!!! +11

[velik_m]

18-7 GB time-out.

[Slo spurs fan]

27-15 end of 1st qtr

[velik_m]

27-15 after 1st.

Erazem with 2 fouls.

[velik_m]

Slokar probably won't play either because of injury .

That leaves us with Erazem, Breza & Golemac as our bigs.

[Slo spurs fan]

, here we go again 0-7

[Slo spurs fan]

0-10